A photo of a Michel's Patisserie cake taken by an RFG franchisee. Source: supplied.
Former Michel’s Patisserie store owner Robert Verni never signed up to be a delivery driver, but after Retail Food Group started forcing him to decorate frozen cakes he and other franchisees felt they had no choice.
Shortages across Michel’s store network were forcing franchisees to drive hundreds of kilometres just to make sure they could fulfil orders for birthday and wedding cakes.
“I was travelling from the Gold Coast to Brisbane just to grab cakes,” Mr Verni told The New Daily. “Our costs went through the roof.”
Verni is one of 130 former and current franchisees that filed a class action against Michel’s Patisserie owner Retail Food Group (RFG) on Tuesday, alleging the company sent its store owners to the wall under cost-cutting measures that forced them to sell “disgusting” frozen foods.
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