KUMON: Franchisee Association Pushes for Change
November 25, 2009
Burger King owners aren’t the only franchisees pushing for change.
Kumon franchise owners have voiced concerns here (as well as on Facebook and Twitter) that the international education franchisor is prioritizing systemwide expansion over the success of its franchise owners. While the group was not responsible for the initial comments, the President of the International Association of Kumon Franchisees has acknowledged that these comments have resulted from “very challenging and high-stress” internal tensions within the Kumon franchise community.
In an earlier post about the Kumon franchise complaints, Concerned Owner complained that Kumon’s reliance on incomplete demographic data has led the corporation to “overestimate their market potential” and to create an “unjustified expansion plan.” Concerned Owner contends that franchise owners, especially in saturated markets such as New York, New Jersey & Connecticut, are being packed in to the point of competing with one another and cannibalizing sales.
Commenter Joe Cack added that while the franchise owners are being forced into discounting to remain competitive, the franchisor is reaping a whopping 30% royalty off top line sales, regardless of franchisee profitability.
Nicole, the president of the International Association of Kumon Franchisees, added this statement to the post:
The concerns expressed here come out of a very challenging and high-stress situation which we as the International Association of Kumon Franchisees are doing our utmost to address.
We are in constant negotiations with the high-level employees of Kumon North America on many topics to do with our franchise, and, while we know it will be a long process to address all the issues, we are encouraged that considerable progress is being made in real consultation on many fronts.
The great strength of franchisees in New Jersey is that they are working together in very constructive ways on things like profitability studies to analyse how to improve their businesses, marketing studies to grow their centres better and other initiatives to address their situation.
They have the highest representation of association membership (over 80%) and have demonstrated in a recent meeting with the CEO of Kumon North America a very admirable professionalism and creativity in moving the Kumon Vision forward.
I am proud to support these franchisees and others throughout North America in their efforts to use their considerable skills and areas of expertise to develop and maintain their Kumon franchises and to have a positive impact on the Kumon North American system as a whole.
Best wishes,
Nicole,
President, International Association of Kumon Franchisees.
Franchise owners organize into independent franchisee associations in order to present their opinions, requests and sometimes demands to their franchisor. If franchisees don’t feel their concerns are being taken seriously or adequately addressed, they will often take to voicing them on the Internet. If franchisee concerns are further ignored, the dispute can even result in litigation and a public relations debacle, as seen by the recent Burger King dispute.
It will be interesting to see whether international franchisor Kumon and its U.S. franchisees can work out their differences amicably.
ARE YOU FAMILIAR WITH KUMON? WHAT DO YOU THINK? SHARE A COMMENT BELOW.
logo: Kumon
As with any issue, some parties are more affected than others. In the case of Kumon overexpansion, there is an obvious issue in the North East. People will continue to speak out unless real change occurs. The best solution will take franchisor and franchisee goals into account. The current expansion plan is slated mainly towards Kumon corporate goals. Hopefully, when people speak out things will change for the better.
Obviously the IAKF has now taken notice.
The IAKF needs to actually use their “power”. Right now it just seems like an arm of Kumon corporate.
Why can’t kumon create a demand before overexpanding. Their markeing funds are all locked up in a safe in Caymen islands and they want the poor intructors to do all the marketing for them
Thanks to Attorney Andy Selden, President Nicole Smith, and other IAKF Board members for taking the lead and spending hours of time and effort to help Kumon Franchisees realize that they MUST have a united voice for Kumon North America to listen to our protests for a FAIR Franchise Agreement.
There IS more power in a united voice. All Kumon Franchisees must back our Franchisee Organization, International Association of Kumon Franchisees, to have their voice heard at KNA Corporate office.
Over saturation and cannibalism is what is beginning to happen in Los Angeles and the rest of California, with the many new green dots (prospective centers) placed too close to established centers that are trying to expand to be profitable enough to have a living wage (net income). It takes over 200 students subjects to be profitable enough to earn a modest living.
With a weak economy, it is suicide for Kumon to encroach on established centers to undermine their efforts to expand. KNA is only thinking of themself, not the hand that feeds them, the successful Franchisee!
Thanks so much, Joan. I am very impressed with the efforts you and other franchisees are making with our IAKF chapter in Southern California, another key area where Kumon North America is trying to expand aggressively. As you know, you have our full support and I look forward to the upcoming meetings and dialogue.
John, BG, GL, the IAKF has been deeply involved in helping the franchisees to voice their concerns to the CEO since the inception of our association.
Intensively, we have been working closely with the US East Chapter and the California chapters since August when we first began to establish those chapters. As well, we have set up chapters in Greater Toronto and Greater Vancouver, which are the two primary expansion areas in Canada. These days I am on the phone with the head of Kumon Canada nearly every week on one issue or another.
We are doing our utmost. Of course, the more we build our membership, the more our influence will be, and with the rapid increase that has been happening over the past year and which will continue to take off as we establish another 5-10 chapters in 2010, I know that our negotiations with KNA will be more and more fruitful.
It is certainly our intention to resolve things amicably with KNA. Litigation is lose-lose. We are all about win-win, and as we build trust week by week with different managers within Kumon, we get closer to our goal all the time.
Best wishes,
Nicole,
President, International Association of Kumon Franchisees, NA
RE: Kumon peeps on Twitter
@unhappyz – This website’s twitter ID
@djpaboro – David Joseph’s Twitter ID
@leftydknyc – Kumon NA VP Franchising
List of Kumon employees, franchisees, etc. Twitter IDs:
http://twitter.com/UnhappyZ/kumon-franchise/members
To be added to the list, follow @unhappyz here or leave your ID in a comment:
http://twitter.com/UnhappyZ
@IAKFpresident – Nicole Smith’s twitter ID
Potential Fall Out from Franchisee Encroachment http://djpaboro.wordpress.com/
Thanks, DJ, I have responded over here
http://www.unhappyfranchisee.com/kumon-franchise-owner-complains-of-overexpansion/#comment-18293