The way I see it, there is as much possibility that Chatime became greedy and did not supported the business here which at one point was so oversaturated and crowded.

I mean, if he really scammed and did the above and he isn't a good leader, then the next logical question is:

a) Why >90% of the franchisee followed him instead of going with Chatime?
b) I thought Chatime wanted to sue him? What happened to that?
c) If his ingredients sucks why Tealive still so popular?

The way you position yourself makes me wonder

a) valid reason, but I find it hard to believe that 160+ of his franchisee are made out of his friends and family, and that all of them are willing to risk business and their investments over "bad quality ingredients, and whatever negative reasons people are throwing towards tealive"

b) oh i didn't know this. in that case we'll never know the terms agreed upon and who holds the bigger blame (im sure both are to be blamed, just who is bigger)

c) different market and this cannot be compared. one is tea one is coffee. some people are either tea drink or coffee drinker, and some people like both and can patron both brands.
plus i wouldn't call starbucks and coffeebean "proper". but if we keep it strictly to tea, they are still one of the most popular establishment.

and perhaps being cheap is an advantage being in the business. and for all you know, maybe this started from chatime franchisor not wanting to allow price adjustments (i dunno, forex increase maybe?) and causing chatime's margin to be eroded and price to eventually be increased. perhaps the reason why they can still thrive right now is because they can be flexible in procuring ingredients locally which is not subjected to forex fluctuations, and as such allows the franchise to maintain their prices and not increase it. Compare with other more premium tea in the market that are import based, they tend to be more expensive (like Koi for example).

I'm not trying to side him, but I'm trying to think from a businessman point of view and as much as there are many defense for Chatime, there is as many for Tealive too.
But many of Chatime's defense given by people here are hogwash because it won't be thriving right now if it is really that bad tasting or having subpar ingredient.

Even your claims of 'cancer inducing products' is all emotional reasons used. There is no proof nor indication that they sourced from companies that uses such ingredients. And such a reason only is applicable to their tea with pearl bubbles. Many of their drinks do not have pearl bubbles. So even this reason is weak.

Unless there are strong reasons put forward, I can't help feel but many people are just butthurt with some dude with a stuckup face that made a brilliant business move in circumstances not fully understood by everyone and that resulted in success. And it's easy to butthurt at that dude cause of his face

see above reply

Not going to argue on his character because I do not know him. Nor am I supporting him, because what I am doing is just giving that guy a balance against what I feel are very emotional but unusable accusations.

When you say 'proper' way to break a master franchise agreement, I faintly recall that Chatime franchisor was the one that went on the offensive by coming to Malaysia to terminate the agreement and tried a takeover? I got it from articles that was written during the time of the hoohaa. Not sure what was Chatimes reasoning, but who was the one that went on the offensive first?

And I have to agree on the ROI portion. But that makes it even more so interesting that people with lots to lose are willing to follow this guy, friends or not.
Everything doesn't add up to what is said against him