The Australian fast-food firm that used to be very popular and concentrated on gourmet potato meals is now out of business. This has left many dissatisfied franchisees and a lot of debt.
The management company, which was situated in Adelaide, went out of business because it couldn’t pay off a debt of more than $151,000. The Australian Taxation Office started a lawsuit to wind it up.
During a brief court session on Friday that lasted less than two minutes, Phil Robinson of Deloitte, a liquidator, took care of the legal dissolution of the management business.
Jess Davis, who used to be Miss Universe Australia, was the only person in charge of this group. She and her husband, Tyson Hoffmann, who used to play for the Adelaide 36ers in the NBL, started the chain together.
Franchisees, who had already said how hard it was for them to earn money with their businesses, are quite concerned about the crash. Some others had to sell their homes to cover their rising losses, according to reports.
and a few other people were contemplating about suing the major firm. The company, which is known for its healthful potato-based products, has already lost a lot of business.
In February, the firm closed its last Gold Coast locations in Queensland. There were only four franchisees remained open by June of this year, down from a peak of thirteen.
A secret email that had been found earlier said that Jess Davis had departed her post as co-CEO in June, which made things even more confusing. In the email, Davis said that starting the company was a “wild ride” that led them from baking their first potato to developing a “Australian-wide spud empire.”
It took five years to create the company from the ground up. Hoffmann stayed the only CEO, and Davis became the “head of brand.” The founders spent most of the year driving around the country in a food truck to promote the brand, even though there were several problems with the franchise network.
Davis also got into a lot of difficulty earlier this year when he asked for $50,000 on Instagram to help pay for another $4 million tropical resort project. They are buying a piece of land on the seashore that is 100 hectares big.
On the Tongan island of Nomuka, she and Hoffmann aim to develop “Oseni,” an eco-resort with 30 luxury homes and a seaplane station for guests.
This made former franchisees who were already upset about their losses even furious. A spokeswoman for the companies who were hurt delivered a stern warning to anyone who might wish to invest: stay away from the fast-food chain and the planned resort.
“The authorities need to pay close attention to what they’re doing,” the spokeswoman stated. They went on to say, “We want to come forward so that no one else buys into [the brand] or puts money into their upcoming trips and resort building.”
The whistleblower alleged that Davis and Hoffmann “hung out” franchisees by not giving them the necessary training or help and not responding when big problems came up. They further said that Hoffmann routinely solicited franchise owners who were having trouble for royalties, even though he was apparently late on payments to suppliers and creditors.
“We put in money and lost our time, health, mental state, and family,” the ex-franchisee stated. “We even had to borrow money to save our home by paying for a failing business… It would be against the law to put someone else in this situation, like a lot of the other franchisees who have lost everything, including their houses and jobs.
Hoffmann has remarked before that each store is responsible for its own financial obligations to suppliers. This was in response to concerns from franchisees. He said that the company was committed to “transparency, franchisee success, and the strength of our brand.”
Hoffmann said that a company’s success is not always the same. Hoffmann noted that the corporation felt “deeply” about its franchisees and wanted them to do well. However, he also said that each franchisee’s performance depended on “business management, effort, and execution,” which may be affected by personal concerns.
The Mr. Potato management company is going out of business, its franchisees are losing a lot of money, and its owners are still trying to create a tropical island resort, even though they say this.
