Japanese-style franchise to be developed in African countries where washing machines are not widely used
At the 2024 Annual Alumni Networking Reunion for ABE Ex-Participants, presided over by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) on July 5, 2024, Sergio Morais (Mozambique), a trainee who studied franchising at Ascentia Holdings (Head office: Kobe City, Representative: Akira Tsuchiya), presented his new self-service franchise in Mozambique. (Head office: Kobe, Japan; President: Akira Tsuchiya), announced that Mr. Sergio Morais (Mozambique), a trainee who studied franchising at Ascentia Holdings (Head office: Kobe, Japan; President: Akira Tsuchiya), will start a new self-service laundry business in Mozambique, both directly managed and franchised, and expand it to other African countries.
The laundry business, named SELFIE LAUNDROMAT, aims to improve health through clean clothing, free women from hand-washing laundry, and create employment for many young people through franchising. Through franchising, the company aims to share management know-how and promotional marketing expertise within its network of franchisees to achieve success as a whole.
Ascentia Holdings Corporation (headquartered in Kobe; Akira Tsuchiya, President), which franchises and expands various businesses of Japanese companies to the world, will start supporting laundry business franchises in Africa.
Mr. Sergio Morais, an ABE Initiative trainee who came to Japan in 2021 as part of the Japanese government’s African development assistance program called the ABE Initiative and studied franchise business practices at Ascentia Holdings for six months after receiving a master’s degree from the International University of Japan (Niigata Prefecture). He will return to Mozambique and open two self-service laundry stores in the capital city of Mozambique and adjacent cities, equipped with used laundry equipment sent from Japan. After opening these two stores as test stores, the company will expand the franchise to other countries in the country and Africa.
The name of the stores is “SELFIE LAUNDROMAT,” which was inspired by the selfie taken by a woman, but it is also intended to convey a sense of “independence,” such as doing one’s own laundry, becoming independent from one’s family, and earning one’s own money (as a franchisee), “empowerment” , and “community impact,” such as expanding employment and freeing people from hand-washing laundry. The name “Laundromat” is named with an awareness of the “impact on the community” of expanding employment and freeing people from hand-washing laundry, which is also the chain’s philosophy.
The used laundry equipment sent from Japan is intended to have a long service life, with wear parts replaced by Japan’s largest used laundry equipment trading company. And used laundry equipment will be rented rather than sold from Japan. The local side will pay a rental fee and a royalty of a certain percentage of sales to the Japanese side.
Will laundromats be used in Africa?
The story started when Mr. Sergio told Ascentia that he wanted to bring the laundry franchise back to his home country.
When asked, the reality is that in his home country, his mother and sister (i.e., the women) wash the clothes of the whole family by hand. They said that it is not because of lack of money to buy a washing machine, but because of the stable supply of electricity and the availability of running water.
One load of laundry takes up to five hours, she said, and this takes away from the female students’ study time.
We also learned that many families hire maids to do their laundry.
When we looked into the reality of the self-laundry business, we first found that there is not a single self-laundry in Mozambique, but several in South Africa, which has the fastest growing economy in Africa, and in Nigeria, which has the largest population. Furthermore, we were surprised to find that in South Africa, the price per load is the same level as in Japan, while in countries with lower economic levels, the price per load is the same or even higher than in Japan.
We also gleaned that the aforementioned laundry maids’ wages are also higher than Japanese laundromat prices.
We are planning to operate a physical store in Mozambique at a price per load equivalent to Japan (300-500 yen), and look forward to seeing the results
