Bottom line
- Total investment $2K – $12K including a $735 franchise fee, 15.0% ongoing royalty.
- No Item 19 financial performance data disclosed — the franchisor chose not to publish revenue figures.
- Rated MODERATE with a risk score of 62/100.
- System contracting at -12.3% CAGR over 3 years. Investigate whether closures are franchisor-driven (consolidation) or franchisee-driven (economics).
Item 1 · who you're contracting with
The Franchisor
Yale framework · single-unit ROIC
Returns Analysis
Pulls Item 7 (investment) and Item 19 (revenue) from this brand's FDD into the Yale unlevered-ROIC formula. Override any input to stress-test it against your own assumptions.
The model · Yale framework
What would one BELOCAL unit return on the cash you put in?
Unlevered ROIC · per unit
486%
Above typical band (30–60%)
Overview
About
BELOCAL franchisees publish hyper-local community newspapers/publications and generate revenue through print and digital advertising sales. Day-to-day operations involve community engagement, content curation, ad sales outreach, and publication production while remitting 15% of advertising value as royalties to the franchisor.
Item 7 · what it costs
The Vitals
Item 19
Financial Performance
This franchisor did not disclose financial performance representations in Item 19, or our extractor could not parse them.
Item 20 · unit dynamics
The Growth Chart
Year-over-year franchised unit counts and net change. Source: FDD Item 20.
Item 20 · 28 states with active franchisees
The Territory Map
Derived from franchisee contact records. Shows states with at least one current operator — not where the franchisor is registered to sell new units (that data is re-extracting in a future refresh).
States derived from franchisee phone area codes (Item 20). Approximate — ported numbers may show the original state, not the franchisee's current location.
Government records
SBA Loan Data
Aggregated from SBA 7(a) loan disclosures, public data unique to FranchiseVerdict.
No SBA loan data available for this brand.
FranchiseVerdict rating + FDD Items 3, 5, 6, 12, 17
Risk & Legal
BELOCAL presents meaningful concerns: minimal growth trajectory, absent financial performance data, regulatory compliance history, unprotected territories, and high advertising-based royalties with unclear valuation mechanisms.
Score breakdown · what drove the 62 / 100 rating
- 01MINORStagnant unit growth (1.5% YoY) suggests market saturation or franchisee dissatisfaction
- 02MINORNo financial disclosure (Item 19) prevents assessment of actual franchisee profitability and ROI
- 03MINORTwo regulatory compliance violations in California and Washington indicate disclosure/registration failures to prospective franchisees
- 04MINORUnprotected territory creates direct competition risk from other franchisees in same market
- 05MINORHigh royalty rate (15% of advertising value) is contingent on subjective valuation and creates revenue uncertainty
- 06MINORVery low franchise fee ($735) may indicate weak brand support or insufficient franchisor resources
Severity inferred from the FDD text · not a regulatory classification
FDD Items 5, 6, 12, 17 · continued from Risk & Legal
Contract & Territory Detail
Item 11
Training & Operations
Item 20
Franchisee Contacts
Phone numbers extracted directly from this brand's FDD Item 20. After purchase, you'll also receive a list of validation questions tailored to this brand.
Franchisee contacts
100 numbers
One-time purchase · CSV download · Validation questions included
FDD download
BELOCAL · FDD (2025) PDF