Swim schools franchise finance
Averan read the 2026 FDDs of five swim schools brands.
The median brand here reports average revenue of $1,138,797 an unit. Percentage fees at the median brand come to 10.5% of sales. The median cost to open runs $1,619,820 to $2,939,590.
Find a swim schools brand
3 brands in this guide, each from its own 2026 FDD. Open one, or pick two and compare them.
The brands in this group
Each brand has its own business model breakdown, with every figure set out against the brand’s disclosure document it comes from.
- Aqua-Totsaverage, median, high and low sales by three regions with attainment counts · Two and a half times the revenue for the
- Big Blue Swim Schoolaverage/median/high-low, mature vs building up · A $71,500 minimum royalty and a marketing scale that falls as you grow
- British Swim School Full P&L · The royalty stops being a percentage and becomes a $42,000 number from year four
- Goldfish Swim School Full P&L · Full ten-line P&L plus a matching one for the first full year
- SafeSplash Swim School Full P&L · Two formats, two full P&Ls
The figures, brand by brand
| Measure | Median | Brands | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average sales per unit | $1,138,797 | 5 of 5 | Median of each brand’s disclosed average |
| Median sales per unit | $1,008,577 | 5 of 5 | Median of each brand’s disclosed median |
| Initial franchise fee | $50,000 | 5 of 5 | |
| Royalty | 6% | 5 of 5 | Headline rate |
| Brand or advertising fund | 2% | 5 of 5 | |
| Percentage fees, all in | 10.5% | 5 of 5 | Royalty, funds and local marketing set as a share of sales |
| Cost to open, low | $1,619,820 | 5 of 5 | |
| Cost to open, high | $2,939,590 | 5 of 5 | |
| Profit margin | 25.1% | 3 of 5 | Each brand’s own profit line; definitions differ |
| Labor, share of revenue | 32.9% | 3 of 5 | |
| Building costs, share of revenue | 16.8% | 3 of 5 | |
| Unit growth, 2025 | 12% | 5 of 5 | (End − start) ÷ start |
| Customers lost, 2025 | 4.3% | 5 of 5 | Terminated, non-renewed, reacquired and ceased, ÷ opening units; transfers excluded |
Each figure is the median of the brands that disclose it, and the Brands column counts them.
How we calculated this
Revenue is each brand's own reported figure on its own unit basis, so the median describes the group and no single brand. Growth and customers lost are our calculations from each brand's outlet table. Where fewer than three brands disclose a figure, no benchmark is shown.
The model
The business model the top performers in swim schools are running
What the top performers can do that others cannot
3 of the 5 brands here sell a place for a child. Filling a fixed building is the constraint: occupancy runs 16.8% of sales at the middle brand, and the rent does not move when the week is quiet. Rostering against demand is the constraint: wages run 32.9% of sales at the middle brand, more than any other line.
What the customer is buying
The customer buys a place held week after week. A location at the middle brand sells $1,138,797 a year; the top group sells $2,687,841. The offer is the same at both ends of that range, so the difference is volume rather than product.
Who the customer is, and how often they come back
This is a retention business. The money is made in the second year of a customer, not the first month, so the number that decides the year is how many stay. A median 41% of locations reach their own brand’s average, so most of the system is below the number the brand advertises, and the gap is usually a demand gap rather than an effort gap. The top group sells $2,687,841 against $528,953 at the bottom. Trade area and site set that range before an owner takes a booking.
How the money works
Opening costs $57,500 to $3,746,733 across the group, and inside one brand the top of the range is typically 1.8 times the bottom. At the middle brand the cost stack runs wages 32.9%, occupancy 16.8%, cost of sales 2.7%, franchise fees 10.5% of sales. What is left runs 25.1% at the middle brand, which is $673,304 a year at the top group and $132,503 at the bottom. The percentage barely moves between them; the dollars do. 3 of these brands publish how a new location builds up, so the first year can be read out of the document instead of guessed at.
Also disclosed across this group: $1,994,169, $11,388, $2,391, $34,733, $432,912, $61,495, 12.1, 20.0, 7.8.
Top performers
These are the things that separate top performers in swim schools
At the typical swim schools brand, the best group of locations sells $2,687,841 a year. The worst group sells $528,953. That is $2,158,888 more a year, 5.1 times over, for the same brand on the same agreement. Across these brands, a median of 41% of locations reach their own brand’s average. The average describes the top of a system, not the middle. 5 of the 5 brands here publish bands; the rest disclose no spread at all.
Decided before you open
- What it costs to open.Opening costs run $57,500 to $3,746,733 across the group, and the top of a single brand’s range is typically 1.8 times its bottom. The top group sells $2,687,841 a year against a build that tops out at $3,746,733, so at the heavy end of the range a location sells $0.72 for every dollar it cost to open. A build that heavy takes years of sales to recover, so the site has to be right the first time.
- What a location sells.Average sales run $1,138,797 at the middle brand and $2,687,841 at the top group. Format and site decide most of that before an owner does anything, which is why the same operator produces different results in different trade areas.
- Rent is one number, and it lands twice.Occupancy runs 16.8% of sales at the middle brand, which on median sales of $1,138,797 is $191,318 of rent a year. That same $191,318 is 7.1% of sales at the top group and 36.2% at the bottom. Nobody negotiated a worse lease. The top performers move this line by putting more sales through the same square footage: longer earning hours, a second daypart, and a site picked for traffic rather than for the rate.
Live operating levers
- 3 of the 3 brands here sell a place for a child.The licence fixes how many places exist, so the owner cannot sell their way past it. What is left is how many of the places are filled, what each one is priced at, and how long a family stays before they move on. They are Big Blue Swim School, British Swim School, Goldfish Swim School.
- 3 of the 3 brands here publish how a new location builds up.Where a brand shows its first year month by month, an owner can see when sales finally cover the costs and how much cash has to be put in before that point arrives. Where a brand does not show it, that curve has to be guessed at, and the guess is usually optimistic. They are Big Blue Swim School, British Swim School, Goldfish Swim School.
- Wages. Same labor market, different result.Wages run 32.9% of sales at the middle brand and 32.7% to 35.3% across the 3 that disclose it. These brands hire from the same pool at the same rates, so a 3-point spread is not a pay-rate gap. It is scheduling and productivity: rostering against booked demand hour by hour, managing sales per paid hour as the number, and keeping enough of the pay variable that the line falls when the week is quiet. On the top group’s $2,687,841 of sales, a point of wages is $26,878 a year; on the bottom group’s $528,953 it is $5,290. The same discipline is worth more where the volume already is.
- Cost of what you sell. The line that compounds.Products and materials take 2.7% of sales at the middle brand, 2.7% to 2.7% across the 1 that disclose it. Buying on the brand program rather than locally, holding the price list instead of discounting to close, and counting waste weekly are what separate the ends of that range, and each of them compounds with volume, which is why the gap widens as a location grows.
- What is left at the end. Where the gap comes from.Of the 3 brands that publish a profit line, the middle one keeps 25.1% of sales, from 21.3% to 28.1%. The cost lines above move by a few points between the best and worst locations while sales move by multiples, so the top performers are not running a cheaper business. They are running the same cost base over more revenue. Hold that 25.1% margin steady and the top group earns $673,304 against $132,503 at the bottom, a difference of $540,801 a year that comes from volume alone.
- What the brand charges. The line that works backwards.Fees run a median 10.5% of sales across 5 brands, from 10.0% to 15.0%. Where a minimum sits underneath the percentage, the weakest location pays the highest effective rate, so the fee line costs most exactly where it can least be afforded. The top performers clear the minimum early and stop thinking about it. At $2,687,841 the fees cost $281,955 a year; at $528,953 they cost $55,487. The percentage is the same and the burden is not.
Context you underwrite around
- How many brands show a ramp.3 of 5 filings in this group show how a new location builds up. For the rest the first year has to be assumed, and the assumption is usually wrong in the same direction.
Operating levers
What each brand’s top performers actually work on
The levers the filing supports, brand by brand. Three to five each, read from that brand’s own 2026 FDD. Filter by type of business, or open a brand for the figures underneath.
3 brands
Big Blue Swim School
Swim schools
- Enrolment, the operating driver. This model bills on enrolment. The licence fixes how many places exist, so what is left is how many are filled, what each is priced at, and how long a family stays. It is worth watching every week, because by the time it turns up in a monthly close the quarter is half gone.
- Fees, and where the minimum bites. Fees run about 15.0% of sales. A minimum sits underneath the percentage, so the low-volume location pays the higher effective rate. The brand charges the weakest locations the most. Work out the sales level where the percentage overtakes the minimum and know which side of it you are on, because the answer changes what an extra dollar of sales is worth.
- 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.
British Swim School
Swim schools
- Wages, the dominant line. Wages take 32.9% of sales, against 25.1% kept at the end. Staff productivity, scheduling against demand hour by hour, and the balance of base pay to commission are where this is won. Small movements here move the result more than anything else, because nothing else in the structure is that large.
- Occupancy, the line that does not flex. Rent and building costs take 16.8% of sales here. Sales per square foot and the hours the space is earning are the only two ways to move it, because the rent itself is fixed at signing.
- Enrolment, the operating driver. This model bills on enrolment. The licence fixes how many places exist, so what is left is how many are filled, what each is priced at, and how long a family stays. It is worth watching every week, because by the time it turns up in a monthly close the quarter is half gone.
- Fees, and where the minimum bites. Fees run about 12.0% of sales. A minimum sits underneath the percentage, so the low-volume location pays the higher effective rate. The brand charges the weakest locations the most. Work out the sales level where the percentage overtakes the minimum and know which side of it you are on, because the answer changes what an extra dollar of sales is worth.
- 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.
Goldfish Swim School
Swim schools
- Wages, the dominant line. Wages take 35.3% of sales, against 28.1% kept at the end. Staff productivity, scheduling against demand hour by hour, and the balance of base pay to commission are where this is won. Small movements here move the result more than anything else, because nothing else in the structure is that large.
- Occupancy, the line that does not flex. Rent and building costs take 11.4% of sales here. Sales per square foot and the hours the space is earning are the only two ways to move it, because the rent itself is fixed at signing.
- Enrolment, the operating driver. This model bills on enrolment. The licence fixes how many places exist, so what is left is how many are filled, what each is priced at, and how long a family stays. It is worth watching every week, because by the time it turns up in a monthly close the quarter is half gone.
- Fees, and where the minimum bites. Fees run about 10.0% of sales. A minimum sits underneath the percentage, so the low-volume location pays the higher effective rate. The brand charges the weakest locations the most. Work out the sales level where the percentage overtakes the minimum and know which side of it you are on, because the answer changes what an extra dollar of sales is worth.
- 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.
Questions owners ask next
The figures above raise these, and each one is answered on its own page.
- At what level of sales does a minimum fee stop costing me more than the percentage?How royalty, ad fund and minimums actually work on a monthly statement.
- How much cash do I fund before a new location covers its own costs?A 13-week forecast for the months before break-even.
- My payroll percentage keeps climbing. Is that a payroll problem?Usually it is a revenue problem wearing a payroll costume.
- I run several locations. Which ones actually make money?Location-level contribution, and what it takes to see it.
- How much of Item 19 can I rely on?What a financial performance representation does and does not tell you.
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 →Where do your numbers sit against your brand's?
A structured review of your unit economics, cash forecast, and reporting, benchmarked against your own brand’s filed numbers.
Request the reviewWhere these figures come from
Every figure here comes from the brands' 2026 FDDs and is unaudited by us. We are unaffiliated with the brands. The medians, growth and customers lost figures are our own calculations. The figures describe past performance at other businesses. They are not a projection of your results. This page is an educational summary and is not an offer to sell a franchise or financial, legal or tax advice. All trademarks belong to their owners. How Averan reads a Franchise Disclosure Document.