The Situation: We worked closely with an Australia-wide business that provided an innovative and unique product for the home renovation and construction industries to develop over thirty franchise agreements for locations across Australia.

The work involved detailed discussions with the franchisor, via their head office in Queensland, to ensure all franchise agreements contained solid provisions regarding the operation of the franchise, specific to each location. The agreements contained strong clauses regarding the obligations of franchisee regarding business operations and marketing activities, initial and ongoing investments arrangements, renewal conditions, termination options and performance quality expectations.

We ensured the terms regarding the function of the marketing fund were detailed and meet the stringent requirements of the franchisor, while also ensuring the franchisor was aware, and met, all of its obligations under the Franchising Code of Conduct, including ensuring each potential franchisor had received independent legal, business and accounting advices prior to entering into the franchise agreement.

Once final documents were supplied to the prospective franchisees, we worked with the franchisor to adapt the documentation to meet the specific requests of each franchisee, from simple changes, such as a change of address, to more complex changes, such as fine-tuning specific clauses, all within the 14-day period.

The Result: A win for our client. We prepared solid franchise agreements that accurately reflected the franchisor’s business operations and marketing activities, while providing a level of protection for the franchisor’s brand image.

Despite last minute changes, we were able to finalise all documentation within the 14-day period, ensuring all potential franchisees were able to make real-time decisions regarding the execution of their franchise agreements.

As every case is different, the cases reported here cannot be taken as an indication of a similar outcome being likely in your case, and these reports are not to be taken as legal advice about your particular situation.