Burger King owners aren’t the only franchisees pushing for change.
Kumon franchise owners have voiced concerns here (as well as on Facebook and Twitter) that the international education franchisor is prioritizing systemwide expansion over the success of its franchise owners. While the group was not responsible for the initial comments, the President of the International Association of Kumon Franchisees has acknowledged that these comments have resulted from “very challenging and high-stress” internal tensions within the Kumon franchise community.
In an earlier post about the Kumon franchise complaints, Concerned Owner complained that Kumon’s reliance on incomplete demographic data has led the corporation to “overestimate their market potential” and to create an “unjustified expansion plan.” Concerned Owner contends that franchise owners, especially in saturated markets such as New York, New Jersey & Connecticut, are being packed in to the point of competing with one another and cannibalizing sales.
Commenter Joe Cack added that while the franchise owners are being forced into discounting to remain competitive, the franchisor is reaping a whopping 30% royalty off top line sales, regardless of franchisee profitability.
Nicole, the president of the International Association of Kumon Franchisees, added this statement to the post:
The concerns expressed here come out of a very challenging and high-stress situation which we as the International Association of Kumon Franchisees are doing our utmost to address.
We are in constant negotiations with the high-level employees of Kumon North America on many topics to do with our franchise, and, while we know it will be a long process to address all the issues, we are encouraged that considerable progress is being made in real consultation on many fronts.
The great strength of franchisees in New Jersey is that they are working together in very constructive ways on things like profitability studies to analyse how to improve their businesses, marketing studies to grow their centres better and other initiatives to address their situation.
They have the highest representation of association membership (over 80%) and have demonstrated in a recent meeting with the CEO of Kumon North America a very admirable professionalism and creativity in moving the Kumon Vision forward.
I am proud to support these franchisees and others throughout North America in their efforts to use their considerable skills and areas of expertise to develop and maintain their Kumon franchises and to have a positive impact on the Kumon North American system as a whole.
Best wishes,
Nicole,
President, International Association of Kumon Franchisees.
Franchise owners organize into independent franchisee associations in order to present their opinions, requests and sometimes demands to their franchisor. If franchisees don’t feel their concerns are being taken seriously or adequately addressed, they will often take to voicing them on the Internet. If franchisee concerns are further ignored, the dispute can even result in litigation and a public relations debacle, as seen by the recent Burger King dispute.
It will be interesting to see whether international franchisor Kumon and its U.S. franchisees can work out their differences amicably.
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