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(FranchisePick.Com) Yesterday, UnhappyFranchisee.com reported that the Cork & Olive Franchise Corp. had folded, that the eight company stores had closed, 40 employees had been abruptly laid off and the Cork & Olive franchisees, including one who opened just a week earlier, abandoned by their franchisor Michael Probst.
According to the post on UnhappyFranchisee.com (Cork & Olive Wine Shop Franchise Owners Left High & Dry), Cork & Olive franchisor claimed he shut down after a New York hedge fund that was going to invest about $3-million in the company insisted it take on controlling interest. Probst refused. He shut down the company and laid off 40 employees as a matter of conscience (?) Said Probst: “It’s unfortunate… but my conscience would not let me have our people continue working when we were short of money and could not support our franchises.”
Unmentioned: Nearly $1M in judgements against Cork & Olive Franchise Corp.& Michael Probst
A comment left on yesterday’s UnhappyFranchisee.com post led to the discovery of a fact left out of the initial newspaper reports. According to the post What REALLY Uncorked Cork & Olive Franchise Corp? , there are nearly $1M in judgements outstanding against Cork & Olive Franchise Corp. and franchisor Michael Probst, including an $897,450.53 judgement owed to creditor CITRUS PARK VENTURE LIMITED PARTNERSHIP by ESTATE WINE GROUP, INC., CORK & OLIVE & MICHAEL PROBST and $ 11,226.56 owed to STATE OF FLORIDA, DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE by CORK & OLIVE FRANCHISE CORP.
Something tells me there’s a lot more to this story than meets the eye… Stay tuned.
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Cork & Olive’s Michael Probst, Deborah Augenti launch new franchise
Have you heard about this? Your input is invited:
http://www.unhappyfranchisee.com/cork-olive-team-launches-solera-wine-franchise-beware/
More stories and lots of discussion about Cork & Olive, Michael Probst & related craziness is available on UnhappyFranchisee.com:
http://www.unhappyfranchisee.com/cork-olive-overview-blogliography/
Theyt would certainly be interested in learning about Michael Probst’s latest activities.
Interesting. I’ve being following the industry in the last 5 years. C&O appeared to me as a good biz concept. Then all this debacle. A closed friend was “victimized” by them; Corporate America, she said to me. Now, the last month I found on Craiglist an add of a biz looking for investors in a Wholesale Wine Franchise. I found out that Michael Probst is the head of this new venture branded as “Solera Distributors / http://www.soleradistributors.net” . I did contacted the DM and asked him about their conection with the Solera Imports Co. ; openly this person related his biz with the Importers which holds a well gained reputation in the industry for the last 20 years or so. I also, contacted Solera Imports and they don’t have a clue about it. What do you think guys? … the concept of “free enterprise USA” is again challenged ?
Cheers
1226 days ago
[...] Cork & Olive Franchise Corp. Collapse: What’s the REAL Story? June 6th, 2008 [...]
I walked out of C&O in June 07 after working there only 2 months. I warned an employee at the Valrico store that she should “get out now” and when Stephanie heard this she threatened to sue me. I wrote the self appointed Director of Operations who is really just a bartender a nasty letter about how she continues to lie to people, even after some paychecks BOUNCED! People who continued to work there after June 07 were really stupid. It was all over way back then. I actually went to work for the guy who kept trying to get paid for the floors installed in the stores! What a joke.
regarding paycheck yes 1 person got paid stephanie nelson she paid herself and for 2 weeks vacation to b4 leaving town. sweet eh? ask her oh wait she will lie again bout that 2. ck the books they dont lie. well thats a lie 2. but wait there is a new accountant and she doesnt lie so she would tell the truth. I WANT PAID THIS ISN’T FAIR MICHAEL AND STEPHANIE!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yikes…..all this is so ugly…but I have to agree and say that I am not surprised, due to the way the owners of C&O ran the stores and managed their employees…it was just bad business!!!
I worked at the Brandon store, which, as far as I knew, was one of the better-performing stores (I also used to work at the Valrico store a couple of years ago).
My main beef is that I got ripped off for my last paycheck. Did anyone get paid for the last week?
for some odd reason… the last posting from WANDA doesn’t seem to be questions WANDA would ask… nor her writing… why do I think it could possible be Ms. nelson inquiring from CA or is it Mexico by now? hmm.
wanda… far as I know the AC was shut off by Ms. Nelson the same day the corp office shut down-another smart move of hers! NOT. the wine has probably turned to vinegar now even though most of it was vinegar to begin with. I wonder how many bottles have blown their corks! LOL The only stores that the inventory was removed out of was st. Pete – since we unfortunately lost the lease yeah whatever it’s called didn’t pay the rent yet again! thanks for the lie once again Ms. Nelson! You never gave any of your employees credit for having a brain and thought you were able to patronize them yet again BUT we knew better! actually it was YOU STEPHANIE who didnt have a brain or you would have started being an honest citizen from day one and not listen to your sugardaddy! i also believe the wine is “owned’ by the investors of the particular stores. Word has it that early this week we will know if it’s chapter 11 or 7 and without a doubt it will be chapter 7 cuz mikey doesn’t have any money to open any stores let alone have funds for workers comp or liability insurance! finally!!! he can’t be a wolf in sheeps clothing anymore!
Does anyone know if the closed corp. stores has air conditioning? The reason I asked is if the wine is still in the stores it must be cooked by now. Did anyone liquidate the stock? Did Rainer remove the wine from the stores? Are the franchisees entitled to the wine?
Just wondering…
Any paper work you may still have please keep it. Probst and Plasto woman advertised through the mail to sell franchises- mail fraud. Also Probst called people for money if they didn’t want to purchase a franchise- FBI here we come
Has anyone thought that when things starts getting a little rougher that Mr. Probst might decide to leave the country? and then he might be home free without any obligations whatsoever??? Does anyone know of a way to make sure that he cannot leave? Do the airlines needs to be alerted or whom ever can be contacted so this cannot happen??? ANY IDEAS??? We cannot allow him to just pick up and leave!
Remember Scott from St. Pete, he was fired because he had paid for health insurance and then found out the insurance wasn’t being paid by corp. He complained and then was fired.
Just googling around and found all these comments. Talk about bad blood!
Check out the conversation at http://www.UnhappyFranchisee.com for worse blood than this…
And what slime he is!
you are so good, thank you for that information. cons everywhere!
actually… Stull has been with Probst from the beginning of C and O
Just googling around and found all these comments. Talk about bad blood! I worked for these guys even though I knew the writing was on the wall. It’s not just the 40 of us who got screwed, it’s all the customers he let down. If Michael had an ounce of integrity he would have taken the New York money and held the company together. We all knew about the ego, but this was just the final stupid business move among many. By the way, the one way to go after money owed to you by a business that has filed for bankruptcy is to go after the owner of that business directly. Probably not worth the legal expense for most of us, but it would just be fun to see Michael’s latest expensive car being towed out of his driveway!
Yes, I am sure it is alright for an attorney to enter into a business agreement with a company. But when that attorney knows what Probst was doing and still continued to “work” for him. That is until I said I would be bringing this out to all that would listen. Then the attorney of record changed to Stull.