Police examine Twist following franchisee complaints

Police are looking into the activities of the Twist group, which offered franchises under brands including Trdlokafe, Bubblify and Kytky od Pepy. According to a report published by Czech news outlet Seznam Zprávy on 20 October 2026, franchisees contacted police over suspected fraud. Some claim their outlets did not generate the earnings promised, while others say they never received the branches they had been promised. The inquiry is at an early stage and does not, in itself, mean that a criminal offence has been committed.

Police confirm they are looking into the case

Eva Kropáčová of the press office at the Prague Regional Police Directorate confirmed to Seznam Zprávy that police were looking into Twist’s activities. However, police provided no further details. According to the report, they are currently establishing whether any criminal offence took place. The available information therefore does not support any conclusion about the criminal liability of specific individuals.

The franchisees’ complaints concern investments that, according to Seznam Zprávy, in some cases ran into millions of Czech koruna. Some investors describe a gap between the results originally promised and their outlets’ actual performance. Others say they never took over the shops in which they had invested. These are allegations made by franchisees, not findings from the police inquiry.

The group’s head, Radek Klein, did not respond to questions from Seznam Zprávy about the police inquiry. According to the outlet, he had previously stated repeatedly that Twist had not misled anyone and was trying to resolve the problems that had arisen. That earlier position should be distinguished from a current response to the police inquiry, which the outlet did not obtain.

The offer combined a licence with shop management

Twist approached prospective investors through a sales team. According to Seznam Zprávy, the attractions included not only a quick return on investment but also the option for the group to continue managing the shop on the franchisee’s behalf. Under the offer, investors would not have to run the business themselves and would receive its profits.

This particular arrangement is significant for the Czech franchise community. The offer combined not just the right to trade under a particular brand and an investment in an outlet, but also a promise of ongoing management. The complaints described in the report concern both the financial performance of existing outlets and the failure to deliver a promised shop. These are two distinct situations and should not be conflated.

For 2024, the group reported revenue of around CZK 1 billion and net profit of approximately CZK 140 million. However, drawing on figures supplied by Twist itself, Seznam Zprávy reported that most of these results came from selling franchise licences rather than operating outlets.

This distinction is crucial when interpreting the published results: group revenue is not the same as the profitability of an individual outlet. The aggregate figures alone do not reveal the costs borne by a particular franchisee or the results achieved by their shop. They therefore cannot, on their own, establish whether a specific investment performed in line with the original offer.

Expansion was scaled back before the insolvencies

According to the reported timeline, the group’s difficulties began before the current police inquiry. In May 2025, Twist announced that it would no longer pursue international expansion on the scale originally planned. In the autumn of that year, outlet closures began to increase. Business partners were also raising complaints about the group’s payment practices.

In February 2026, creditor Petr Bujnoch initiated insolvency proceedings against Bubblify International, one of the group’s key companies. Other Twist companies subsequently entered insolvency proceedings too. The group blamed Bujnoch for the ensuing chain of insolvencies. Seznam Zprávy notes, however, that the group had already been struggling to pay its obligations on time.

The police inquiry and the insolvency proceedings are therefore two parallel aspects of the case. While police are, according to the published information, still establishing whether a criminal offence was committed, proceedings to address insolvency are already under way at some of the companies. Insolvency alone does not, however, substantiate suspicions of fraud.

Creditors have so far opted for liquidation

Twist initially proposed addressing its companies’ insolvency through reorganisation. According to Seznam Zprávy, this leaves debtors with greater control over their assets than liquidation does. However, the report says that every creditors’ meeting held so far has voted for liquidation.

Before those decisions, the insolvency administrator excluded companies described by Seznam Zprávy as lacking transparency from voting. Those companies had acquired large volumes of claims from franchisees. These developments relate to the creditors’ meetings held to date and do not automatically apply to every company or all of the group’s liabilities.

For the franchise community, the case highlights the importance of assessing the franchise licence offer, the performance of the individual outlet and the financial position of the contractual partner separately. Practical takeaway: before investing, request financial information for the specific outlet and have the contractual terms independently reviewed, particularly the provisions assigning responsibility for opening and subsequently managing the shop.