Franchise Deal Goes South in New Zealand

As New Zealand considers introducing franchise regulation, the timing of this case couldn't be worse. A New Zealand cleaning chain is defending a High Court claim for $4.29 million by former owners of nine of its master franchises. The franchisees claim the company failed to live up to its franchise agreements. The managing director of the At Your Request chain, Adrian Kenny, the founder of now infamous Green Acres franchise chain, is having other franchise problems.

Business partners Robert Lawrence and Deon Wessels paid $112,500 for nine At Your Request master franchises for the Bay of Plenty region, an arrangement which would have allowed them to sell subfranchises to individual service providers through their company Sure Care Services.

The Bay of Plenty is a relatively sparsely populated area. It is difficult to imagine how anyone can be tricked into buying nine master licenses for such a small region.  It must have been a great sales pitch, kind of like buying master development rights nine times for the little town of Mayberry, North Carolina. Even li'l Opie Taylor might have suspected something isn't quite right.

Lawrence and Wessels and their company are claiming a total of $4.29m in damages from At Your Request Franchise Group and Kenny himself.

Read Franchises deal goes to court, Stuff.co.nz