Franchise Law

Members of Freeths’ dedicated franchise team have been advising household name brands in relation to their franchise strategies and operations for years. Freeths is perhaps best known for supporting brands and multi-site master franchise and area developer clients grow their businesses through franchising. Freeths refers to this as the “Third Way”.

For decades captains of industry faced with the need to grow their businesses have adopted a binary approach – grow organically or through mergers and acquisitions. There are pros and cons to both of these methods. Organic Growth gives the greatest amount of control but it is slow and resource heavy. Acquisitive growth, while having the immediate attraction of adding new locations and additional revenues, can also be a risky proposition.

But there is also a Third Way. Balancing the need for growth with the need to mitigate some of these corporate risks often leads businesses that have not previously been franchised to consider whether franchising can give them the opportunity for growth they are looking for. Franchising is a well-established and proven way of growing your business, whether you are an existing franchisor or not.  And for business operators who want to quickly establish a significant portfolio business of major brands becoming a master licensee gives you instant access to decades of research and development and an attractive brand with an existing market presence/

Freeths provides comprehensive strategic and legal advice to brands, master licensees and area developers advising on the development of franchise strategies to run alongside corporately owned operations, preparing and reviewing franchise documentation, advising on the sale or purchase of networks of franchised businesses and helping resolve disputes. Freeths has a particular expertise advising on international expansion through the use of franchising.

For our franchisor and multi-unit master franchisee or area developer clients our services include:

• Preparation of non-disclosure agreements and franchiser heads of terms.
• A comprehensive purpose built franchise toolkit consisting of a modular suite of franchise documents to support the efficient roll-out of any franchise strategy from direct single unit franchises to large multi-unit master franchise or area developer models and international franchise joint ventures.
• Trade mark licenses and comprehensive trade mark portfolio management services.
• Intellectual property infringement claims and dispute resolution advice.
• Advice relating to the sale and purchase of franchise businesses from franchising re-sales to multi-million pound transactions involving multi-site, muti-jurisdictional businesses.
• Real estate advice in connection with the leases and planning issue relating to finding, fitting-out and opening new operating sites.
• International expansion.

For franchisees, we co-counsel with another specialist franchisee law firm that offers competitively priced franchise agreement reviews, preparation of side letter to franchise agreements and other services often required by franchisees.

Freeths is an Advisor Member of the British Franchise Association