KUALA LUMPUR: Chatime franchise owner La Kaffa International Co Ltd today alleged that some of the ingredients used by its former master franchisee for Malaysia, Loob Holding Sdn Bhd, may not have been halal certified.
La Kaffa’s international sales team head Hank Wang said that they were not sure as to the certification after Loob Holding stopped sourcing some of the key ingredients from them.
“We don’t know because they have stopped purchasing some of the key ingredients, such as tea powders from us a year ago.
“All our products are halal. We supply the raw ingredients and we have a halal association to check on them,” he said at a press conference held at the Double Tree Hilton here today.
In an immediate response, Loob Holding CEO Bryan Loo said that all the ingredients used for their products are halal certified.
“All the products we are selling in the last six years are certified by The Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (Jakim).
“We also have an outlet in a Petronas station at Lebuhraya Besraya, which is fully halal certified,” Loo told FMT.
He added that they have all the halal certificates to prove that they are certified.
Yesterday, Loob Holding released a statement to deny allegations that La Kaffa had terminated their master franchisee contract due to the use of “unapproved ingredients” or the delay in paying royalty fees due to the Taiwanese company.
Loo had called the allegations made by La Kaffa last Friday as “false and malicious”.
“We vehemently deny all the false and malicious allegations set out in La Kaffa’s media statement. We continue to reserve our right to take all action, and to explore all avenues, to protect our rights in this matter.
“This would include availing ourselves to all the remedies under the terms of our franchise agreement.”
Loob and La Kaffa are now expected to settle the legal disputes with an arbitration in the Singapore International Arbitration Centre, as is stipulated in the Master Franchise Agreement.
Earlier today La Kaffa announced that they had identified a new master franchisee to continue managing the Chatime brand in Malaysia.