Disclosure research
Item 19 of a franchise disclosure document is the only place a franchisor may make a financial performance representation — and it is optional. Of 4,327 brands we hold filings for, 1,402 (32%) disclose a revenue figure and only 126 (2.9%) disclose any measure of profit.
Gross sales are not profit: a revenue figure says nothing about what an owner keeps after rent, royalties, labour and debt service. None of this is investment advice, and every figure below is the franchisor's own disclosure, not our estimate.
4,327
brands with a filing
126
disclose any profit measure (2.9%)
8
disclose actual net income
These are not interchangeable. EBITDA excludes interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation; owner benefit adds the owner's own salary back in; gross profit is taken before operating costs entirely. Ranking brands on a single “average profit” column silently compares them against each other.
| Metric the franchisor disclosed | Brands |
|---|---|
| EBITDA | 59 |
| Owner benefit / seller's discretionary earnings | 23 |
| Operating income | 13 |
| EBITDA before rent | 11 |
| Controllable profit | 9 |
| Net income | 8 |
| Gross profit | 3 |
A profit figure drawn from company-owned locations describes the franchisor's own operations — different rent, different scale, no royalty paid out. It is not what a franchisee earns, and filings routinely disclose profit for company stores while disclosing only revenue for franchisees.
| Cohort behind the figure | Brands |
|---|---|
| Franchisee-operated outlets only | 75 |
| Company or affiliate outlets only | 36 |
| Franchisee and company outlets combined | 9 |
| A partial cohort the filing defines | 5 |
| Not established | 1 |
Every row names which profit metric the franchisor actually disclosed, how many outlets it rests on, and whose outlets those were. Free — we'll email you when the disclosure set changes.
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Looking at a brand that isn't here? Most franchisors disclose no profit figure at all — the filing still contains the fee schedule, the full investment table, litigation history and outlet turnover. Compare investment against revenue for the 1,402 brands that disclose sales.