28 September 2020 - The Government has at last announced details of its arbitration and mediation funding package aimed at resolving ongoing disputes between commercial tenants and their landlords arising out of the Level 4 and 3 lockdowns. However, unlike the original proposal of 4 months ago, landlords can't be forced to participate.

25 September 2020 - A new survey has shown that New Zealanders' appreciation of certain franchise brands grew during uncertain times.

The NZX-listed company which owns Esquires Coffee in the UK has praised the UK Government's 'generous' support packages. The UK government has reduced VAT for hospitality, slashing tax from 20 per cent to 5 per cent until January; introduced the Eat Out Help Out programme offering dining discounts in the month of August; and council rates have been abated for 12 months.

Cooks Global Foods has 58 outlets in England. It says the long, hard lockdown earlier this year had not had a material impact on its top line sales in the current financial year, and that Downing Street's work from home orders had provided a boost to the group's suburban neighbourhood outlets.

Read more at https://www.nzherald.co.nz/...

Schools and workplaces are closing for deep cleans after potential Covid-19 contacts - but what does a 'deep clean' involve? Galvin Bartlett of the Paramount services franchise told RNZ's First Up programme.

Listen to the audio

Read more at https://www.rnz.co.nz/audio...

15 October 2020 - Our webinars on buying a business after redundancy are proving popular. Get free, independent advice from leading experts on how to make a safe and sensible decision. Our next webinar is on the evening of Wednesday 28th October. To register, all you have to do is email editor@franchise.co.nz with your name and which area of the country you are from.

Our recent webinar on buying a business after redundancy was so well received we're running it again. Get free, independent advice from leading experts on how to make a safe and sensible decision with this special webinar session on the evening of Tuesday 15 September.

Read more at https://franchise.co.nz/art...

New Zealand-listed Restaurant Brands has bought 69 KFC and Taco Bell stores in the United States to add to its overseas operations in Australia and Hawaii. Restaurant Brands is the master licensee for the KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and Carl's Jr. brands in New Zealand. The company was partly taken over by a Mexican-based investor last year.

Read more at https://www.stuff.co.nz/bus...

28 August 2020 – Takeaway-only restrictions in Auckland have fuelled demand for delivery services again. What’s the impact on franchisees, and how have franchisors responded?

Three seminars being held online and in person in October are designed to give franchisor teams the tools they need to help franchisees get the most out of their businesses.

27 August 2020 - Westpac’s Quarterly Economic Overview is more positive than might be expected. Here are some extracts, along with links to the full report

20 August 2020 – There are a number of new faces on the FANZ Board after the results of the elections were announced yesterday.

Just Cuts is the latest franchise to suggest that commercial landlords in New Zealand have not been as supportive as in other countries. The Franchise Association and other business groups have regularly called for action to force landlords to negotiate on rents, saying that some very successful long-term businesses are facing bankruptcy owing to the actions of a few landlords who are not prepared to make allowances for cashflow damage caused by lockdown. Legislation was prepared, including a $40 million mediation fund, but failed to pass after New Zealand First withdrew its support.

Read more at https://www.stuff.co.nz/bus...

4 August 2020 - Keeping things humming even during lockdown was a top priority for business owners, so Westpac asked Brad Jacobs of The Coffee Club to share the story of how they temporarily shut down 66 franchises and built an online presence in just one week.

Read more at https://www.youtube.com/wat...

29 July 2020 – In a New Zealand first, AUT is offering an undergraduate level paper in franchise law 

August 2020 - A recent news story about a Bottle-O franchisee has again demonstrated the risk to franchise brands of franchisees breaching their employment responsibilities to migrant workers

15 October 2020 - Our webinars on buying a business after redundancy are proving popular. Get free, independent advice from leading experts on how to make a safe and sensible decision. Our next webinar is on the evening of Wednesday 28th October. To register, all you have to do is email editor@franchise.co.nz with your name and which area of the country you are from.

29 July 2020 – A National Party plan to allow unemployed workers to access their KiwiSaver retirement fund to start a business has been criticised by a KiwiSaver provider

The Franchise Association has renewed calls for action to force landlords to negotiate on rents, saying that some very successful long-term businesses are facing bankruptcy owing to the actions of a few landlords who are not prepared to make allowances for cashflow damage caused by lockdown.  If well-supported franchisees are having such issues, how much harder must it be for independent business owners? Listen to this morning's RNZ interview with Kathryn Ryan of Nine to Noon featuring Robyn Pickerill of FANZ, Brad Jacobs of The Coffee Club and Bird on a Wire, and Stephen Mansfield of Quest Apartments.

Read more at https://www.rnz.co.nz/natio...

Burger King has released an advertisement encouraging US farmers to change cow diets in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The controversial video ad features children in cowboy hats singing about the impact methane gas emitted due to cow flatulence has on global warming.

Burger King claims adding lemongrass to cow diets could ease digestion and dramatically reduce methane emissions, but farm leaders say the ad is 'condescending and hypocritical'. Some scientists also criticised Burger King's message and its focus on cow flatulence, with one saying that early all enteric methane from cattle is from belching. 'Suggesting otherwise turns this serious climate topic into a joke.' The advert has already been watched over 3 million times on YouTube.

Read more at https://www.bbc.com/news/bu...

June 2020 – New online forums offer a fresh approach to the professional development of franchisor teams

29 June 2020  – Caci have announced a new partnership with the country’s leading private company investor

November 2020 - The one-day Westpac Franchise Summit was a massive success

What happens to the franchise agreement when you buy or sell an existing franchise? Michael Bright provides a brief guide

25 June 2020 – Franchisees could lose their businesses and staff their jobs after long-awaited rent relief legislation delayed again

16 June 2020 - Four Square Waikanae Beach franchisee Quoc Tran has been named the National Winner of the Prospa Local Business Hero Awards. Tran has run the store for nine years, with wife Thuy Vu. Tran says it feels good to help the community in the same way others have helped him. That includes helping elderly people do their shop and carrying their groceries out to the car, and treating local kids to a free ice cream on their birthday.

Tran fled Vietnam in 1988, spending six years in refugee camps in Hong Kong and the Philippines before finally arriving in New Zealand in 1994. He told Stuff that he doesn’t dwell on it too much, but says it was 'a very hard life' and it has fired his determination to work hard and embrace all that being a Kiwi has to offer.

Read more at https://www.stuff.co.nz/bus...

16 June 2020 - Core Enterprises, the master franchisee for ice cream retailer Shake Shed, has gone into liquidation. The company was created when Chang Xi, the New Zealand master franchisee for Wendy's Supa Sundaes in New Zealand, decided to split from Wendy's owner GFRG following a change of supplier and persuaded his franchisees to follow him. In 2018, the High Court in Tauranga found that Xi and the franchisees had breached their franchise agreements with GFRG and Shake Shed was ordered to pay $5.5m to GFRG for the breach. Read more.

Read more at https://www.stuff.co.nz/bus...

12 June 2020 - Water Babies International has obtained an interim injunction in Wellington against a former franchisee and her cousin who established a business with a similar name, systems, locations and schedule. It's the latest example of franchisors taking court action to protect their Intellectual Property, and a reminder to franchisees that they can't just change the name and carry on in the same business.  We will look at other recent restraint of trade cases in the next issue of Franchise New Zealand magazine.

Read more about the Water Babies case

Read more at https://www.stuff.co.nz/bus...

10 June 2020 - What do the Government's proposed measures to force commercial rent negotiation actually mean, and when can franchisees start to use them to bring landlords to the table?

10 June 2020 - Taco Tuesday is about to get real for Auckland urbanites. Taco Bell will open their second New Zealand restaurant in the heart of the Auckland CBD at midday on Tuesday 16th June.

9 June 2020 - Seven years after McDonald's brought back Georgie Pie to widespread excitement, the company is taking them off the menu again due to lack of demand. 'We know there will be disappointed Georgie Pie fans out there, and this is not a decision we have taken lightly,' said Dave Howse, McDonald’s New Zealand’s managing director. Existing stock of the single flavour offered, Steak Mince 'N' Cheese Pies, will be run down over the next few weeks. They have already been withdrawn from some outlets.

'It's the brand  that, for many people, defined a Kiwi childhood,' we wrote back in 2013, when the return of Georgie Pie made the front cover of Franchise New Zealand. A campaign to bring it back attracted over 57,000 likes on its Facebook page, and when McDonald's launched its initial trial, 'The hordes rushed in and we got absolutely slammed,' reported Mark Rush, who owned the Queen Street, Auckland, franchise. But, like the original Georgie Pie concept which lasted barely 20 years, it wasn't sustainable in the long term, even though the pies were sold through existing McDonald's restaurants rather than stand-alone stores. Tastes have moved on, and further 'Bring back Georgie Pie' campaigns seem unlikely to succeed. Read our original coverage of the return of Georgie Pie here.

Read more at https://www.stuff.co.nz/lif...

New Zealanders have taken a big hit to get on top of Covid-19, but now there are no live cases and we're returning to Level 1. It's up to businesses and people to play their part in staying on top of it, though, and contact tracing will be vital in the event of a new outbreak. Businesses should still display the official NZ Covid-19 Tracer QR code posters wherever customers or visitors enter the premises - get your posters here.

Read more at https://www.health.govt.nz/...

The story of a franchisee who feels let down by his franchisor over the terms of a work guarantee shows that you need to take advice and understand what you're signing up for when you buy a franchise. The lawnmowing franchisee says he expected a guaranteed income of $1000 a week, but had earned less than half that. The franchisor says it had offered him work opportunities in excess of an average $1345 per week which he had refused or not submitted quotes for. Susan Edmunds of Stuff talked to both parties, plus franchise experts.

Read more at https://www.stuff.co.nz/bus...

4 June 2020 - Proposed action on a deal to force commercial rent negotiations after months of inactivity is being condemned as 'too little, too late'

2 June 2020 - BurgerFuel has joined forces with Al Brown & Co. to create a limited edition burger with some New York deli flavour

2 June 2020 - To mobilise and support small businesses impacted by Covid-19, Toyota New Zealand will provide 100 businesses with a free SUV for 12 months

Owners of Green Acres lawnmowing franchises are upset to have been been asked to continue paying weekly royalty fees during the level 4 lockdown, according to a report in Stuff. While some other  franchises suspended fees and other levies altogether while franchisees were unable to work, a Green Acres spokeswoman said the company had frozen fees which franchisees could pay back later.

Read more at https://www.stuff.co.nz/bus...

May 2020 - Westpac’s latest Quarterly Economic Overview suggests that Covid-19 will cast a shadow over the economy for years, but that recovery will be faster than after the GFC. What impact will this have on franchising?

April 2020 - Redundancy could turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to you, but don't rush into anything. Here are some tips on what to look for if you're considering buying your own business

V.I.P. provides the tools, training and support to help you start a new life

In the last of our lockdown case studies, we talk to InXpress about the impact of Covid-19, and the impact of the growth of online shopping

With all sorts of businesses facing unprecedented times, how are big franchisors helping both their franchisees and the wider community? We talk to one of New Zealand’s best-known brands (and least-known franchisors), Anchor