COFFEE REPUBLIC - about to boil in 2006?

Are franchisees really that optimistic and lacking in the due diligence department? I'd want to see the management accounts for the last three years, size up all the other coffee shops within 1 mile radius then decide in a worst case scenario how much I could improve sales and margins in a market with little organic growth and whether it would support my upfront payment and ongoing royalties. Given the property is leasehold, if running a coffee shop was my passion, I still don't see why I wouldn't do it myself? Otherwise I'd do dominos pizza :-)

Maybe I'm just being dim, but I can't see how franchising unprofitable stores generates money out of nothing beyond an initial (and unsustainable) mugging of the franchisee.

EDIT: just read your last CR. Fair enough if the only way is up. Still begs the question why they don't do it themselves, prove the concept, then flog the company/franchises for a better price.