Sources inside Allied Brands Ltd (ABQ) have written this blog saying that ABQ managers are spending lots of time recently preparing media plans - not for franchisees to sell more ice cream or cookies but instead trying to push Allied Brands share price higher.
Allied Brands has long history since becoming a public company to try these media "tricks" whenever they are under some financial pressure. Peter Graham the Managing Director of Allied Brands has signed all of these statements that apparently he believes are true when he gives them to the media. Or maybe he doesn't believe them. Here are some examples:
16 Apr 2008: Big announcement about Cookie Man International expansion. NOTHING HAS HAPPENED
12 March 2008: Says company has "undertakings or deposits" for 25 new stores to open by July 2008. ANOTHER STATEMENT NEVER HAPPENED They never tell investors how many stores are closing. Misleading, misleading.
3 December 2007: Says company will see "significant boost in store numbers in WA" in eighteen months. Says "we will increase number of Kenny's Cardiology stores to 18 over the next 18 months". The result after 18 months? FIVE STORES with TWO SHOWN AS FOR SALE.
This press statement also says Allied Brands is obtaining sites first to prove they work, and then finding franchisees. This hasn't happened. Results speak for themselves. Why are 40% of Kenny's Cardiology shops in Western Australia for sale? Don't they know the company is planning big expansion?
The "big expansion" also means Sydney, with 11 shops, has FIVE FOR SALE - ALMOST HALF THE FRANCHISEES TRYING TO GET OUT!
Now we are starting to hear and collect truthful stories from Kenny's Cardiology Shops about their experiences with Allied Brands. They are telling us more soon. Thank you for writing to us.
20 November 2008: Big press release telling everyone it would start Cookie Man shops in "at least three new countries by the end of 2008". They say "strong interest" from these countrys would make them open there.
Allied Brands has many investors angry with the bad performance of the company and these investors are starting to question every publicity statement the company makes now.
Recently on 23 May 2008 company told newspapers that they can give Matt and Drew Edwards, previous owners of Awesome Water company, their full bonus payment for selling their company to Allied Brands and meeting their targets. You can read this statement HERE. This payment however looks like another trick - the Edwards agreed to take this payment in Allied Brands shares valued at .65 cents! So instead of the $5 Million final payment they were expecting (or more, because they were of course told Allied Brands stock would be soaring under Peter Graham's leadership), they get $1.4 Million. $3.6 Million less than they expected! Are they happy with losing so much money to Allied Brands management?
Maybe this was always the real plan by Allied Brands, to keep the share price low until after the company saves so much money?
The announcement says the Edwards were "understanding in light of market conditions". Are they understanding about the bad and failing operations they see all around them? Will they ever get real fair value for the business they worked hard to establish? Do they even question management as to why all these grandiose plans have failed so spectacularly??
8 July 2005: This shows how long the history of misleading or wrong company statements can be. On 8 July 2005 Peter Graham announced ALLIED BRANDS WILL BUY WENDY'S. This never happened, the company never explained why, but Wendy's franchisees all realise their good profits were going to vanish if they were forced to be Baskin Robbins brand. Allied Brands also says in this press release that they have 88 Baskin Robbins stores open. To this day 88 stores have never been open at the same time. New ones open, and others fail.
So why are Allied Brands managers now working on new public statements and press releases? Do they think the public and investors will be fooled by more announcements that never come true? Do they think they can trick us all again?
Look at Australia Stock Exchange record on Allied Brands statements. Can you find one that ever comes true? NONE. LOOK FOR YOURSELF!
WE ARE ALL VERY EXCITED WAITING TO HEAR ABOUT WHAT KIND OF FUNNY STORY PETER GRAHAM WILL GIVE US SOON!
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