Franchise Unit Growth Tracker (2022–2024)

Why Unit Growth Is the Number Most Buyers Miss

Every franchisor's pitch deck shows the best-performing stores. Item 7 of the FDD tells you what you'll pay to open. But the question buyers should ask first is simpler: is this network getting bigger or smaller?

A contracting network creates four specific problems for new franchisees:

• Territorial pressure. When other owners close, their customers don't disappear — they migrate to remaining units or to competitors. A shrinking network means your franchise is losing market presence relative to the competition.
• Resale discount. Selling a franchise in a contracting network is structurally harder. Buyers discount on the expectation of continued unit closures. Exit at a shrinking brand costs you in multiple ways.
• Support quality. Franchisor support (training, supply chain, marketing) is often funded by royalties from the franchisee network. Fewer units means less royalty revenue, which often means cuts to the support you were promised at signing.
• Validation calls change character. Item 20 shows which franchisees closed. When you call existing owners for validation, you're only talking to the survivors — and a 30% closure rate means 30% of the honest feedback is inaccessible.

Brands With the Steepest Declines (2022–2024)

These are brands where unit count dropped more than 10% in two years, based on FDD Item 20 filings. This doesn't automatically mean "don't buy" — some contractions are restructuring plays. But it means ask hard questions before you sign.

What's behind the biggest contractions?

Weed Man (-49.8%): The steepest decline in the dataset — from 241 to 121 units in two years. Pest and lawn care is a fragmented market where independent operators and national players (TruGreen, Orkin) dominate. Weed Man's Canada-heavy model translates poorly to the US market and the brand has been unable to compete on marketing spend.

9Round (-46.1%) and CycleBar (-27%): Both are fitness boutiques hit by the post-COVID fitness reality check. The boutique fitness category (30-minute kickboxing circuits, indoor cycling) saw a COVID bubble burst — remote work changed commuting patterns, hybrid gym memberships came back, and at-home fitness (Peloton, Mirror) absorbed part of the market. These brands also skew toward strip mall locations that now carry higher vacancy risk.

Fantastic Sams (-27%): Hair salons are a tough franchise category because quality is almost entirely dependent on the individual stylist, not the brand. Fantastic Sams' product-free model (no exclusive products to sell) removes a revenue stream that Great Clips and Sport Clips use to retain customers between cuts. The brand has not refreshed its positioning since the mid-2000s.

Merry Maids (-15.2%): Home cleaning is growing as a category, but Merry Maids is losing share to newer platforms (Amazon Home Services, local app-based cleaners) and younger residential cleaning franchise brands. The parent company (ServiceMaster) has been divesting assets, and the support infrastructure has thinned.

Brands With the Strongest Growth (2022–2024)

These networks added the most locations, as a percentage, over the same period. Growth validates that the brand is attracting new franchisees — which means the FDD economics pencil out in the market, and the franchisor is investing in support to maintain quality during expansion.

Patterns in the fastest-growing brands

Pet services dominate at the top. Dog Training Elite (+170.5%), Woof Gang Bakery (+44.8%), Scenthound (+86%), Camp Bow Wow (+12%) — the pet sector continues to absorb franchisee capital at rates other categories can't match. Pet spending in the US grew 6.1% in 2024 even in the face of consumer spending pressure, and the recurring nature of grooming and training services provides franchisee revenue stability that food concepts don't.

Coffee and fast-casual QSR are bifurcated. Scooter's Coffee (+53%) and Crumbl (+53%) are both in high-traffic, high-visibility categories where the brand has a distinctive concept (drive-through coffee, rotating cookie menu). Jersey Mike's (+25.2%) continues to take share from Subway in the sub-sandwich space — the brand has a dramatically better franchisee NPS score and hasn't had the legal and quality-control issues that have plagued Subway. Meanwhile Subway itself is contracting (-5.2%) despite being the world's largest franchise network by unit count.

Home services remains structurally sound. Benjamin Franklin Plumbing (+27.4%), Ace Handyman (+24%), Five Star Painting (+20.2%) — essential home services resist economic downturns because homeowners must maintain their homes regardless of discretionary spending pressure. The aging US housing stock (median age now 40+ years) provides a long-term tailwind.

Full Network Growth Table

All 94 brands in our FDD database, sorted by unit change percentage. Click any brand for full FDD data including investment ranges, royalty rates, and Item 19 financial performance where disclosed.

How to Use This Data in Your Due Diligence

Step 1: Get the actual Item 20 from the FDD. The data above comes from FDD filings, but the actual disclosure breaks down openings, closings, and transfers by year and by state. A brand with a national +5% might be growing in the Sun Belt and contracting in the Midwest. That distinction matters if you're buying in Ohio.

Step 2: Call the closures, not just the open stores. Item 20 lists every franchisee who closed in the last 3 years with contact information. These are the people franchisors don't want you to talk to. Call them. Ask why they closed, what support was like at the end, and whether they'd do it again.

Step 3: Separate network contraction from market exit. Some brands contract because the category is dying (Blockbuster-style). Others contract because the franchisor is purposefully closing underperforming units to improve system-wide metrics. Ask the franchisor directly: "What percentage of closures were franchisor-initiated vs. franchisee-initiated?" A good franchisor has this number ready.

Step 4: Cross-reference with Item 19. Fast-growing brands that also have strong Item 19 financial performance disclosures (average revenue, median margin) are demonstrably more attractive — the growth is backed by economics. See our Item 19 guide for how to read the disclosure.