For what purposes can Hardees use the amounts received from approved suppliers?
Hardees Franchise · 2025 FDDAnswer from 2025 FDD Document
We and our affiliates may receive fees, payments, commissions, field-of-use license royalties or other consideration from approved suppliers based on sales to franchisees, from promotional allowances and volume discounts. We and our affiliates may use all amounts received from approved suppliers, distributors or third parties, whether or not based on your and/or other franchisees' actual or prospective dealings with them, without restriction for any purposes we or our affiliates deem appropriate. Finally, we and our affiliates provide supply chain, quality assurance, distribution and logistics services for the franchise system. These services include negotiating with suppliers and distributors who will sell and
distribute goods to our franchisees, designating one or more distributors to service our franchisees, and managing distribution logistics. As a result, we and our affiliates reserve the right to recover our costs related to performing these services by collecting a per-case distribution fee for all cases sold by an approved supplier to our franchisees and from other logistics-related programs.
Source: Item 8 — Restrictions on Sources of Products and Services (FDD pages 39–42)
What This Means (2025 FDD)
According to Hardees's 2025 Franchise Disclosure Document, Hardees and its affiliates have broad discretion over the use of funds received from approved suppliers, distributors, or third parties. These funds can originate from franchisee sales, promotional allowances, or volume discounts.
Hardees is not restricted in how it uses these amounts and can allocate them for any purposes that Hardees or its affiliates deem appropriate. This includes using the funds regardless of whether they are directly related to a franchisee's dealings with the suppliers.
Hardees also provides supply chain, quality assurance, distribution, and logistics services for the franchise system. To recover the costs associated with these services, Hardees reserves the right to collect a per-case distribution fee on all cases sold by approved suppliers to franchisees and from other logistics-related programs. This means that a portion of the cost of goods sold to franchisees may be used to offset Hardees's operational expenses in managing the supply chain.