Franchise Pundit franchise opinion and research

Imagine you have the perfect location for your franchise near a stadium with lots of pedestrian traffic. You spend $450,000 to get your first franchise built and ready. Opening week was wonderful with sales of $12,000 and subsequents weeks continue on with profits. Then, a major light rail construction project starts out front and blocks your sidewalk. After a few ... Read More »

Hopefully the promotion of Michael Roeper to COO of Quiznos will help the franchisee’s profitability. Roeper owned several Quiznos units in Chicago from 2000-2006. SOURCE Read More »

Quiznos Quiznos renegotiated it’s debt load and took in an infusion of equity capital from JP Morgan and other existing shareholders.   You can read both good and bad into this.  The good being the investors saw enough upside to invest more, the bad being Quiznos desperately needed this to happen so their financial soundness probably isn’t strong. Chipotle Chipotle ... Read More »

Current CEO Rick Shaden in a Fox Business interview talks about his competition with Subway and the new torpedo sandwich.  A few notes: Blames slowdown on “economy and increased costs” Says customers want cheaper sandwiches Touts the $4 Torpedo sandwich, claims it is the “first portable sub”, “modern sandwich” Head to head to Subway, more innovative and edgy Frames Quiznos as a ... Read More »

Quiznos is helping franchisees renegotiate leases at no cost to the franchisee. Good move. Since the teams have been in operation, Quiznos has negotiated more than 40 leases thus far, with an average reduction of 15-20 percent in lease payments Here is one franchisee’s experience in the press release Thomas Mihailovich, a franchise owner in Rochester Hills, MI, participated in ... Read More »

Imagine if you were a franchisee and a mystery shopper from the franchisor anonymously visited your store and ordered a sandwich.  The meat in the sandwich you served happened to be 1/2 an ounce smaller that the standard 4.5 ounces.  Would it be fair to lose your franchise because of default?  You did break the rules, eh?  But what if ... Read More »

Quiznos seems to be in perpetual defeat.  Here is another money-losing franchisee from Quiznos:   “We can’t make money,” said Quiznos franchisee Marty Tate, who said his Erie, Pa., store leads the region in sales. Mr. Tate, who is not part of the lawsuit, said 40% of his sales go directly into advertising, royalties and food for the next week. He ... Read More »

Dream Dinners is an example of good idea but profit challenged business model.   It’s just too expensive to attract and retain customers. A Forbes article looked through the Dream Dinners FDD from the state of Washington, and focused on the required audited financial statements. As of Dec. 31, the company boasted $2.9 million in assets, against which it carried ... Read More »

As if the sub sandwich category wasn’t crowded enough, Domino’s Pizza is adding sub sandwiches to its menu and delivery service.  The $4.99 oven-baked sub sandwiches will include classic favorites like Philly Cheese Steak and Chicken Bacon Ranch. The move comes five months after Pizza Hut began delivering baked pasta dishes as well as pizzas. And it will be a ... Read More »

Source: Daily Courier (Pittsburgh)A law suit was filed on July 3, 2008 by a few dozen franchisees in Western Pennsylvania.   The allegations are: The lawsuit alleges that Quiznos engages in a “pattern of racketeering” and generates “grossly inflated profits” at the expense of franchises that usually fail. It also accuses the company of saturating geographic areas with more franchises that can be supported. ... Read More »

I would not let one semi-positive article influence my opinion of Quiznos, but here it is: A year after some franchise owners sued Quiznos over business practices, the restaurant chain’s chief executive said Monday he expects franchisee profits to increase 60 percent overall in the wake of improvements to the system. 60% increase sounds fantastic, but it is relative from ... Read More »

Download the Quiznos Profit Spreadsheet Based on the 115 comments, the most popular post on FranchisePundit.com has been What a Quizos Franchisee Makes, posted on April 10, 2005. The purported author of the financial projects also founded the web site QuiznosSucks.com (don’t bother going there, it now defunt and replaced with a domain aggregator’s advertising search engine). More of his ... Read More »

Quiznos CEO puts turnaround skills to work The former Burger King boss is applying his turnaround expertise to the troubled sandwich chain, whose dissatisfied franchise owners have complained about low profits, company operating requirements and the franchisee recruiting process. Since jumping into the fray in January, Brenneman has worked to reduce food costs by as much as 4 percent, improve ... Read More »

Death of a toasted sandwich salesman Quiznos had sought to strip eight franchisees of their franchises after a franchisee gripe site posted the suicide note of a Quiznos franchisee on its website. The note blamed the Quiznos Corporation for ruining his business and his life. The franchisee, Bhupinder “Bob” Baber, was found dead last November in the bathroom of a ... Read More »

 The NY Times highlights several despondent Quiznos franchisees.   The article does a good job of summarizing the major complaints and law suits currently pending against Quiznos. Hat tip:  Perry in the forum. Read More »

A Pizza Pizza franchisee in Ontario recounts his decision to buy into the system, the training, paying the franchise fee, and steps along the way to opening. Atlanta Bread Co. and Sbarro bail from the Macon, Georgia mall. “40 percent of Quiznos units are not breaking even” Read More »