AUSTRALIA BASKIN ROBBINS FAILURE RATE OVER 5 TIMES GREATER THAN AMERICAN OR KOREAN OR JAPANESE B-R SHOPS

In a recent publication, the continued collapse in Allied Brands ability to select Baskin Robbins franchisees and locations continues to be exposed.

In the USA, Baskin Robbins home market, the SBA-tracked failure rate is a commendable 7%. (Click here to read)

In Australia, the failure rate has been a staggering 37% the last few years.

This includes all the Baskin Robbins shops that have technically failed (franchisee ejected or walked away or deported back to Korea) although Allied Brands continues to pretend to operate them, at a stunning loss.

The current annual report shows a staggering $3,700,000 in "Assets Held for Resale", a ten-times increase from last year. These are failed Baskin Robbins shops, unsold Baskin Robbins shops, and shops that Allied Brands is running under (horrific) management and massive cash burn. The big question - how are failed shops, and shops no one wants worth ANYTHING? If this asset was valued properly, Allied Brands likely would be showing a huge loss.

Franchisees uniformly point to the gouging by Allied Brands for the imported ice cream, and were stunned to read that despite the published reasons for this cost increase (exchange rate fluctuations), the annual report shows a profit to Allied Brands of $247,000 on foreign exchange trading! As the primary international purchasing done by Allied Brands is only to supply the Baskin Robbins brand, this report proves conclusively that Allied Brands were (and continue to) be systematically lying to the Baskin Robbins franchisees, grossly overcharging them during an economic downturn, all while pocketing a huge bonanza and giving massive bonuses to the managers involved!

An unconscionable action generating profits that still couldn't stem the massive losses caused by Baskin Robbins management's horrific decisionmaking!

One would think that chairman Lachlan Mcintosh, a director at bankruptcy firm Korda Mentha, would recognise dodgy accounting that is regularly exposed in failed companies. What's being done isn't just walking a fine line, it's well over the line of propriety and continuous disclosure required for public companies.

The "cover up" of this massive failure rate is just one of the lies of omission being told in the Allied Brands annual report. It is these lies from the company that are the subject of reported shouting matches between auditor Hacketts and the company. And now a new "financial controller" --- with no word on what became of the previous one. Perhaps starting to realise that these lies, under investigation by the ASIC and ASX, are what are known as "indictable offenses" that will result in gaol time. To the last financial controller, or to the new one? Or both?