Quiznos New CEO Greg Brenneman Speaks

First time commenting under this topic. I'm just another anonymous franchise owner stating the obvious. Try six new sammy sandwiches, the new five meat sandwich and those alone represent about a 25% addition to our menu. $5.00 large sandwiches now compared with maybe an average ring of about $7.50 for a large last year. What is being stated here is obvious to most outsiders. You have heard that food prices have risen since last year haven't you? If so, you can understand the predicament we are in now with $2.00 sammies, $5.00 large subs and flat sales The business model ain't working.

True! When franchisees are facing the very real risk of failure of their business and the loss of their entire investment, they look at their options.

To do nothing and "hope" for improvement and help from the ZOR works to the favor of the Zor and increases the individual franchisee's chances of failure while corporate is looking for solutions to network problems

Those Quiznos franchisees now in the courts are looking to their own interests and believe that Quiznos Corporate exploited them illegallly for profits with no regard to the damage done to the franchisees.

In whose interests should the Toasted Sub Association be objective? But Boss Brenneman is doing what he has been paid to do and it is in the interests of those Quiznos franchisees who have a chance of surviving to cooperate with him.

Sell Quizno's to private equity group/other mulit-concept restaurant company or go to the public markets. Frankly you don't don't know what will happen after a successful recovery of the brand, do you? Maybe you should keep an open mind and look out for opportunities e.g., sell post-improvement or buy now ahead of the improvement?

At least once a month on Blue Mau Mau, I want to bring up the name of Bob Baber as a memorial to his traumatic last years and the final tragedy of his life. He was a beaten and broken man, financially ruined, whose mental and physical health disintegrated until the point that he decided to die by his own hand and be finished with the pain.

But he left a suicide note that many have tried to ignore or discredit begging the media to take notice of the injustices he endured.

I felt sorry to read on Blue Mau Mau that some of the Quiznos franchisees who had posted this note on their walls had removed the note and wanted to forget about Bob Baber and his experience with Quiznos.

Let Brenneman do his good work and pray that he can save the great majority of Quiznos that are now standing but let us not forget Shaden and Bob Baber and those Quiznos franchisees who didn't make it and who Quiznos tried to silence in the courts.

Dear Quiznos Zee,

First thank you for sharing with those of us here at the Bluemaumau.

You may be correct in all of your assessments, of course only time will tell.  I would however suggest that you remain positive, because if you believe your own words, you've got to also realize that it's better to be moving in a positive direction than to be stagnant or not moving in a negative direction.  Most things in life are cyclical and as long as you have up turns you have a chance to benefit from such an upturn.  There are far more options in up times than in down times.

Please continue to share your experiences from inside the sub, with the rest of us here in the waters of Bluemauamu.

Believe & Succeed,
Dale
FranSynergy, Inc.
Synergizing Franchising!
www.fransynergy.com

Maybe he can teach the Scadens how to be ethical, moral and humble. Most of all ethical and moral. If you don't see all these sad awful stories all over the internet you must be in denial. Nothing would make me happier to see him make things right. That would be too expensive because the number of people hurt is in the thousands.[

Each week I listen to Greg Brenneman's Friday voicemail. He sounds like an intelligent person. He seems sincere about trying to turn the company around. No disrespect intended but Actions speak louder than words. The issue exists in the business model. Simply put - the business model does not work. Until the entire system is overhauled there will be countless franchisees, like myself, who can not continue because our stores can not pay the bills. Our CEO needs to address the issue of rebuilding the entire business model. It is time to stop patching the sinking ship and just build a new one. The little floaties that we have been thrown are not keeping our heads above water. Mr. Brenneman - WE ARE DROWNING.

After one's personal reserves are drained what can an owner do? Initially, we are asked to register with the Franchise Assistance Department. After that, we are required to fill out a series of forms divulging every minute detail of our financial history including future retirement, any real estate holdings, 401K's, college funds etc. Looking through all of the papers I couldn't help but think, "they want to see just how much more they can let me bleed before I hemorrhage to death". Then we are asked to decide: Do we wish to keep our stores and gain advice from the company how to properly run them, or do we want to sell? I'll assume most sane individuals choose the sale route. The problem is that, and I am speaking from personal experience, they would rather help a new franchisee open a new store in the region than help sell your damaged goods. It looks bad for the parent company to have so many of us selling.

On a side note: This is my third business in the last twenty years. One of them was food service. I did pretty well in that business and thought that this would be just another venture. Boy was I mistaken!

After I applied for assistance, filled out those invasive forms, I waited and waited for someone from the company to "help me sell". We were ready to give it away for pennies on the dollar just to stop the insanity. It didn't happen. In fact, I had two prospective buyers that my broker found that had been working with the company looking to open a new franchise in the same area that my store was located. They stated that they were never told about my store being offered for sale by the company. Even when they asked if there were any re-sales in the vicinity, they were told that there were none. Ultimately, these two entrepreneurs did their due diligence and no matter how low I dropped the price, neither one would purchase my store. My store was averaging $450,000K per year and I couldn't even give it away. If it took me two years to find a buyer then how can owners that make less sell their stores before they go under? Long story short, I finally found a buyer for you guessed it ---Pennies on the dollar (actually half-pennies).

Because of our initial investment and all of the money that I have had to shell out to pay the bills, I must pay off a $405,000 loan. There are a lot of things a person could do with that much money, I am just trying to pay off a large debt as are so many of you who have had suffered the same fate.

As I see it, financially drained owners have three choices:

1)Attempt to sell. (Most of us do not come close to regaining our initial investment.) With limited financial means, an owner can only hold on for so long though, as in my case. Eventually the price is reduced to a "give away" level.

2)Settle for a lease assumption if a buyer can not be located before you default. This will save the former owner from being held liable for any costs such as royalties and back rent.

3)Walk away and lose everything. I personally know two owners who have had this happen to them. It is tragic.

For so many of us, this investment becomes chalked up to one of the "really poor decisions" in the book of our lives. Other than committing a crime, perpetrating an unforgivable sin, becoming an addict, or ending one's life, it probably takes the cake.

Unfortunately, as far as being able to pursue legal action for damages, we all forfeited our rights when we signed the franchise agreement. In a nutshell, we gave Quiznos the right to "you know what" us. A most recent example can be seen in the class action suit in Wisconsin. The case was dismissed, not because it didn't have merit as the Quizno's corporate lawyers would have everyone believe, but rather because of the legal-ease contained within our franchise agreement that we all signed. The fact of the matter is that the judge agreed with the franchisees but could do nothing about it because they signed the contract.

Speaking of lawsuits, even if many of us wish to sue, we no longer have the finances to pursue a claim as a result of the slow bleed that we have endured. It is costly to sue and Quiznos banks on this fact. Even class actions do little to alleviate the burden of the bankrupt franchisee. It is the little guy, the one that really should get restitution, that ends up with nothing. We all entered into these agreements with high hopes and the goal of making better lives for our families, not to lose everything we own.

Small steps have been taken, but I see a slide backwards. Unfortunately, the cost of living is rising for everyone which will further inflict damage upon our businesses. Furthermore, the addition of the Sammy to our menu seemed to be inspired at first, but has become problematic. The issue is that the company has taken a product that received favorable reviews and ran a muck with it. Four Sammy styles to choose from were enough to offer our customers a smaller, cost effective alternative to a larger meal. Today Quiznos offers nine types of Sammies. Quiznos is becoming a Sammy store instead of a sub store. The Sammies require advanced preparation which means more labor dollars spent. Since they need to be prepared in advance, there is a lot of post poduction waste if they do not sell. The $2,00 Sammy then becomes a higher food cost item than it was intended to be. By offering so many choices for Sammies, many customers are opting to purchase them instead of our regular menu subs. At the end of the day, everyone has very hard to serve a ton of Sammies. I have compared my pre-Sammy and post-Sammy transaction counts. The daily transactions might be higher than they were, but the daily net 2 is consistently much lower than the pre-Sammy days. At the end of the week, everyone's weekly net 2 is less than before, even though transaction counts are up. I do not believe that having this many Sammy choices offered at a time is helpful. Offering a limited amount (perhaps three types)of Sammies at one time makes more sense. I thought the idea was to simplify the menu?

Delivery is another question mark. In our experience, the new delivery program did not significantly increase the weekly net 2 enough to offset the costs associated with it. Additional insurance, extra labor dollars, and the cost of the kit itself makes it necessary to produce a certan dollar amount each week in order to break even.

At the end of the day, we remain sitting at our computers, writing a diatribe that although cathartic, will do little to help us understand how so many of us fell for this scheme. I wish I could make sense out of it.

The problem with all of you that think that Greg Brennemann can turn around Quiznos is that you fail to recognize that the system, devised by Rick Schaden and his father, Tricky Dicky, is fatally flawed. It is designed to suck the lifeblood out of franchisees with high royalties, high advertising costs, and high costs of goods and services from mandated suppliers giving kickbacks to corporate. All this, with absolutely no accountability to the franchisees.
This perfect storm was no accident. And Greg Brenneman has neither the authority or the guts to try to change this fact. The Schadens hold the trump card and there is really nothing else to say. The foundation of corporate Quiznos is built on SAND, not bedrock. A fresh coat of paint on the exterior and new pictures on the walls will not change the outcome as long as nothing is done to shore up the foundation.
My total losses on the two stores I operated approaches $1 million. It cannot be said I didn't try or didn't have the ability to run good stores. My stores were always clean and we had great customer service. Although not as "impressive" as Greg Brennemann's credentials, I have a long list of achievements that I am proud of as well. Before Quiznos, I had excellent credit and substantial investments in stock, land, and savings. Thanks to Quiznos, all that is gone. And after working some 70+ houra a week to realize my dream, I really don't appreciate some jackass inferring that I was a "bad" operator. I never thought I would have to receive food stamps and Medicaid to survive.

That little piece of information really raises red flags concerning Brennenman's credibility. Of course if you're a Q franchisee and you've watched Q flounder for the past year you already have major questions concerning Brennenman, his credibility, and his ability to run a major QSR chain.