SAN DIEGO (Blue MauMau) - The American Association of Franchisees and Dealers on Tuesday admitted that many distressed Cuppy's franchisees have been contacting the organization seeking help. The American Association of Franchisees and Dealers sent out this email on Tuesday calling for Cuppy's franchisees to attend a special conference call with the AAFD chairman Thursday morning at 9:30 a.m. Pacific Standard Time. Below is the content of the email.

Hello Cuppy's Franchisees,

We have received many calls and emails over the last couple of days from Cuppy's franchisees urgently seeking options to address the various situations you are in. What we have decided to do is schedule a conference call with myself and Bob Purvin on Thursday August 7th 2008 at 9:30 am Pacific/ 12:30 pm Eastern. Please RSVP to stacie[at]aafd[dot]org with your name, store location, and phone number. If you would like to invite others to the call please have them RSVP as well. Talk to you all on Thursday.

[Conference code info redacted]

To sign up for your Totally Free Conference service, go to http://aafd.freeconferencecenter.com/

Sincerely,

Stacie L. Power
Director, Chapter Development

Scandals and Problems with the Chain from the Beginning

Founded in July 2006, Cuppy's Coffee and associated companies have been plagued with scandal and almost non-stop problems. In its first two years it has seen the imprisonment of its founder, the changing of company names, two acquisitions, insufficient capital, massive layoffs, a lawsuit by construction contractor SBT, stories of non-refunded deposits that lit up the blogosphere, and an estimated hundred or more unopened franchises.

The AAFD presented Cuppy's its prestigious franchise agreement accreditation in 2007. This certifies to franchise buyers that Cuppy's has what the AAFD chairman calls the fairest franchise agreement for franchise owners that exists. Cuppy's new president, Dale Nabors, whose firm, FranSynergy, acquired Cuppy's at the end of April, admitted at the AAFD annual meeting that the coffee chain had fallen short of AAFD's agreement standards. Cuppy's now awaits the decision from the association on whether its franchise agreement will continue to be AAFD accredited.

The chain announced last Friday that its head office will move from Fort Walton Beach to Muscle Shoals, Alabama on September 1.

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