In The News

The owner of the Nosh franchise on Constellation Drive in Auckland's Mairangi Bay has dropped the Nosh brand from its store. Veritas said the franchisee has indicated that he will operate independently of the Nosh franchise and "has purported to terminate its franchise agreement. Veritas does not accept that termination, and the parties are in dispute over the matter."

The store on Constellation Drive has removed its Nosh signage and appears to be attempting to remove all references to the brand. 

A shopper at the Constellation Drive shop in Auckland said the store had gone as far as scribbling over Nosh logos on items such as cheese, which had Nosh pricing labels stuck on the outside of their packaging.

Owner Phillip Mead would not say what lay behind the changes, or whether his plan was to trade independently. He confirmed the store was not accepting Nosh loyalty cards or vouchers.

In mid-December the company, which also owns the Mad Butcher franchise, said it had until Jan. 15 to deliver either an unconditional contract for the sale of Nosh Group, or a proposal to close and wind it down to its lender.

At the time, it said the sale or closure of the loss-making Nosh business would result in non-cash asset write-downs and one-off expenditure related to the sale or closure but provided no further details.

On Friday, chairman Tim Cook said he had no comment other than "we are working through the process."

Baidu stated that the principle behind the system was based on setting certain set meals, food and beverage choices to a specific age range, as reported in People's Daily Online.

For instance, the AR-operated machine will recommend a lunch combo of zinger burger, boneless mini fillets and coke to a 20-year-old male customer; and a breakfast of porridge and soya milk to a 50-year-old female customer.

The food suggestion leaves some customers to question: 'What if a 50-year-old wants to have fried chicken?'

'Why is the computer not recommending healthier choices to younger people?' One Chinese web user wondered.

Annual growth rates for the first 14 days were strongest in Hawke’s Bay and West Coast. Spending growth was lowest in Gisborne and Marlborough region (that includes Kaikoura in Paymark’s coding), both due to exceptional circumstances.

The majority (52%) of spending remains through debit cards although the growth rate is faster through credit cards, which today also includes contactless cards.

As an insight into the pre-Christmas spending patterns, the spending rises through the day from 6-7am to reach a peak between noon and 1pm most days and then gradually tapers off.

The initiatives include thumbprint scanning of workers to clock on and clock off at the start and end of their shifts, backed-up by a network-wide CCTV system monitored by 7-Eleven head office; continued rectification by 7-Eleven of unpaid staff wages; the introduction of a mandatory centralised payroll system that all franchisees will be required to use; the establishment of an employee consultation group that specifically excludes franchisees; and a raft of other measures.

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Veritas is required under the revised ANZ facility to deliver to ANZ by 15 January 2017 either an unconditional contract for the sale of Nosh, or a proposal to close and wind down Nosh. Veritas is also required to close and wind down Nosh by 31 March 2017, if it cannot be sold by that date.

Given the time available before 15 January 2017, the Board cannot be certain that a sale of Nosh can be agreed by that date. The Board therefore proposes to investigate the proposal to close and wind down Nosh by 31 March 2017, as part of its strategic plan for the group.

Jim Delligatti told The Associated Press in 2006 that McDonald's resisted the idea at first because its simple lineup of hamburgers, cheeseburgers, fries and shakes was selling well.

'They figured, why go to something else if (the original menu) was working so well?' Delligatti said then.

McDonald's has sold billions of Big Macs since then, in more than 100 countries. When the burger turned 40, McDonald's estimated it was selling 550 million Big Macs a year, or roughly 17 every second.

The job description attached to his employment agreement specified Mr Corten would work 40 hours a week at $18 per hour.

But for the duration of his employment Mr Corten worked six days a week, from 8.30am until 10pm. He took no holidays while employed and was paid $720 a week, either in cash or cheque, which works out to about $8.90 an hour.

He resigned in September 2013 following disagreements with Mr Efendi.

An internal Caltex document presented to franchisees in August on workplace obligations outlines "common mistakes".

The list includes not paying an employee for trial/training shifts, not recording and rostering the hours worked by the franchisee and not having these records available and not checking if visa requirements are up to date.

One of the more egregious "common mistakes" was "not paying wages … on a regular basis/on time and not having required records of wage payments (especially when cash wages are paid)".

In a statement Caltex described the "common mistakes" as examples "provided by way of illustration and do not reflect Caltex's behaviour".

It says the company had always made it clear to franchisees that they are required to operate their businesses in full compliance with all laws, including the Fair Work Act.

But it will not commit to a compensation scheme where it finds exploited workers who have been systematically ripped off, similar to the scheme set up by 7-Eleven, which has so far paid A$50 million in back pay to workers.

Instead, it points the finger at franchisees, saying "franchisees are responsible for ensuring their employees are correctly paid. Caltex is providing practical support to those employees such as helping them secure ongoing employment if possible as well as assisting them to pursue a claim against their former employer".

But it isn't as simple as that. If a franchisee is terminated and loses the value of the goodwill, it is hard to chase them down to repay workers as some of them will have nothing left except a big bank loan to repay for a business loan they took and no income to repay workers.

In addition, many workers are too afraid to come forward for fear of retribution.

Veritas chairman Tim Cook, however, on Tuesday detailed what he called the facts of the Mangere liquidation and his frustration with Jollands.

He said he could not comment on Jollands' claim the Mangere store had begun losing money in the years prior to its sale, other than that Leitch had a "very successful business" there.

But he ran through a series of phone calls, meetings and other dealings with Jollands, where the franchisor wanted to find a workable solution for the store's owner rather than put it in liquidation.

Other stores, such as one in Rotorua, had become one of its big successes after a "motivated" operator took it over using exactly the same business model.

Cook said they offered "an enormous amount of free help" to turn around the Mangere store, including bringing in a proven operator and free advertising.

The franchisee had admitted in those meetings the failure was his fault, and was a minority shareholder and manager before buying the store outright, Cook said.

But the next thing Cook knew, the store had gone into liquidation

Business Insider's Hollis Johnson tested the programme at a New York City McDonald's and paid US$10 for a burger with bacon, tomato, onions, cheddar cheese, guacamole, and two sauces, along with sides of fries and a drink. That's about twice the cost of a Big Mac meal. His meal took eight minutes to prepare.

Some franchisees also complained about the cost of the programme, and said it slowed down kitchen operations and targeted an upscale customer that McDonald's shouldn't be going after.

McDonald's decision to get rid of the full Create Your Taste menu and replace it with Signature Crafted Recipes should help solve some of these issues.

Signature Crafted Recipes has fewer options for customisation than Create Your Taste with bundled toppings that should make it easier for kitchens to handle. The company started testing it earlier this year.

Restaurant Brands, New Zealand's largest fast-food operator with 173 stores, is expanding into new markets to drive future earnings growth, opening new burger chain Carl's Jr in New Zealand and expanding into KFC in Australia where it has 42 stores. To improve profitability in its legacy businesses, the company has been refurbishing and adding to its local KFC outlets, exiting low-performing Pizza Hut stores and closing its worst performing Starbucks Coffee outlets.

"A while ago we looked at the growth potential for Restaurant Brands in New Zealand and it was in our view limited to a steady 'business as usual' growth of one or two KFCs per year, maybe one or two Pizza Huts per year, that sort of pace. The ability to grow rapidly with new brands as we have seen with Carl's Jr is a very slow path, and there's not many other brands that we could purchase or would be interested in purchasing to add step change," chief executive Russel Creedy told NBR's BusinessDesk. 

World Bank chief economist Paul Romer said simple rules for doing business were a sign that a government treated its people with respect.

'They yield direct economic benefits: more entrepreneurship, more market opportunities for women, more adherence to the rule of law.'

However, in a separate article a Wellington academic has warned that 'ease of doing business does not always equate to more business.'

Immigration Minister Michael Woodhouse today announced that there would be fewer residence approvals planned for the next two years to 85,000-95,000, down from 90,000-100,000.

'Increasing the points required to gain residence from 140 to 160 will moderate the growth in applications in the Skilled Migrant Category and enable us to lower the overall number of migrants gaining residence,' Woodhouse said.

'Changes to the Family Category, including temporarily closing the Parent Category to new applications, will also reduce the total number of migrants being granted residence.'

Around half of those approved under the residence programme came through the skilled migrant category.

As of April 1, employers have been required to state any agreed hours of work in an employer's contract.  They do not have to specify any set hours if both parties agree not to.

The current Restaurant Brands collective had a formula that hours were guaranteed at 80 per cent of the previous three months staff had worked. 

Employees will also be offered additional shifts when they become available up to a maximum of 40 hours a week, allowing the opportunity to build up stable, secure full-time employment.

While year-over-year sales dropped at several leading brands, the picture brightened further down the list as franchised brands reached new heights with record-breaking sales, significant gains in unit counts and an ongoing push into new corners of the globe.

Outside the eye-popping declines posted by the largest brands, our Top 200+ ranking confirms that, unequivocally, franchised brands continue to grab an ever-growing share of the American economy. This year’s top 200 companies produced a combined $596.1 billion in systemwide sales during 2015.

Based on total worldwide system sales, our ranking rewards systems for how much they sell in a given year, rather than how many units they build. With Hertz dropping out of the Top 200+ and replaced by RE/MAX, the five remaining brands in the top 10 all saw healthy increases during 2015. Burger King added $287 million in new sales, Ace Hardware was up $557 million, RE/MAX added $1.18 billion, Wendy’s gained $405 million and Marriott Hotels and Resorts added $400 million to its top line.