Under what conditions may Buona elect not to make available standards and specifications to prospective suppliers?

According to Buona's 2025 Franchise Disclosure Document, Buona will establish uniform criteria for approving suppliers and make reasonable efforts to disseminate its standards and specifications to prospective suppliers upon a franchisee's written request. However, Buona may elect not to make available to prospective suppliers the standards and specifications for such formulae or equipment designs deemed by Buona, in its sole discretion, to be confidential.

This means that while Buona aims to help franchisees maintain quality and uniformity by providing supplier standards, they reserve the right to withhold certain sensitive information. This protects Buona's proprietary information, such as specific recipes or unique equipment designs, from being accessed by unauthorized parties.

For a prospective Buona franchisee, this implies that while they can request Buona to share standards and specifications with potential suppliers, Buona has the final say on what information is disclosed. If a franchisee wants to use a specific supplier, they should be aware that the supplier might not receive all the technical details if Buona considers them confidential. It is important for a prospective franchisee to understand the criteria Buona uses to determine confidentiality and how this might affect their choice of suppliers.