BASKIN ROBBINS DUMPED IN THAILAND, STORES TO BE RE-BRANDED TO COLD STONE CREAMERYS

As announced earlier, Thai franchisor for Baskin Robbins in Thailand, Central Restaurant Group, has closed all the Baskin Robbins shops in Thailand, citing the brand as unprofitable due to high costs imposed by the USA and continual shortages of product and marketing support for the Thai market.

It was announced yesterday HERE that CRG, the previous franchisees in Thailand have now confirmed the opening of up to 40 Cold Stone Creamery shops to replace the failed Baskin Robbins shops.

And today a big celebration in Bangkok with the opening of the first of these converted Baskin Robbins shops to Cold Stone Creamery shops with the US GOVERNMENT IN SUPPORT!

Allied Brands has refused to comment on the stunning collapse of the brand in Thailand, which has seen their share price plummet to less than .12 this week.

This has been quite a stunning development for Baskin Robbins and Allied Brands. They've just reportedly based expatriate management for the region in Thailand - now a country where their previous strong market presence is now ZERO. What is this management office now going to do when there are no BR shops in the area?

Perhaps when Allied Brands loses the Baskin Robbins brand in Australia, they'll also be switching these shops to Cold Stone.

INSIDER BAILS, ANOTHER NEW LOSER JOINS THE ALLIED BRANDS SUCKER LIST

An Allied Brands Ltd. (ABQ) insider, who's name is currently being sought, has bailed on 500,000 shares in a block trade this morning, driving ABQ shares down still further.

If purchased when ABQ first went public, this investor has lost over 70% on this bad investment. One has to wonder who the sucker is that grabbed this block - surely not colleagues of directors at Korda Mentha or HWL Ebsworth, who clearly can see the sleazy actions of this rogue franchisor. How about Shane Heal, who's been brought in to clean up the unsavoury image of Baskin Robbins Australian management?

Clearly no one believes Lachlan McIntosh when he signs a six-monthly report that claims "solid profit growth" when the fact is that profit, per share, is about half of last year's stunning failures. Investors continue to ask - "what did we get for the 100 million additional shares that were issued in the last 18 months". The answer "nothing" seems to be the best analysis yet provided.

ALLIED BRANDS (ABQ) SIX MONTH RESULTS PRESS RELEASE MORE EXAGGERATIONS AND CORPORATE SLIGHT-OF-HAND

Allied Brands Ltd (ABQ) announced their six monthly hype campaign with press releases and public interviews that misstate completely the horror contained in the actual numbers.

SIX MONTHLY REPORT

The key facts as advised today by a share broker at the Gold Coast who follows the Allied Brands Circus are as follows -

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2008 Profit per Share - .016/share

2009 Profit per Share - .011/share

A MASSIVE 50% DECLINE IN PROFIT PER SHARE!

The Awesome Water/Plasma TV brand is collapsing as water shortages end, and founder Anthony Underwood has left in disgust. Allied profit on bad debts in this high-risk venture with overpriced plasma TV's could easily wipe out the total group's profit by the end of the year and leave the company with a warehouse full of unsaleable junk.

Baskin Robbins store on store growth, said to be 12%, is actually in decline after 20% price increases required by Allied Brands. This has likely been a direct result of the sacking of the marketing department at the start of the summer season, as well as the product shortages across the system, product shortages that the company has never disclosed to the market but are obvious to people like me who visit our local shop regularly.

Cookie Man is also finding declining product interest as Allied is now in direct competition with many Cookie Man locations with their other brands.

Note Allied Brands is claiming they are going to "segment report" and then they fail to provide key metrics for the brands, just more hyperbole like "grown significantly" and "improved sales". This is typical Allied Brands furphy reporting and it offers no improvement when hype is done brand by brand.

The company claims they can "resurrect" dormant brands. They fail to acknowledge however how competing against their existing brands with new brand names does anything but increase fixed costs. These fixed costs which have impacted all the brands have seen shop lease costs skyrocket as leases come due, with this factor likely to see an acceleration of closed franchise operations and greatly reduced margins on company-owned sites.

Note also the runway costs that the company has been unable to control:

Employee costs - up 50%

Borrowing costs - up 45%

Administration costs - up 265%

and the most shocking factor:

Cash on Hand - down 42%

The company continues to subsist on cash injections from outsiders now the main source being Venture Capital Springtree USA. Without this cash, during the upcoming slow season Allied will be out of cash.

No one here is recommending ABQ to any client.

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Quite a conflict with the rosy scenario signed off by Lachlan McIntosh!