Can the Cream Brand Fund be used to pay for the Brand Fund's administrative and overhead costs?
Cream Franchise · 2025 FDDAnswer from 2025 FDD Document
We may also use the Brand Fund to pay for the Brand Fund's administrative and overhead costs, including the reasonable salaries and benefits of personnel who manage and administer the Brand Fund, and any other expenses that we or our affiliates incur that are related to administering or directing the Brand Fund and its programs. We may modify Brand Fund expenditures at any time.
Neither we nor any of our affiliates has any fiduciary obligation to you or any other person for administering the Brand Fund. We will not make the financial statements of the Brand Fund available for review by franchisees. We may reduce or suspend Brand Fund Contributions and/or operations of the Brand Fund for one or more periods of any length and terminate (and, if terminated, reinstate) the Brand Fund and associated Brand Fund Contributions. If we terminate the Brand Fund, we will spend the remaining balance of the monies in the Brand Fund in accordance with our System Standards until such amounts are exhausted. We may elect to maintain multiple Brand Funds, whether determined by geographic region, country, or otherwise, or consolidate or merge multiple Brand Funds.
Source: Item 11 — FRANCHISOR'S ASSISTANCE, ADVERTISING, COMPUTER SYSTEMS, AND TRAINING (FDD pages 28–35)
What This Means (2025 FDD)
According to Cream's 2025 Franchise Disclosure Document, the Brand Fund can be used to cover its administrative and overhead costs. This includes the salaries and benefits of personnel managing the fund, as well as any other expenses Cream or its affiliates incur while administering or directing the Brand Fund and its programs.
This means that a portion of the mandatory Brand Fund contributions from franchisees could be used to pay for the administrative functions of the fund itself. While this is a common practice, it's important for prospective franchisees to understand how their contributions are being allocated.
Cream retains the right to modify Brand Fund expenditures at any time and does not have any fiduciary duty to franchisees in administering the Brand Fund. Furthermore, Cream will not make the Brand Fund's financial statements available for franchisee review. This lack of transparency means franchisees will not have direct insight into how the Brand Fund is being managed and how their contributions are being spent, so it is important to have trust in Cream's management of the fund.