Some Nothing Bundt Cakes operators are fighting back after the brand released a new systemwide mandate to open on Sunday.
Since its founding in 1997, the chain has allowed operators to close on Sunday. That changed at the beginning of 2024. Nothing Bundt Cakes leadership team launched several changes at in-person regional meetings, including mandating that operators open on Sunday.
After emotional pushback from some franchisees—specifically ones who joined the brand because being closed on Sunday was an option—Nothing Bundt Cakes delayed its Sunday rule to this year. By the week of January 27 through February 2 (Sunday), stores must be open a minimum of 62 hours per week, including a minimum of five prime hours on Sunday.
The franchisor updated its franchise contracts to include the mandate.
All requests for exceptions have been denied so far. The new rule states Nothing Bundt Cakes won’t 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 drive 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. Cofounder Dena Tripp kept a significant ownership stake while cofounder Debbie Shwetz moved on. The concept was later bought by Roark Capital in 2021 and Tripp exited the business. Roark also owns Subway, Inspire Brands, and GoTo Foods.
One Utah state official worked with franchisees to create a bill protecting religious freedoms. On New Year’s Day, state Rep. Kenneth Ivory announced new legislation that would guarantee franchisees cannot be forced to operate on Sunday unless the stipulation was expressly negotiated and included in the initial franchise agreement.
“Like all businesses in Utah that operate seven days a week, we will watch this legislation closely,” Nothing Bundt Cakes’ corporate team said in a statement.
Utah-based franchisee Brad Berrett signed a franchise agreement to open in West Bountiful, Utah, in February 2019 and then opened in November 2019. He was told by leadership and Tripp that Sunday is optional. A few years later, he signed an agreement 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 would have never signed the franchise agreements if the stores had to be open on Sunday. He estimates about three-fourths of locations closed on Sunday when he first interviewed to be a franchisee in 2019. That number has more than flipped since the mandate was announced.
“At that time when they asked us, we said ‘No, we don’t want to be open on Sunday,’ and they said, ‘That’s good. You and your employees need a day off.’ And it was very much the culture back then that you don’t open on Sunday.”
His Salt Lake City shop is open 62 hours per week but still closed on Sunday. Berrett submitted a request to close based on religious and economic grounds. His store is in a shopping center with 78 leased spaces and only 12 are open on Sunday.
“I’ve been up there once or twice on a Sunday to give another owner some cake mix or things like that and their car and my car were the only cars in the parking lot on our end,” Berrett says. “It’s like now I’m going to pay people to sit there and work. And none of our employees say that they will work on Sunday, so I have to go find employees who say yes, I’ll work on Sunday.”
The operator doesn’t plan to open on Sunday until February 2 when he’s legally required to. His requests for an exception won’t be evaluated until six months after this point.
During the summer, Nothing Bundt Cakes told the system that operators open on Sunday earn 8 percent of sales on that day, according to Berrett. But he hasn’t seen data on how sales compare year-over-year for those open on Sunday.
“There’s one bakery in Utah that signed the new franchise agreement, and they’re open on Sunday and they do get revenue, but is it enough to pay for having your bakery open, all the extra utilities, the labor? They say it doesn’t pay for itself.”
Berrett understands Roark can legally force operators to open on Sunday, but he hoped the company would at least wait until franchisees’ current agreement term ended 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 do not encourage you to be open on Sunday. They think you need the 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 prior career, and you get new ownership and new leadership and the rules change.”
Fellow 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 understanding that they could close on Sunday. The St. George unit is still closed on Sunday, but it did change operations to 60 hours per week.
Their second shop opened in Spanish Fork in December under the updated franchise agreement that mandates Sunday openings. The shop is open 62 hours per week, including five hours on Sunday. They signed the deal knowing they would submit a request to close on Sunday after the six-month timeframe.
“The opportunity to be closed on Sunday was definitely something that for me and my partners was crucial for joining this franchise,” Hunt says. “For our faith and our values, the Sabbath Day is a very important day to us to worship and respect. And so when we opened our first franchise and signed our franchise agreement in 2018 there was much discussion and open discussion with leadership about how important it was for us and why we were selecting it. One of the reasons we selected it as a brand. We absolutely love the product, we love the values, and we want to continue the journey with this brand because we are so passionate about it. But this was something that for our religious values and for our community was very, very important to us.”
Nothing Bundt Cakes said in a statement that it communicated to its full franchise system that all bakeries would operate seven days per 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.”