It’s not easy to forget the Quizno’s saga. Once one of the darlings of the franchise industry, growing through franchising to nearly 5,000 locations, but today, just under 400 in the United States. Many franchisees lost everything (investments, savings, their home), and as stores closed, eventually the franchisor filed for bankruptcy protection. Yet, has the […]
DOL Exempts Franchisees from Joint-Employer in Healthcare Plans
Blue MauMau – by Janet Sparks, August 27th, 2018 Among other safeguards, the Department of Labor (DOL) has now issued a ruling that small business owners and franchisees who ban together to form groups under the Association Health Plan to provide low-cost healthcare to their employees will be exempt from joint-employer liability. Continue reading on […]
Franchisees, Is Your Operations Manual Changing Your Franchise Agreement?
As franchise owners, we all sign franchise agreements that set the terms and conditions of our business, and the relationship with our franchisor. Most of those franchise agreements contain a condition that you will follow the then current Operations Manual. While it is understandable that the Ops Manual must change, a new sandwich is introduced, […]
Dunkin’ Donuts Supports Education Program for Hospitalized Children
Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital gets endowment Mike Reagan of WMTW Channel 8 reports that the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital is getting some perks from Dunkin’ Donuts. Maine franchise owners are giving the hospital a $250,000 endowment over five years for its hospital-based teacher program. The program inside the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital at Maine Medical […]
Friendly’s franchisee files for bankruptcy
Nation’s Restaurant News reports that J & B Restaurant Partners, a Friendly’s franchisee based in Long Island, N.Y., closed a third of its 36 locations and filed for bankruptcy protection this month amid steeply declining sales and financial losses. The move marks the second major closure of Friendly’s locations in recent months. In November, a […]
Can Wendy’s Rein In Delinquent Franchises?
Rich Duprey of The Motley Fool reports that the third largest fast-food chain Wendy’s (NASDAQ: WEN ) wants to strip one of its biggest restaurant operators of its franchise agreement for failing to upgrade its restaurants and install a point-of-sale system. While it could result in the franchisee being forced to close or sell its restaurants, it also brings […]
Making small-business owners’ concerns heard in the political process
Franchise owners are small business owners and they can have a big political impact, which is our experience in Maine. Franchise owners in Maine will continue to have the opportunity to educate their lawmakers, which we have learned do not know much about franchising, but we have shown them the importance of franchisees in Maine, to invest and create […]
Maine Franchise Owners Lobster Bake for Camp Ketcha Raises over $3000.00
The Maine Franchise Owners Association held a “Lobster Bake” fundraiser for Camp Ketcha on Friday October 17th. The event raised over $3,000 net dollars for Camp Ketcha. Camp Ketcha is a year-round non-profit organization serving the southern Maine community with programs in child development, family enrichment and summer day camping. Camp Ketcha has 107 acres […]
Gov. Brown vetoes bill to protect franchisees
Patrick McGreevy of the Los Angeles Times reports that Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed legislation to protect small-franchise owners against fast-food giants and convenience store chains, saying he needs more proof there is a problem before considering changes that would “significantly impact California’s vast franchise industry.” The measure by Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) would have […]
RadioShack Loses CFO as It Grapples with Solvency – What about the Franchisees?
Don Sneigowski at BlueMauMau reorts that troubled RadioShack Corporation announced on Monday that its new chief financial officer John Feray had left the firm on Friday for “personal reasons” and that Holly F. Etlin would replace him. Feray had only been with the 4,485 store chain since February. He leaves amidst a frenzy of activity […]