7-Eleven to make “substantial changes” to business model; Gail Kelly appointed to Woolworths South Africa board: Midday Roundup

7-Eleven will overhaul its business model in the wake of serious allegations of employee underpayments and a cover-up by head office.

Founder and chairman Russel Withers said he has met with 7-Eleven franchisees from Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland this week in order to contemplate “substantial changes”.

“Senior franchisees are already collaborating to develop a 7-Eleven franchisee charter, a mandatory commitment beyond the terms of the franchise agreement,” Withers said.

“Further safeguards are in train, including a full review of the profit share model, changes to which will be offered in return for the requirement for all franchisees to utilise the 7-Eleven corporate payroll system, and the introduction of external audit of compliance to meet all obligations under law and the franchise agreement. These initiatives require detailed consideration and will take time, but they will be realised and I give a personal commitment that this will happen in weeks not months.”

Withers’ comments come after SmartCompany revealed how unusual 7-Eleven’s financial arrangements with its franchisees were when compared to leading Australian franchises.

Leading business owners such as Janine Allis, the founder of Boost Juice, and Stan Gordon, the chief executive of the Franchised Food Company, both described the 7-Eleven profit split of 57% to head office and 43% to the store as uncommon.

Gail Kelly appointed to Woolworth South Africa board

The former chief executive of Westpac, Gail Kelly, has been appointed to the board of South African retailer Woolworths Holdings.

Kelly, who announced her retirement from Westpac in November last year, will begin her new role as non-executive director at Woolworths Holdings on October 1.

Fairfax reports the company’s chairman Susan Susman announced the appointment yesterday, indicating Kelly would help spearhead the group’s plans to become a “major Southern Hemisphere retailer of scale”.

Last year, Woolworths Holdings acquired Australian retailer David Jones for $2.1 billion, and recently expanded into New Zealand.

South-African born Kelly became the first female chief executive of a major Australian bank when she stepped into her former role in 2012.

Local shares fall despite positive lead

Local shares fell this morning despite a positive lead from Wall Street, but stocks picked up again as we get closer to midday.

Ric Spooner, chief market analyst at CMC Markets, said this morning he was hopeful local markets would have at least one day’s respite from recent volatility and a chance to take a breather at the end of a frenetic week.

He said opinions were divided over what the US Federal Reserve would do next week and how markets would react.

“While recent stock market volatility is being cited as a reason for the Fed to be cautious about lifting rates, this might not be the case if the Fed came to the view that it was the main cause of this volatility,” Spooner said.

“There’s a possibility the Fed might ultimately provide a market circuit breaker by lifting rates and providing increased certainty about the likely path of monetary tightening.”

The S&P/ASX200 benchmark was down 0.1%, falling 6.6 points to 5088.4 points at 11.54am AEST. On Thursday, the Dow Jones closed up 0.47%, rising 76.83 points to 16330.4 points.