Wendy’s Marketing Execs About To Find Out “How It’s Playing In Peoria”

From the newly redesigned Ad Age:

Fed up with more than a year of sales declines and what it sees as a lack of voice in marketing, a group of powerful Wendy’s franchisees have formed an independent organization to get management’s attention.

The move is a stunner at a chain long the gold standard for franchisee relations. But its relationship with owner-operators has soured along with sales, leading a full 13% of its system — or 760 restaurants — to strike out on their own. The dissidents include some of the company’s largest operators, who have set up shop as the Old Fashioned Franchisee Association, which plans to meet later this month.
“We deserve to be heard when decisions are made which directly impact the future of Wendy’s,” said Dave Norman, chief financial officer and general council for DavCo, Wendy’s largest franchisee and spokesman for the new association. Citing an unprecedented decline in same-store sales throughout Wendy’s system, he said “We need a strong unified voice. We need franchisees to have a seat at the table. We’re not here to attack Wendy’s. We’re here to ask that Wendy’s simply engage and listen.”