Bouris Works His Wizardry To Calm Angry Franchisees

The Australian:

Hostile, very hostile,” was how one Wizard franchisee saw the talks with GE Money management as he went into a meeting of branch owners in Sydney yesterday morning.

Franchisees have been upset about the increasingly tough conditions imposed on them by GE, the Wizard franchise owner and their primary loan financier, since the global credit crunch descended last year.

And amid complaints about a lack of consultation by management, they found out from The Australian this week that GE was reviewing their ownership and that Wizard founder and chairman Mark Bouris was planning to buy back the business.

But by the time a hundred or so attendees filed out of the conference room at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Parramatta two hours later, the owners were remarkably subdued.

One confessed that in the meeting, they had been told not to talk to reporters waiting outside.
Bouris, the tanned, mellifluous public face of Wizard, had charmed or otherwise secured their renewed loyalty.

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