Ok, so how does the franchisee paying high fees to Taylors for "support" help McD's bottom line? Are they getting a kickback of some kind? Maybe. I'm not sure I've seen any evidence of that.
Best guess: Taylors made a generous bid to McD corporate to become the exclusive provider of ice cream machines. This bid gives a chunk of money to McD corporate and promises maximum machine costs and maintenance call-out costs for franchisees. However it has no guarantees for call-out frequency, so as per a razor-and-blades business model this is how Taylors is now getting all their profits and the KPI they are maximising.
Why would mcdonald's take a bid from a company saying, essentially:
"Our package includes unnecessary maintenance costs and ill-perceived customer opinions of service. But we will pay you for that, and force the maintenece cost on your business partner, the franchise."
WHy wouldn't mcdonalds just choose s supplier that has a machine that works? And why would taylor pay them so that they can charge the franchisee...?