Some Nothing Bundt Cakes operators are fighting back after the brand released a new system-wide mandate to open on Sunday.
Since its founding in 1997, the chain has allowed operators to close on Sundays. That changed in early 2024. Nothing Bundt Cake’s management team rolled out several changes at in-person regional meetings, including mandating that operators open on Sundays.
After emotional pushback from some franchisees — particularly those who joined the brand because being closed on Sunday was an option — Nothing Bundt Cakes delayed its Sunday rule until this year. By the week of January 27 to February 2 (Sunday) at the latest, stores must be open at least 62 hours per week, including at least five peak hours on Sundays.
The franchisor updated its franchise agreements to include the mandate.
All exemption requests have been rejected so far. The new rule states that Nothing Bundt Cakes will not consider an exception until six months after a store has been open on Sunday, at which time the request will be evaluated based on compliance, participation in all marketing channels, efforts to increase performance and overall standing. These decisions will be made at the Company’s discretion based on sales and marketing data.
Nothing Bundt Cakes was sold to Levin Leichtman Capital Partners in 2016. Co-founder Dena Tripp retained a significant ownership stake while co-founder Debbie Shwetz moved on. The concept was later purchased by Roark Capital in 2021 and Tripp left the business. Roark also owns Subway, Inspire Brands and GoTo Foods.
A Utah state official worked with franchisees to craft a bill that protected religious freedom. On New Year’s Day, state representative Kenneth Ivory announced new legislation that would ensure that franchisees cannot be forced to operate on Sundays unless the condition was expressly negotiated and included in the original franchise agreement.
“Like any Utah business that operates seven days a week, we will follow this legislation closely,” Nothing Bundt Cake’s corporate team said in a statement.
Utah-based franchisee Brad Berrett signed a franchise agreement to open in West Bountiful, Utah, in February 2019, then opened in November 2019. He was told by management and Tripp that Sunday is optional. A few years later, he signed a deal to open in Salt Lake City and opened that store in January 2023. He sold the West Bountiful unit to his niece and her husband.
Berrett says he never would have signed the franchise agreements if the stores had to be open on Sunday. He estimates that about three-quarters of the locations closed on Sunday when he first interviewed to be a franchisee in 2019. That number has more than reversed since the mandate was announced.
“At the time when they asked us, we said, ‘No, we don’t want to be open on Sundays,’ and they said, ‘That’s fine. You and your employees need a day off.’ And it was very much the culture then that you are not open on Sundays.”
His store in Salt Lake City is open 62 hours a week but still closed on Sundays. Berrett filed a petition to close based on religious and financial reasons. His store is located in a shopping center with 78 leased spaces and only 12 are open on Sundays.
“I’ve been up there once or twice on a Sunday to give another owner a cookie mix or something, and their car and my car were the only cars in the parking lot on our side,” Berrett says. “It’s like now I have to pay people to sit there and work. And none of our employees say they will work on Sunday, so I have to go find employees who say yes, I will work on Sunday.”
The operator does not plan to open on Sunday until February 2 when he is legally required to. His exemption request will not be evaluated until six months after this point.
Over the summer, Nothing Bundt Cakes told the system that operators open on Sunday earn 8 percent of sales that day, according to Berrett. But he hasn’t seen data on how sales compare year-over-year for those open on Sundays.
“There’s a bakery in Utah that signed the new franchise agreement, and they’re open on Sundays and they’re getting revenue, but is it enough to pay to keep your bakery open, all the extra tools, the labor? They say it’s not worth it self.”
Berrett understands Roark can legally force operators to open on Sunday, but he hoped the company would at least wait until the franchisees’ current contract term expired and then request they sign a new one with updated language.
“It’s not something we even questioned,” Berrett says. “My nephew had worked for them for almost 13 years, and it was, hey, they don’t encourage you to be open on Sundays. They think you need a day off. But I guess that’s what happens in the business world. You get a new owner and things change. I’ve been through mergers in my past career, and you get new ownership and new leadership and the rules change.”
Utah franchisee Kelsey Hunt and her family signed their first franchise agreement in 2018 and opened the location in 2019 in St. George with the agreement that they could close on Sunday. St. The George unit is still closed on Sundays, but it changed operations to 60 hours per week.
Their second store opened in Spanish Fork in December under the updated franchise agreement that calls for Sunday openings. The store is open 62 hours a week, including five hours on Sundays. They signed the agreement knowing they would file a request to close on Sunday after the six-month time frame.
“The ability to be closed on Sunday was definitely something that for me and my partners was critical to joining this franchise,” says Hunt. “For our faith and our values, the Sabbath day is a very important day for us to worship and respect. And so when we opened our first franchise and signed our franchise agreement in 2018, there was a lot of discussion and open discussion with the leaders about how important that was to us and why we chose it. One of the reasons we chose it as a brand. We absolutely love the product and we want to continue the journey with this brand. But this was something that for our religious values and for our community was very, very important to us.”
None Bundt Cakes said in a statement that it communicated to its full franchise system that all bakeries would operate seven days a week and it gave franchisees more than a year to prepare. It added that the new schedule will allow the company to “better meet the needs of our guests and is consistent with our franchise agreements.”
