How franchise systems grew and shrank in 2025, from 381 FDDs
Updated 16 October 2026
Item 20 of the Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) is the outlet table. The FDD is the document a franchisor gives a buyer before a sale. Item 20 counts the locations a brand opened, closed, took back and transferred each year. Averan read Item 20 in 2026 FDDs, and 381 brands report both a start and an end count for 2025. Each section below works one brand through its own table.
2025 across 381 brands
| Result | Brands |
|---|---|
| More outlets at the end of 2025 | 264 |
| Fewer outlets at the end of 2025 | 97 |
| The same count | 20 |
The 381 brands ended 2025 with 90,196 outlets between them. 264 of the 381 brands grew, and 97 shrank.
Mosquito Shield is one of the 97 brands that shrank. Its 2026 FDD shows 435 outlets at the start of 2025 and 384 at the end, a fall of 51. Mosquito Shield opened 13 outlets and terminated 38 in the year.
Exits
Item 20 records four ways a franchised outlet leaves a system:
- Termination: the franchisor ends the agreement.
- Non-renewal: the agreement reaches its end date and is not renewed.
- Reacquisition: the franchisor buys the outlet back.
- Ceased operations for other reasons: the outlet closes for any other cause.
Add the four and divide by the start-of-year count. The median brand in the library lost 4.5% of its outlets that way in 2025.
Mosquito Shield's 38 terminations alone equal 8.7% of its 435 starting outlets. That is 1.9 times the library's median exit rate of 4.5%, before any non-renewals or other closures are added.
Signed and not open
Item 20 also lists agreements signed for outlets that have not opened. Two hundred thirty-nine brands report a figure. At the median brand, signed-and-unopened outlets equal 11.4% of the outlets open at the end of 2025.
Sky Zone had 122 franchised parks open and 70 more signed. The Goddard School had 665 schools open and 51 more signed.
Kiddie Academy had 363 academies open at the end of 2025 and 262 signed and not yet open, equal to 72.2% of its open count. Dogtopia had 225 centers open and 109 signed, equal to 48.4%. Those are 6.3 times and 4.2 times the library median of 11.4%.
Three systems in their own FDDs
| Brand | 2025 movement |
|---|---|
| The Goddard School | 642 schools to 665, with 24 opened, zero terminated and one closed for other reasons |
| 1-800 WATER DAMAGE | 178 outlets to 160 over two years, with 25 terminations and 10 openings in 2025 |
| F45 Training | 789 franchised studios to 707 over 2024 and 2025, a fall of 82 |
F45 Training's fall from 789 franchised studios to 707 is 10.4% of the system over two years. Across 2025 alone, F45 went from 751 franchised studios to 707, a fall of 44. A buyer reading F45's Item 20 sees the count fall in both years.
Company-owned outlets
Item 20 counts company-owned outlets in a separate table from franchised ones. A rising company-owned count can come from new company openings or from reacquisitions, when the franchisor buys outlets back from franchisees. The two tables together show how much of a system the franchisor runs itself.
Sky Zone had 71 company-owned parks at the end of 2023, 114 at the end of 2024 and 123 at the end of 2025. Sky Zone reacquired 17 franchised parks in 2024. At the end of 2025, company-owned parks were 123 of 245, or 50.2% of the system.
Celebree School ended 2025 with 44 franchised schools and 28 company-operated schools, so the company ran 38.9% of its 72. Senior Helpers went the other way: its company-owned count fell from 13 in 2023 to 7 in 2025 while franchised territories rose from 333 to 394.
Other items about the franchisor
- Item 3 lists litigation involving the franchisor.
- Item 4 lists bankruptcies.
- Item 21 holds the franchisor's financial statements.
Item 20 also lists the contact details of current and former franchisees. An owner who left in the past year can describe the exit from the other side.
The Camp Transformation Center's 2026 FDD shows 76 outlets at the start of 2025 and 69 at the end, with 10 terminations. The former franchisees listed in that Item 20 are the people to call about those 10 exits.
What this means for an owner
Item 20 shows whether a brand added or lost outlets and how. At the median brand, 4.5% of outlets left in 2025, so a rate of twice that or more is a reason to call former owners. A large signed-and-unopened count shows how many new outlets are coming, and how many must still find sites, financing and staff. The former franchisee list in Item 20 gives an owner names to call. Items 3, 4 and 21 add litigation, bankruptcy and the franchisor's own accounts.
Check one location
The Franchise Numbers Check is a free tool on this site. It takes one location's figures and sets them against the brand data Averan has published. Each of the 431 brand pages in the Averan Franchise library includes that brand's Item 20 table.
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