Last week saw the launch of a pilot Cinnabon and Carvel store in Tripoli, both US fast-food brands that have been franchised by a Libyan firm, while other recent openings include a Babyshop outlet in the Libyan capital and a Max fashion store in Benghazi. 

 

Monoprix Tunisia, itself an offshoot of the French supermarket chain, expects to roll out several stores in Libya before the end of 2012, while other internationally-branded chains expected to enter the Libyan market include Dunkin’ Donuts and Burger Fuel. 

 

This is not a post-revolutionary phenomenon, but rather a continuation of a pre-2011 trend.

 

A rather incongruous-looking Marks & Spencer store first appeared in the upmarket Abou Nawas district of Tripoli in 2008, for example, and was shortly followed by a Mango outlet just across the road. Both are franchised by a subsidiary of the Husni Bey Group, one of Libya's largest private-sector conglomerates,as are several other fashion brands.

 

Other UK names, including BHS and Next, had also opened their doors before 2011, while Diesel, Geox, Koton and others had already launched own-branded stores in the Libyan capital prior to last year’s revolution.

 

Although this internationalisation of the retail market was already under way, it now seems certain to be accelerated. Previous regulatory “grey areas” associated with the old regime, such as the use of English-language signage, now appear to be irrelevant, while life for private-sector businesses more generally is far easier than it was before.

 

Most Libyan franchisors have so far shared a fairly similar strategy – open a pilot store in high-income districts of Tripoli – but many plan to expand to other areas of the capital and to the other major population centres, especially Benghazi and Misrata.

 

International brands are still few and far between in Libya, but whether you like them or not, expect to see more names cropping up in the coming years.

 

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