Joel Libava
Quiznos business policies have been the target of angry (to put it mildly) franchisees for years, now. Being a franchise industry insider has it’s perks when it comes to juicy stories like this, and I’ve known the real deal about this franchise company for a long time.
Inside the industry, there are certain franchise organizations that are known to have a less than stellar reputation.
The International Franchise Association (supposedly, the self-governing arm of our industry) knows the real deal, about the franchisors that are.. shall we say…suspect, but they still gladly accept membership checks from any franchisor that is registered in the USA.
(I’m a proud, non-IFA member, by the way.)
I’ll save my bi-yearly IFA rant for another time.
This is about Quiznos. This is about the Quiznos that used to hold “Free Franchise Seminars” all over the country, as a way to attract new franchisees. (Some of the folks I’ve worked with attended them.)
Some may even say (it’s an opinion, of course) that it’s a little dysfunctional, over at Quizno’s corporate office.
Now, the classy execs at Quiznos have of course admitted no guilt in this particular class-action lawsuit. (They’re just willingly bending over because of the impending extreme pleasure they’ll experienced writing checks worth millions of dollars to hundreds, if not thousands, of pissed-off franchisees. Yum.)
Here are some of the details of the settlement, and what Quiznos will have to do, according to Nation’s Restaurant News;
- Make $19.4 million in contributions to the chain’s advertising and marketing trust funds between January 2009 and Dec. 31, 2012.
- Launch a formal program to assist franchisees who want to sell their stores and aid franchisees who want to acquire more locations.
- Promise financial aid to cover franchisee costs associated with future mandates to take part in a national sandwich delivery program, if any.
- Establish an annual third-party audit of the prices Quiznos charges franchisees for mandatory food products and supplies compared with prices available elsewhere, and create a formal program that streamlines and standardizes the process through which franchisees may request franchisor approval to use products or services other than those mandated by the chain.
- Rework the chain’s franchise disclosure document to clarify the role of franchisor-owned entities in the system’s supply chain.
- Develop a retraining program to help franchisees better understand the requirements of running a Quiznos restaurant.
- Create a system for monitoring the backlog of franchisees who have not yet opened a store
Now, this is really important
Are you a former or current franchisee of Quiznos? Please let the community here know what you think about the settlement. Was it fair? Was it not enough? Does Quiznos suck, or are they getting better, as a company?
You can comment anonymously, if you want. Just put in your initials below. No one sees your email address.
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