Massage Envy franchise unit economics
Massage Envy franchisees run a massage and skincare location on a membership model. Across 989 locations the average was $1,210,966 of revenue with a median of $1,136,666, on an average of 3,252 members.
- Primary source
- Massage Envy Franchising, LLC, 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document
- Items read
- Item 7 for cost to open; Item 19 for sales and any profit figure; Item 20 for the location count
- Population
- 989 of 993 locations
- Our calculations
- Marked on the page with an asterisk. Method
- Last reviewed
- 26 September 2026
Disclosure-based. Not a forecast, not an offer to sell a franchise, and not advice.
The top quarter of Massage Envy locations bills 2.8 times the bottom quarter out of rooms that are 6.6% larger. Square footage accounts for almost zero of the difference. What the highest-selling locations have is a membership book, and across the network, 76.6% of all revenue is dues and packages.
- Your sales per square foot is the number to run on, and it runs from $214 to $555. Against square footage that spans only 3,177 to 3,387, so the room is rarely the constraint.
- 76.6% of revenue is membership dues and packages. Ranging from 55.6% to 90.4% across the network, so the range in how locations sell is enormous.
- Revenue doubles across twenty years, and most of the climb is early. $715,147 at two to five years, $920,072 at five to ten, and $1,427,576 past twenty.
- Retail is 2.8% of sales and gift cards 5.4%. The best location takes 16.8% from retail, so there is room in it, and very little of it anywhere else.
- The recommended format bills below the network average. Current Format locations at 2,300 to 2,800 square feet averaged $1,166,456 against $1,210,966 network-wide.
How much does a Massage Envy franchise make?
The average Massage Envy unit reported $1,210,966 of revenue in the 2026 FDD, and the median reported $1,136,666. The brand’s disclosure document discloses revenue and not profit, so what an owner keeps depends on the cost structure set out below. Revenue is not income. Rent, wages, cost of goods and the franchise fees all come out before an owner is paid. The figures for the highest-selling and lowest-selling businesses are below.
How the business works
Space accounts for almost zero of it.
| quartile | Average gross sales | Median | Avg square feet | Sales per square foot |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Top quartile | $1,879,331 | $1,783,790 | 3,387 | $554.87 |
| 2nd quartile | $1,291,657 | $1,289,491 | 3,262 | $395.97 |
| 3rd quartile | $996,112 | $990,647 | 3,183 | $312.95 |
| Bottom quartile | $678,916 | $711,972 | 3,177 | $213.70 |
| All 989 locations | $1,210,966 | $1,136,666 | 3,252 | $372.38 |
Gross sales, medians and average square footage as the brand reported it.
Square footage across the four quartiles moves 6.6%. Sales move 2.8 times. Sales per square foot moves 2.6 times, which is the same range as revenue,.
That is worth knowing before you spend money on space. Moving from the bottom quartile to the third is $99.25 per square foot, or $317,196 of annual sales on a typical footprint. At the network's 76.6% membership share, roughly $243,000 of that is membership revenue you would be adding, which is a recruiting and retention problem.
The format the brand recommends bills slightly less.
Massage Envy identifies 189 of its 989 locations as Current Format, between 2,300 and 2,800 square feet, and describes that as the best size. Those locations averaged $1,166,456 against $1,210,966 network-wide, with quartile figures tracking a little below the network at every level.
Read alongside the sales-per-square-foot table, that lands the same way: the smaller recommended footprint costs you very little revenue, and it costs you considerably less rent. If you are weighing a relocation or a refit, the case for more space is weak on these numbers.
Top performers
What separates the top Massage Envy performers
Massage Envy splits its locations into groups instead of publishing one average. The best group averaged $1,879,331 a year. The worst averaged $678,916. Both run the same brand, on the same agreement, paying the same fees. The middle location sold $1,136,666. The average was $1,210,966. More than half the system is below the number the brand quotes.
Decided before you open
- Trade area and site.A 2.8× gap between bands is not an operating gap. Catchment, daytime population and what sits next door set the ceiling before the first customer arrives.
- Capacity, fixed at build.Locations run 2,300 to 2,800 square feet. capacity is 73 studio floor multiplied by hours multiplied by how full they run. What you can sell is set by the build, and the build does not change after opening.
- What you spend to open.Opening costs $695,870 to $1,046,506, a 1.5× range inside one brand. The high end usually buys more capacity, so the cheapest build is not always the cheapest route to the top band.
Live operating levers
- Members, the operating driver.This model bills on members. The owner watches how many people join, how many cancel, and what a member spends beyond the plan. It is worth watching every week, because by the time it turns up in a monthly close the quarter is half gone.
- The gift card book.Gift cards are sold before the service is delivered. The top performers are not selling more of them by accident, they are running a deliberate seasonal push into the holidays and out of it again. The accounting follows: a gift card is deferred revenue until it is redeemed, so cash and earned revenue arrive in different periods.
- Service and retail mix.Attachment rate on retail, and the share of customers on the higher service tiers, lift what each hour earns without adding an hour or a room. It is the only lever that raises the ceiling without spending capital.
- The first year.This filing shows how a new location builds up, so the ramp can be underwritten from the document rather than assumed. Read two things out of it: the month sales cross the point where costs are covered, and how much cash you fund before that month arrives. Everything before break-even is paid for by you.
Context you underwrite around
- The reporting screen.989 of 993 locations are behind these figures. Locations open less than the full year, brand-owned, or not meeting the reporting criteria are excluded, as are locations under the brand’s current size standard, so the numbers describe locations that cleared that screen, not the system as a whole.
- What the disclosure leaves out.Item 19 publishes no profit or cost data for franchised locations, no attainment figure. Anything below the sales line has to come from the franchisor or from owners you call.
How older locations do
Twenty years of curve, and it flattens early.
| Years open | Locations | Average | Median | Lowest | Highest |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 or more | 62 | $1,427,576 | $1,394,932 | $531,521 | $2,810,716 |
| 15 to under 20 | 495 | $1,293,484 | $1,227,929 | $493,175 | $3,188,684 |
| 10 to under 15 | 332 | $1,147,447 | $1,073,655 | $204,020 | $3,300,481 |
| 5 to under 10 | 80 | $920,072 | $849,229 | $145,352 | $2,355,414 |
| 2 to under 5 | 20 | $715,147 | $756,732 | $187,797 | $1,331,150 |
As the brand reported it.
A location doubles across twenty years, and the steepest stretch is the first ten: $715,147 to $1,147,447 between the two-to-five and ten-to-fifteen groups, then roughly $140,000 a decade after that.
The more useful reading is the range inside each group. A ten-to-fifteen year location spans $204,020 to $3,300,481. Years open sets a minimum under you and settles little else, a mature location can sit anywhere across a sixteen-fold range, and where it lands is about the book.
Where sales come from
Three quarters of the money arrives before the service.
| Source | Average share | Lowest | Median | Highest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Packages and membership dues | 76.6% | 55.6% | 76.7% | 90.4% |
| Gift card sales | 5.4% | 1.2% | 5.1% | 18.1% |
| Retail sales | 2.8% | 0.1% | 2.4% | 16.8% |
As the brand reported it.
How we calculated this
497 of 989 locations reached the average membership share, 442 the average gift card share, and 385 the average retail share.
Membership is the business. At 76.6% of sales, your dues book decides your year before a single walk-in books a room. The range from 55.6% to 90.4% shows how differently locations sell. A location at the low end is running a visit business with a membership attached; one at the high end has it the other way round.
Retail has more room in it than most locations use. The average is 2.8% and the best location reaches 16.8%. On the network median of $1,136,666, moving retail from 2.8% to 6% is $36,000 a year at shares kept that beat a massage hour, and it leaves your therapist capacity untouched. That conversion is marked *.
Gift cards run 5.4% of sales and reach 18.1%. That money arrives ahead of the service and belongs on your balance sheet until it is redeemed.
Questions we get asked
Does Massage Envy disclose profitability?
Gross sales by quartile, by years open and by revenue source, with every cost line absent, labor, rent, product and owner earnings alike. So every margin question has to be answered from your own P&L, and the revenue mix is the one external benchmark open to you.
Which number should I measure my location against?
Sales per square foot, against the $372.38 network figure and the quarter you sit in. Size normalizes away, so a revenue gap becomes something you can measure. Then check your membership share against 76.6%, if you sit near the 55.6% minimum, that is where your gap lives.
Would a bigger location earn more?
Very little, on these figures. Average square footage moves 6.6% across quartiles that differ 2.8 times in sales. The Current Format locations the brand recommends at 2,300 to 2,800 square feet average slightly below the network. Rent scales with space and revenue mostly does otherwise, so the case for more room is weak unless you are turning members away.
Where is the recoverable money?
Membership share first, retail second. At 76.6% of sales the dues book is the whole business, and the 55.6% to 90.4% range shows how much of that is a selling decision. Retail averages 2.8% against a best of 16.8%, worth about $36,000 a year at the network median if you move it to 6%, with zero extra therapist hours behind it.
Who does bookkeeping for a Massage Envy franchise?
With 76.6% of sales arriving as dues and packages, most of your bank balance is service you still owe. Memberships bill in advance and earn out as massages are given. Unused member credits and prepaid packages sit as liabilities until redeemed. Gift cards at 5.4% of sales are a third pile with rules that vary by state. Track membership share and retail share monthly beside the P&L. Those two ratios are the only benchmarks you have. Averan provides bookkeeping, controller, and fractional CFO support for franchise owners and has Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisors on the team.
- No profit figure. The filing reports sales and not earnings, so what an owner keeps is not disclosed.
- No cost lines. Wages, rent and cost of goods are not broken out, so margin cannot be rebuilt from the document.
- No attainment figure. The filing does not say how many locations reached the average it publishes.
Questions worth putting to Massage Envy
The filing answers what it answers. These are the gaps an owner or a buyer should close directly.
- What do locations at the median spend on wages and rent as a share of sales? The filing reports sales only.
- What separates the highest-selling locations from the lowest: trade area, years open, size, or the owner?
- How long does a new location take to reach the average you publish, and what does the build-up look like month by month?
- What do the fees add up to as a share of sales at the average location, once minimums and technology charges are counted?
- How many Massage Envy locations closed, were sold, or changed hands last year, and why?
Run your own numbers.
The Franchise Finance Diagnostic runs the same checks on your own numbers. It scores where you stand and compares you with Item 19 of your brand’s FDD. It works out what one location earns and spends, and builds a 13-week cash forecast. Checks whether you are ready to open another one. It is free and it runs in your browser.
Launch the diagnostic →Run these numbers against your own location.
A structured review of your unit economics, cash forecast, and reporting, so you know where you stand against the disclosed averages.
Request the review