Is Bens Soft Pretzels required to maintain an advertising fund?

chise Agreement, Section 6C).

We will administer an advertising and marketing fund (the "Advertising Fund") for the advertising and marketing programs as we may deem necessary or appropriate. You must contribute to the Advertising Fund up to 4% (currently 1.5%) of the Gross Sales of your Store, as determined by us, payable together with the Royalty Fee due under the Franchise Agreement. The Advertising Fund Fee is separate from any local marketing requirements. We have the right to increase the Advertising Fund Fee up to 4% upon 90 days' advance written notice, although if we increase the Advertising Fund Fee to 3% or 4% we will reduce the local advertising requirements accordingly such that your total required marketing expenditure does not exceed 4% of Gross Sales.

We will direct all advertising and marketing programs financed by the Advertising Fund, with sole discretion over the creative concepts, materials and endorsements used, and the geographic, market and media placement and allocation. Currently the sources of our marketing and advertising programs are our in-house personnel and an external marketing firm. The Advertising Fund may be used to pay the costs of preparing advertising materials and administering national, regional and local advertising programs and public relations activities including creating direct mail and media materials which may include print, television, radio and billboards, formulating advertising and marketing programs, developing and maintaining website and internet based advertising and marketing programs, intranet development and ongoing operation, toll-free locator services, employing advertising agencies, providing brochures and other advertising and marketing materials, and participating in national or regional trade shows.

The Advertising Fund will be accounted for separately from our other funds and will not be used to defray any of our general operating expenses, except for reasonable salaries, administrative costs and overhead as we may incur in activities reasonably related to the administration of the Advertising Fund and its advertising and marketing programs including conducting market research, preparing advertising and marketing materials and collecting and accounting for contributions to the Advertising Fund. We may spend in any fiscal year an amount greater or less than the aggregate contribution of all stores to the Advertising Fund in that year and the Advertising Fund may borrow from us or other lenders to cover deficits of the Advertising Fund or cause the Advertising Fund to invest any surplus for future use by the Advertising Fund. A report of receipts and disbursements of the Advertising Fund, which may be audited, will be prepared annually by us and will be furnished to you upon written request. Currently. The Advertising Fund is not audited.

We will have the right to cause the Advertising Fund to be incorporated or operated through an entity separate from us at the time as we deem appropriate, and the entity will have the same rights and duties as we do. Although we will endeavor to utilize the Advertising Fund to develop advertising and marketing materials and programs, and to place advertising that will benefit all stores, we undertake no obligation to ensure that expenditures by the Advertising Fund in or affecting any geographic area are proportionate or equivalent to the contributions to the Advertising Fund by stores operating in that geographic area or that any store will benefit directly or in proportion to its contribution to the Advertising Fund from the development of advertising and marketing materials or the placement of advertising.

We will have the right to suspend contributions to and operation of the Advertising Fund for one or more periods that we determine to be appropriate and the right to terminate the Advertising Fund upon 30 days written notice to you. All unspent monies on the date of termination will be distributed to us, our affiliates and our franchisees in proportion to their respective contributions to the Advertising Fund during the preceding 12 month period. We will have the right to reinstate the Advertising Fund upon the same terms and conditions set forth in the Franchise Agreement upon 30 days prior written notice to you.

Except for two units owned by one of the owners of the franchisor, the stores owned by us or companies related to us by common ownership contribute on the same basis to the Advertising Fund as franchisees.

For the year ending December 31, 2024, the Advertising Fund was spent as follows: 1.58% on production, 23.66% on media placement, 29.72% on administrative expenses and 6.54% on other uses (dues, subscriptions, meals, entertainment, meetings, training, supplies, travel and lodging). Currently, we do not use any part of the Advertising Fund for uses principally to solicit new franchise sales.

We may, at our option, maintain one or more telephone numbers for the Store and, if we do maintain this number(s), you will be authorized and required to use this number(s) during the term of the Franchise Agreement. You must acknowledge that we have the sole rights to and interest in all these telephone number(s). We will notify you monthly of the cost of the telephone service and you must, within five days of your receipt of this bill, reimburse us for our costs in maintaining telephone numbers for the Store. In the event that you do not so reimburse us, we may, at our option, instruct the telephone service provider to terminate or transfer this telephone number(s) to us or our designee.

Source: Item 11 — FRANCHISOR'S ASSISTANCE, ADVERTISING, COMPUTER SYSTEMS, AND TRAINING (FDD pages 23–30)