Buy from Walmart, Ontario Tim Hortons franchisees told, as a shortage hits Guelph warehouse<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\u201cThe GWNFA doesn\u2019t speak for all franchisees,\u201d Lou Gossner, chair of the advisory board, said in an e-mailed statement. \u201cThe advisory board and most franchisees choose to work collaboratively rather than spread misinformation that harms us all. \u2026. It is truly unfortunate that the leadership of this group reflects such a negative image of what most Canadian Tim Hortons franchisees are really all about.\u201d<\/p>\n
The apparent trigger for the board\u2019s blistering attack was a letter sent last week by GWNFA lawyers to Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains, alleging Restaurant Brands International had failed to live up to promises it made to the federal government in 2014 as part of the Burger King merger. Those included commitments to maintain franchisee relationships, to maintain the rent and royalty structure for five years, and to maintain existing employment levels at Tim\u2019s restaurants.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe franchisees are increasingly concerned with RBI\u2019s self-serving attempts to significantly increase its margins at the expense of the franchisees,\u201d the letter to Bains said, estimating the average revenue per Tim Hortons location had declined by 2.4 per cent in 2017.<\/p>\n
The franchisees allege the company has inflated the prices of goods that they are required to buy from head office, such as coffee and sugar.<\/p>\n
\u201cRBI is effectively increasing its royalty structure for Canadian franchisees, without allowing the franchisees to increase the price of products correspondingly as a means to recoup such increasing costs. RBI appears to have managed to indirectly accomplish what it is prohibited from doing directly.\u201d<\/p>\n
The federal government confirmed last week that it is looking in to the franchisee\u2019s complaints.<\/p>\n
In its letter Tuesday, the Tim Hortons Canadian Franchisee Advisory Board voiced its support of head office\u2019s good intentions for the business while defending its performance in representing franchisees officially, saying it had made strides with management on the valuation of restaurants, labour support, food and paper costs and regional marketing changes. The elected board also convinced management to make adjustments to a set of quality metrics for restaurant owners known as a GPS score, which tracks objectives such as store cleanliness and drive-thru times, that had earned the early enmity of multiple franchisees.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are fully aware and understand that the transition of this company did not go smoothly,\u201d the letter acknowledged.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe past cannot be changed but we are confident that (Tim Hortons management) understands that without a strong, profitable and engaged franchisee group, this brand and this company cannot continue to succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the meantime, the veteran Canadian brand has endured a wave of negative publicity related to its reputation with franchisees and an outcry over restaurant owners who clawed back employee benefits in response to the Ontario minimum wage increase in January. The company has since seen its brand reputation decline precipitously in consumer surveys this year, its comparable store sales fell 0.1 per cent in 2017, and shares of Restaurant Brands International have tumbled 17 per cent in the last six months.<\/p>\n
Sami Siddiqui, president of Tim Hortons Canada, had no comment Wednesday on the civil war erupting between the two groups of franchisees. In the past, Tim Hortons management has referred to GWNFA as a \u201crogue group\u201d of franchisees and has said it will only speak with the 19 members of the elected board about franchisee concerns.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are committed to improving our relationship with all of our franchise owners,\u201d Siddiqui said in an emailed statement Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe realize we have work to do, and welcome all opportunities for dialogue with franchisees in pursuit of that goal.\u201d<\/p>\n
The GWNFA had no comment Wednesday about the franchisee advisory board\u2019s letter.<\/p>\n
Financial Post<\/p>\n
hshaw@nationalpost.com<\/a><\/p>\nTwitter.com\/HollieKShaw<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The apparent trigger for the franchisee board’s blistering attack was a letter sent last week by GWNFA lawyers to Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":578,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6074"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/578"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6074"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6074\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6075,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6074\/revisions\/6075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}