Former Kumon Franchisee Cries Foul Over Center Closing

NorthJersey.com:

A former franchisee of Teaneck-based Kumon North America Inc. claims the after-school teaching chain improperly terminated the franchise she had worked to build over nearly a decade.

Maria Wachtel says she took over an unsuccessful Kumon franchise in New Windsor, N.Y., in 2002 and turned it into a thriving center worth $500,000, moving it to a better location in Newburgh in the process.

But seven months after she signed a five-year extension of her franchise agreement in October 2010, Wachtel said, she was summoned to Kumon’s headquarters and informed her contract was being terminated.

Wachtel, who ran the center through a company called Access Today Inc., says she was given six months to close or sell the franchise. Because she could not sell it in such a short time, the suit says, she had to close it.