Sesame Workshop launches educational franchise business in India

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Sesame Workshop is getting into the for-profit educational franchise business, starting with India, where it’s launching Sesame Schoolhouse preschools and after-school clubs, reports the Wall Street Journal’s India Real Time blog.

The Workshop has had a presence in the country since 2006 with Galli Galli Sim Sim, the Hindi version of Sesame Street. Sesame Workshop India also takes the show on mobile screens into slum communities in five cities.

Sesame Workshop aims to have 20 franchised schools open by March 2013, with plans for 382 within five years, according to the report. So far, one has opened in Jaipur, the capital and largest city in the northwest Indian state of Rajasthan.

Franchisees must provide a building with at least 2,000 square feet of covered, carpeted space and adequate outdoor space for the play equipment. A three-year license fee costs 150,000 rupees ($2,700). Sesame Schoolhouse, based in India, oversees the enterprise as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sesame Workshop India and takes 15 percent to 20 percent royalties from a school’s earnings, the newspaper said. Parents will pay between 25,000 rupees and 60,000 rupees a year.

Profits support Sesame’s other ventures in the country, said Sashwati Banerjee, managing director of Sesame Workshop India.

More details at Franchise India.

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