I am an sda for pepperidge farm. I subcontract to deliver bread in the Denver, Co. Area for them. Pepperidge farm will not invest enough money in this market to sustain a livable income. We as a group have seen our routes depleted, our shelf-space shrunk, our profits dwindled, and our leadership cut.
The going rate (as established by PF for a bread route) is a 15:1 ratio. Recently a route, that was vacant for 2 yrs was sold by the company for a discount of almost 40%. The person buying the route worked for about 2 months and gave the route back to PF. He lost money and walked away from the route... It was un sustainable.
We have at least 4 routes in the Denver metro area that have been on the market for over a yr. Again these are for sale for the above reasons.
The fact is that these routes are becoming less valuable, and more expensive to operate, ie. Our stale allowences have been drastically cut, our own older bread is no longer available to us, fuel has gone up, and as a result some SDA's owe money to the company after the quarterly numbers appear. They (PF) has all the control. They are succesful back in the northeast where they run a 9 or 10 % market share because of advertizing and promotional dollars.in Denver we have dropped from a 4.4% market share to a 3.9% market share in the last 4 quarters. Can we legally make this company responsible for the loss of market share and protect our investments?
There blanket statement when you purchase a route and all over their websites is "In business for yourself not by yourself" This is an utter LIE! Will you help?
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