The idea is that those veteran franchisees will be able to help a budding concept get its growth and operational patterns set early on.

Franchisees already in foodservice might be more amenable to the truly start-up concepts, however. A franchisee with a burger or chicken brand under the company portfolio can broaden his market reach by pulling in one of the new ethnic ideas. Those smaller brands might have only one store planned for that franchisee’s market area. While, in years past, one store would have been fine for most franchisees, the new wave of professional franchisees has built its future on building as many holdings as possible. They’re more interested in area development agreements.

Some emerging concepts are initiating their franchise phases from the outset as area development packages, Johnson says.

“Even a brand that has a good number of company stores is going to franchising more quickly than in years past,” Johnson says. “They think they can move quicker and need a faster growth model in 2007. Or else they have to have really deep pockets.”

Although the overall industry emphasis might be on large agreements and multi-unit operators, Tristano says the emerging concepts that abound now do offer chances for new franchisees to come into the market. They generally have simpler start-up requirements, and many are designed to go into strip malls and don’t have the complex real estate procedures that freestanding stores have.

“Many of them are indeed bringing new people into franchising,” Tristano explains. “Limited service is good for those who don’t want to be the big multi-unit operators. For some of these brands, there’s an aggressive franchising focus, but there’s also an easier entry point.”

Expected to be among the simpler food service franchise ideas is the meal-prep concept. Its initial franchising heavyweights are television actress Suzanne Somers, with Suzanne’s Kitchen, and Dinner By Design. Customers go to a local franchise kitchen to prepare their menu then take the meals home with them as ready-to-serve dinners. If time is tight, staff will prepare the meals for a pre-scheduled pickup time.

“It’s hard to say yet if it’s a fad or if it is indeed a trend that is here to stay,” Tristano says of the recent iteration of meal-prep concepts. “It gives people the idea that they are cooking for their families—you make the meals and take them home—and it is probably better than a lot of people are capable of.”

The West Coast, East Coast, and urban centers in the Midwest are the early hotbeds for the home-meal franchises, Tristano says. Initial reports show that they’re low-cost, easy to run, and the overhead is minimal.

Also to be watched are ideas that might be emerging in the U.S. but have solid roots abroad. Among the hotter concepts coming from overseas is wagamama, an Asian-inspired noodle house that first opened in London in 1992 and is scheduled to open its first North American store in Boston in April.

Those international brands are taking advantage of the current value of the U.S. dollar and are entering the market here as never before, Tristano says. They not only bring a different restaurant atmosphere to the U.S., they also bring added urgency to a franchising market that is already on a breakneck pace.

“In the 2007 marketplace, what’s driving concepts into franchising is the speed of the market.”