Franchises

Concentrated Flavor or Beverage Bases. Parent soft drink companies may provide franchise bottlers with concentrated flavor or beverage bases that contain all of the necessary iagredients with some exceptions. In certain cases, nutritive sweeteners, preservatives, and some nonnutritive sweeteners may be purchased by the franchise bottler or packaged separately. 

Syrup Mixing and Handling. Most parent companies sell concentrated flavor bases to franchise bottlers and allow the bottlers to mix this with their own sweetener and water. This defrays shipping costs and reduces the labor demand on parent company manufacturing. In return, franchise bothers are able to purchase sweeteners from local suppHers at a substantial discount and reduce their overall costs. 

Stimm-gabel, /. tuning fork, -recht, n. suffrage, franchise. 

Electricity typically has been purchased from a single franchised monopolist or municipality. The physical commodity (electrons) and the transmission service were bundled together into one price. The power could be generated (in terms of market share in the... 

For most of the twentieth century, LDCs, either investor owned or municipally owned, have had exclusive rights or franchises to distribute gas in specified geographic areas. Regardless of ownership, LDCs are regulated, either by state public utility/service commissions or local government agencies, to assure adequate gas supply, dependable service and reasonable prices for consumers. 

Electric utilities have historically been franchise monopolies, vertically integi ated from power production through transmission, distribution, and customer service with no competition from other electric utilities. However, in many parts of the countiy, electric and gas utilities do compete. Rates charged by these utilities were determined in a regulatoiy proceeding Electric utilities proposed rates that compensated them for their expenses and allowed them to earn a reasonable return state regulatoiy commissions reviewed and approved the proposals. 

Spice Market s cocktail menu includes a mai tai, the drink invented in 1944 by Victor Trader Vic Bergeron at his restaurant in Oakland, California. But the rum cocktail that is more to the point is rum tamarind punch, a Spice Market original, which extends the tradition of exotic punches popularized by Trader Vic s international franchise in the 1950s with pedigree and surprise. It is two ingredients, aged rum and tamarind nectar, a juice beverage, and it is sensational. 

The 6,500-square-foot Stone Rose is Rande Gerber s. Mr. Gerber is the creator of the Whiskey chain, which was a successful franchise for Ian Schrager s Paramount on West 45 th Street, one of the original boutique hotels. The Whiskey bars are now based in W hotels across the country and in Mexico City. Mr. Gerber is also, famously, Mr. Cindy Crawford. 

This category includes property and franchise taxes and all insurance costs. They depend on the value of the physical plant. They may be assumed to be between 2 and 3% of the cost of building the plant. 

Amortization is basically the same as depreciation except that it applies to intangible property, such as franchises, designs, drawings, or research expenses. Generally straight-line depreciation methods must be used, and only certain items that are amortized can be deducted as expenditures for federal income tax purposes. The value of goodwill, trademarks, and trade names generally cannot be amortized. 

Professional applicators, especially those companies or franchises of any size, rely on their own independent distribution and formulator companies. One such firm, Lesco, distributes lawn care products to apphcators, golf course managers, and other professionals. Their products reach 130,000 such companies and clients worldwide, using innovative distribution networks, including not only traditional service centers but mobile sales and service units. 

The industry includes a large proportion of owner-operators, usually made up of one self-employed, year-round worker who hires seasonal help when the number of customers exceeds a few dozen clients. At the other end of the scale are vast franchises employing thousands of people and serving hundreds of thousands of households. In between are any number of small regional firms. For any operation of more than one owner/worker, moreover, the division of labor is spread between owners, managers, sales staff, and technicians (people who spray the chemicals). 

Surveys of professional lawn chemical applicators were conducted during the summer and fall of 2004. Subjects recruited included participants in Ohio State University s OARDC (Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center)-sponsored turf care professional educational seminars (Northeast Ohio Lawn Care Seminars). Approximately 300 professionals attended these events (held at the Wooster campus of Ohio State) to inform practitioners of best management practices, new technology, and health and safety issues. Participants included those who own and work in the lawn care industry in Ohio, spanning companies from small, one-person owner operated firms to large franchised national outfits. Professionals attend these seminars for purposes of certification participation in the survey was optional. 

Catastrophic incidents—Incidents that have major consequences with unacceptable lasting effects, usually involving loss of human life, severe off-site impacts, and/or loss of community trust with possible loss of franchise to operate. 

Some companies dominate specific fields and the ability to build and defend their franchise within a market segment seems to be one of the important features that single out successful companies. It takes years, if not decades, to build a franchise and, once built, companies will do all they can to maintain their position within a given field. Because they have been in a field for a while, companies would have established relationships with their customers, especially local or international opinion leaders. This group of physicians will work on the early development trials for a new product, will act as experts at the time of regulatory approval, publish papers on the product and discuss its use and its place in management of the disease in question at global conferences. 

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