Corie and Tammy Schwarzl are about to commence legal action in the Federal Court against Supanews Retail Group in an effort to resolve a dispute they are having following the take over of their Supanews franchise at Westfield Tuggerah (NSW) by Supanews Retail Grroup.
The Supanews Retail Group now controls the store and the Schwarzls have not, to my knowledge, been compensated for this.
The Supanews Retail Group was formed late last year in a joint venture with Pacific Equity Partners-owned A&R Whitcoulls Group and the Gaskin family owned Supanews. ARW Group operates the Angus & Robertson bookstore chain (over 170 locations in Australia), the stationery and book retailer Whitcoulls (70 stores in New Zealand) and casual lease retailer Calendar Club.
The planned court case, as prepared by the Schwarzl’s lawyers, will claim unconscionable conduct, misrepresentation and breaches of the franchise agreement against Supanews Retail Group.
The poanned case will also draw attention as to whether the Schwarzls ought to have been appointed franchisees. Corie has cerebral palsy and has been unable to find gainful employment. He and Tammy purchased the business on the understanding that he could valuably contribute buying himself a job effectively.
I mention the impending legal action against Supanews Retail Group here because there may be some who wish to support the case financially.
I am supporting the case because I would like to see the Supanews franchise model put under the scrutiny of the Federal Court. Such scrutiny could bring greater transparency to the benefits or otherwise of the Supanews model for existing newsagents, newsagent suppliers and prospective newsagents.
If you would like to financially support the case, please forward your cheques to their lawyer:
Paul Kean
Macedone Christie Willis – Solari Partners
Lawyers
Suite 1, 16 Gibbs Street
MIRANDA NSW 2228
Ph: (02) 9528.9133
Fax: (02) 9525.6537
Mark,
Australian Franchise law is regarded highly (advanced) in a global sense, it has also been well tested.
The process of, and what is said, during the recruitment phase seems to be a very common cause of relationship breakdown.
There will be a lot of interested observers watching this one its fair to say.
Hi,Ive been closely watching someone whom is a very good franchisee operate and slowly watching her be completely swindled and sucked under financially and nothing can really protect her. The only thing she can do is spend huge amounts of money and hire lawyers to fight these franchisor giants who are protected by extremely lose rules and law and contracts. The problem with my friend is she now has no money to hire a lawyer, she is suffering extreme anxiety in which her chest hurts like a heart attack and this greedy franchisor is safe. Its time its stopped. People need to expose it. Take it to the media. Get power from the numbers of franchisees and force these cowards’ hands to deal fairly. Im exposing this one……
Hi Michael,
Are you suggesting dishonesty on the part of this particular franchisor or on franchisors in general? What sort of exposure do you have planned?
I’d be interested to see where this case goes – do you have any more news, Mark?
Regards,
Matthew.
I don’t know anything about Michael or his post.
On the Supanews case, I’d expect papers to be filed within days.
just wondering what is happening re supanews?
A month has passed when you said you expected papers to filed within days
I have been told that papers have been filed with the court but I stress that I have no evidence of this myself.
then you shouldn’t repeat hearsay on this blog until you have firm evidence that something has or has not occurred as you lose any credibility that you may have believed you had. Anyone can speculate or repeat rumours – that is what your daily women’s magazines thrive on. Your site is very interesting to read but I shake my head at times with your narrow attitude towards Supanews without bothering to provide an unbiased view that should be based upon fact.
gus
Gus I have not repeated hearsay. The original post reported what I knew to be happening based on advice from the lawyer involved. I worded my response carefully to you earlier today because I have not seen the statement of claim myself. Personally, my view is that the Supanews model as it currently stands is dreadful for the franchisees. Mark
would you care to enlighten those franchisees of supanews as to why you believe the current model is dreadful and how it could be improved?
gus
Court documents were filed on the 19th September and have now been executed to the partys involved
The type of case you are discussing is exactly why we have decided to provide an online franchisees forum for Australian franchisees. So that they have a place to “talk to each other”.
http://www.franchiseesforum.com
It’s a “not for profit” undertaking and no franchisor has anything whatsoever to do with it – It’s for franchisees.
There is clearly a need for a place where people can get and give information to enable them to make better decisions and avoid problems.
Who better than past, present or potential franchisees to give that information.
For obvious reasons we will screen posts.
However, we will retain the identity of named franchisors on file to determine whether there is a pattern of “bad behavior”. This may justify a class action and/or reporting to the ACCC etc.
The Forums success will be dependent on the extent and manner of its use. We will try to adapt to the communities needs as much as possible and provide sub-forums etc.
Go on … start talking to each other.
http://www.franchiseesforum.com
Supanews is corrupt; the whole head office is terrible..
Not only do they treat franchisee’s poorly, they treat staff members discustingly as well.
It is not an equal opportunity company; but rather head office targets individual staff members….they should be sued.
What happened with supanews and these people? I cannot find if it went to court.
Julian, My understanding is that the matter did not get to court. This suggests that there was an out of court settlement.