The Original SoupMan and Cold Stone Creamery Team Up

The Original Soupman Franchisor has used deception to lure the Innocent into investing in a business model that was broken from the beginning. When the Soupman franchise started 2 yrs ago, they lured the public to buy into a Co-Brand Scheme with Cremalita Ice Cream...high end and low fat ice cream that would support the Soupman Operators during the warmer months.. As soon as the Franchisees overspent Hundreds of Thousands of $$ to open their stores (the initial investment is lowballed in the UFOC by hundreds of thousands of $$). the Soupman Franchisor abandoned the Co-Brand with Cremalita...leaving Franchisees with a business that was not viable but that was supposed to provide warm weather sales through the Cremalita Ice Cream line. Additionally, the issues with Soupman's franchisor are much deeper than it appears.
1. The company is undercapitalized. An investment bank retained to raise capital for the franchisor had discontinued its efforts after having received commitments for approximately 25% of the targeted capital. This was a result of the poor operating results of the company and its underlying franchisees.
2. The company has been seeking an acquiror of its operations. Throughout this effort the issues and challenges brought to the attention of the company by its franchisees have been quietly addressed but none of the problems have been resolved.
3. The misrepresentations made by the franchisor to induce franchisees to acquire territories and open up an Original Soupman outlet are many: (a) understatement of food costs; (b) co-branding with Cremalita ice cream to balance overall sales in warm months was abandoned soon after first 12 stores opened for business; (c) mandated use of cups and bowls that are 25% larger than purported serving portions, resulting in giving away 25% more product than consumer was paying for and at the same time causing an increase in purchases of product from the company to replenish inventory.

The primary Goomba who controls Soupman through bully tactics and fear has a past similar to what we seeing with the downfall of Soupman...he caused a Chicken Franchise, which by the way, is currently part of Kahala, to fail after it was uncovered that certain unlawful practices were implemented where $$ was funneled somewhere where ithey were not supposed to go. The Chicken Franchisees and investors lost Big $$, the Goomba was prosecuted and now is doing a similar scam with Soupman. What a shame, the Soup is Great, the Franchisees, for the most part, are honest and hard working. Many Soupman Franchisees have lost their homes and life savings. All at the fault of yet another Deceptive group of Individuals who have total disregard for ethics and morality.

2007-10-19 No Soup for Me