Bloomberg reports that Burger King Worldwide Inc. (BKW) agreed to acquire Tim Hortons Inc. (THI) for about C$12.5 billion ($11.4 billion) in a deal that creates the third-largest fast-food company and moves its headquarters to Canada. Tim Hortons investors will receive C$65.50 in cash and 0.8025 a share of the combined entity for each […]
Franchisee Sues for Lack of Fair Dealing, Marriott Settles
BlueMauMau reports that It seems that not all is clean and good at Marriott. CNBC explores the Marriott Empire in its hour-long “Behind the Closed Doors of Marriott.” In the three minute video clip* below, one large franchise owner explains his lawsuit regarding legal traps, bad faith, fraud, breach of contract and hidden rebates to […]
Forbes Magazine Rate 3 Real Estate Franchises are the Worst to Invest in.
A best and worst of franchising list is tricky to put together. The methodology is just as important as the objective of the ranking. For the FORBES “best” and “worst” in franchising, FRANdata considered demand for the franchise brand, success of existing franchisees and franchisor support from the perspective of “lender friendliness”. This brings up […]
Seeking Balance in Franchise Relationships
No relationship is perfect, it doesn’t matter whether the relationship is personal, business or institutional there are always going to be both good things and bad things about any relationship. One of the keys to a long and prosperous relationship is balance. Mutual advantage is the key to sustaining the relationship. Relationships prosper when each […]
Equity Extraction Schemes Live On in Franchising
The equity extraction scheme that was exposed by 7-11 Employee Kurt McCord brings back painful memories for me. The scheme is eerily similar to what was perpetrated against Dunkin’ Donuts franchisees from 1998 thru 2008. In that period it is estimated that Dunkin’ Brands extracted over $100 million dollars of franchisee equity from hundreds of […]
Thank you for your support! Without it we wouldn’t have gotten as far as we did.
Dear Members and Friends of MFOA, Thank you for your support, participation, and advocacy for Maine franchise owners. Your support helped advance the Maine Franchise Owners Association (MFOA) and its mission to protect, defend and enhance the equity for all franchise owners. Even though we lost LD 1458 in the senate, we did get our […]
Three Stories of Maine Franchise Owners or Franchisors Doing Business in Maine
Three Stories about Quiznos, Coffee News and Dunkin’ Donuts. Quiznos: Maine franchisees of the franchising firm that earlier this month filed for bankruptcy, failed miserably under a broken business model. Some are questioning what detriment there was to their state’s economy. Analyzing the sub sandwich chain’s past franchise disclosure documents shows there was approximately $5.4 […]
Maine’s House Approves Franchisee Protections!
Don Sneigowski of Blue MauMau reports: Maine’s House of Representatives on Monday passed the Small Business Protection Investment Act LD 1458 by a vote of 75 in support and 60 against. Franchise owners in Maine are pushing a law that they say will allow them to better hold onto their business equity. Under the act, […]
Support Maine franchise owners with these four basic protections
Ed Wolak, Chairman of the Maine Franchise Owners Association contributed the following letter to Bangor Daily News and it ran in the paper and online today March 11, 2014. By Ed Wolak, Special to the BDN Posted March 10, 2014, at 11:47 a.m. Last modified March 10, 2014, at 12:07 p.m. BDN The Maine Small Business Investment Protection […]
Big Whopper Economics
Want fast-food workers to get a raise? Let local restaurant owners form a union to fight their corporate masters. By Josh Freedman – Washington Monthly In August, Larry and Kathryn Baerns and their son, Christopher, filed court papers charging that the two new Steak ’n Shake restaurants they had just opened in the Denver area […]