An Open Letter to Seidler Equity Partners
Wednesday, March 15, 2023, 11:45 AM
Sent to – ‘[email protected]’
A piece of advice…
Dear Peter and Robert Seidler, Eric Kutsenda, and Leonard Lee,
I will speak to you not on behalf of the AAFD but as an individual who has been in the franchising space for my entire career.
Without questioning the due diligence you did on “Unleashed Brands,” you, under your current management, are entangled in the worst possible outcome that will undoubtedly get far worse before it gets better.
Regardless of what you’re being told by those you invested in, they’re burning through cash, isolating the brands as pariahs.
DLAPiper and the cadre of lawyers attempting to defend the indefensible are the only people with huge smiles as they rape the funds earmarked for growth and development to line their pockets.
I take absolutely no pleasure in saying this to you if it should reach you at all, but what you need to do is to use your 51% stake in the company to terminate, buy out, and release your management at Unleashed, sit at the table with your Franchisees, settle this thing, and hit the reset button. Or either pick up the pieces, take the hit, and get out as this company implodes.
You’re in the business of providing at least some children’s products, and it seemed a perfect pairing. But, unfortunately, having invested in this mess, you’re now heavily associated with your management’s disgraceful and inappropriate behaviors by association.
Ultimately, this will not bode well for your other investments and brands.
In the following days, stories will be printed and distributed to target Seidler as the key player and the only investors who can resolve and “fix” what’s happening here.
I dare say that if those stories appear, they will very likely be true. It’s up to you to clean this up.
I have no horse in this race except that of a concerned Franchisee Advocate who is relentless in my pursuit of fair and equitable franchising standards.
As the legal issues pile up and the lawsuits continue to come your way, you can, and probably must, take the final step in using your resources and agreements to reverse the damage, publicly and upfront.
You may very well be the heroes in this awful saga of mismanaged and terrible injury to your brands and company.
Written in the hope that this gets to you and that you consider what I’ve put before you.
With sincerest regards,
Kim G. Perrotta
