FranchiseCanada September | October 2017 81100% Canadian Franchise Systems
At first glance, franchise systems targeting condo living, Asian
food, and children’s dentistry could hardly be more different.
And yet just below the surface, they are strongly similar because
their entrepreneurs have come up with an original concept or
the renewal of an established one. by David Chilton Saggers
HOME-GROWN & LOCALLY-OWNED
CHILDREN’S DENTAL WORLD
Franchise units in Canada: 1
Franchise fee: $40K
Investment required: $950K+
Available territories: AB, BC, MB, NB, NL,
NT, NS, NU, ON, PE, SK, YT
In business since: 2007
CFA member since: 2017
Dr. Charles Lekic says Children’s Dental World clinics
are among the fastest-growing dental specialty clinics
in Canada, and were created as a place where children
could find their true dental home and be treated as a
dearest family member.
Starting Children’s Dental World in Winnipeg, it wasn’t
easy to establish a large pediatric and orthodontic prac-
tice due to the large number of these specialists work-
ing in the city at that time. In spite of this, the founding
“fathers” of Children’s Dental World believed that there
was a place for a pediatric and orthodontic dental prac-
tice where children will be comfortable and accept it
as their “Dental Home.” This is how the first clinic was
founded in 2007. There are now two others in the Mani-
toba capital, and one more in Regina.
The pediatric dentists and orthodontists from Chil-
dren’s Dental World acknowledge the difficulties of
franchising dental clinics, but note that cities across
the country and North America are becoming “satu-
rated” with specialists, so a successful franchise-type
arrangement for pediatric dentists and orthodontists
to work together is an attractive proposition for future
young specialists.
Although their system uses franchising as a working
model, Lekic takes care to point out that these clinics are
not franchises in the usual sense because, for one thing,
provincial regulators want dentists to have full autonomy
over their practices rather than having to take direction
from a corporation. As a result, Children’s Dental World
dentists pay monthly consulting fees, not franchise fees.
So, Lekic suggests a consulting fee would be $9,000 a
month in Winnipeg and $12,000 a month in Calgary, or
about the cost of a dentist’s rental fees every month.
Children’s Dental World clinics, which have the same
layout and certain other features, are not just about
making money, Lekic emphasizes. “We will always look
at the child in the chair,” he says. In time, Lekic sees
the system being exported abroad, perhaps to Africa,
where he grew up. But at home or abroad, he says, “The
selection of (our) dentists will be very vigorous.” At the
moment, for fully-qualified dental specialists in North
America, there is a two-to-three-week mandatory Chil-
dren’s Dental World orientation.