86 Business View - July 2015
decided that he wasn’t interested in just being a Ju-
nior’s retailer. “We didn’t just want to go after the teen-
age marketplace. We also knew that we didn’t want
to go after the older customer. We wanted to fit that
millennial – that middle. Our ideal vision, which I think
we’ve been able to capture, is to create a mom and
daughter type concept. A unique boutique that could
cater to mom and daughter - and that has proven to be
successful.”
A key factor to that success has been one overriding
approach that sets Apricot Lane apart from most other
franchise operations: flexibility. “Using the word flex-
ible and franchise in the same sentence is not typical
in franchising,” opined Petersen. “Usually franchising
is very structured. One of the strengths of our brand
is we give flexibility to our franchisee in the area of
buying.” Thus, Apricot Lane franchisees are not reli-
ant on corporate to do the buying and identifying of all
the best buys across the country. Individual franchises
can go to their regional marketplaces for what best
suits their store’s customers.
“Then, once a month we have system-wide conference
calls to talk about what’s working, what’s not working
and a lot of our best finds come from our franchisees.
Then we go to those vendors and say that we’ve got a
few stores that are carrying you, right now, and if you
want us to approve you and launch you throughout our
system, we need X, Y and Z, and then we pass that
leverage and those discounts to our franchisees to in-
crease their margin. So it’s really a team effort.”
That team effort remains strong throughout the fran-
chisor/franchisee relationship as Apricot Lane corpo-
rate continues to communicate regularly with its store
operators. The home office also conducts a compre-
hensive training program for its franchisees, helping
them become competent in all the facets of the busi-
ness’ operations.
When a franchisee first opens an Apricot Lane Bou-
FRANCHISE
