Is Chatime Franchise, LLC required to include any predecessor in Item 1 of the FDD?
Chatime Franchise · 2025 FDDAnswer from 2025 FDD Document
We are a Delaware limited liability company organized on July 12, 2022. Our principal place of business is 8 The Green, Suite A, Dover, DE 19901. We currently conduct business under our organizational name "Chatime Franchise LLC" and the marks "Chatime® ," "Chatime
®", " ® ", " ® ", " " and "Duan Chun Zhen." We do not conduct business or intend to do business under any other names. We have no predecessor required to be included in this Item 1.
Source: Item 1 — The Franchisor, and Any Parents, Predecessors, and Affiliates (FDD pages 6–9)
What This Means (2025 FDD)
According to Chatime's 2025 Franchise Disclosure Document, Chatime Franchise, LLC is not required to include any predecessor in Item 1. The document explicitly states that Chatime has no predecessor required to be included in Item 1.
Item 1 of the FDD provides information about the franchisor, including its business name, principal place of business, and organizational structure. It also covers whether the franchisor has any predecessors that would need to be disclosed. A predecessor is a prior business entity that transferred a substantial portion of its assets or business operations to the current franchisor.
This indicates that Chatime Franchise, LLC is a relatively new entity or has not acquired a significant portion of its business from another company within the last 10 years. However, the FDD also mentions Chatime USA, LLC, an affiliate that offered Chatime franchises from February 2014 to June 2022. While Chatime USA is not listed as a predecessor requiring disclosure in Item 1, prospective franchisees may want to understand the relationship between Chatime Franchise, LLC and Chatime USA, LLC, and why the latter is not considered a predecessor.