Instant Replay: According to the franchisor, the franchisees are thieves and the franchisor is the good guy who is saving the community from corrupt people. Result: Massive investigations, terminations, and take-backs.
The franchisor: (1) vows to stamp out underpayment of franchisee employees; (2) removes store owners who broke the rules from its system; (3) claims that “When a franchise is terminated, an independent valuation of the franchisee’s assets is undertaken and, in general, the franchisee is paid accordingly for their assets….The process for refranchising a site is also very costly and takes considerable time and corporate resources.”; (4) announced the outcome of an independent review that he said “confirmed our [franchise] model allows franchisees to draw a wage, make a profit and pay employees in accordance with lawful wage rates”.
In contrast, the franchisees: (1) claim that when Caltex forces out an owner it does so without paying compensation beyond assets, which means it could gain back stations almost free and profit from their resale or merge them into its corporate-owned store network; (2) claim that “no site with weekly shop sale of about 30K to 35K … can be profitable in your current model by fulfilling its [workplace] obligation”; (3) explain that “The truth is they [the franchisor] want the stores back to make them into company stores and that is the best way to do it – they are going to get their stores back for free.”
