Below we provide an overview of a number of recent cases handled
by our Franchising team.
- Instructed by the franchisees of Coffee Republic which went
into administration in the summer. This required close co-operation
between different parts of the firm to deal with the interface
between franchise (contract) law, real estate (leasehold) law and
insolvency law and practice. Franchisor insolvency is not new, but
now more frequent.
- Moving from the updating/creating of a suite of new franchise
documentation for use in Southern Co-operative Ltd's expansion into
the franchised convenience store market to acting on a number of
new franchise grants and associated property transactions.
- Acting for two franchisees in relation to disputes involving a
new form of financial services franchise, negotiating an exit
strategy for the holder of two franchises with a well known
franchisor, enabling the franchisee to continue trading in their
own regard.
- Acting for the majority of the franchisees of Coffee Republic
Limited following the appointment of administrators to the
franchisor and the subsequent sale of the franchise business. The
basic work was advising them of their rights and specifically the
possibility of not accepting transfer to the new franchisor. The
franchise team were assisted in this by the firm's Insolvency and
Business Recovery team and the matter was substantially complicated
by the interface between leasehold and insolvency law. This work is
largely completed but the firm continues to be instructed by a
number of the franchisees or ex-franchisees individually.
- Obtaining instructions from the Thresher franchisees to assist
with franchise, property, and licensing issues consequential on the
administration of Thresher/First Quench Retailing which operated a
mixture of owned and franchised (88) retail off licences.
