Tanning franchise finance
Averan read the 2026 FDDs of three tanning brands.
The median brand here reports average revenue of $627,114 an unit. Percentage fees at the median brand come to 11% of sales. The median cost to open runs $759,200 to $1,448,000.
Find a tanning 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.
- GLO Tanning Revenue by group · Company salons ahead in every quartile, by a margin that widens as the quarters
- Palm Beach Tan Full P&L · Franchisor reacquiring franchised salons at scale while franchised sales lead
- Sun Tan Citytwo_estates · A build costing up to 2.87 times a year's revenue, and zero openings in two years
The figures, brand by brand
| Measure | Median | Brands | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average sales per unit | $627,114 | 3 of 3 | Median of each brand’s disclosed average |
| Median sales per unit | Fewer than three disclose | 2 of 3 | Median of each brand’s disclosed median |
| Initial franchise fee | $30,000 | 3 of 3 | |
| Royalty | 6.5% | 3 of 3 | Headline rate |
| Brand or advertising fund | 2% | 3 of 3 | |
| Percentage fees, all in | 11% | 3 of 3 | Royalty, funds and local marketing set as a share of sales |
| Cost to open, low | $759,200 | 3 of 3 | |
| Cost to open, high | $1,448,000 | 3 of 3 | |
| Profit margin | Fewer than three disclose | 1 of 3 | Each brand’s own profit line; definitions differ |
| Labor, share of revenue | Fewer than three disclose | 0 of 3 | |
| Building costs, share of revenue | Fewer than three disclose | 0 of 3 | |
| Unit growth, 2025 | -4.3% | 3 of 3 | (End − start) ÷ start |
| Customers lost, 2025 | 4.3% | 3 of 3 | 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 tanning are running
What the top performers can do that others cannot
3 of the 3 brands here sell a membership.
What the customer is buying
The customer buys a plan they pay for monthly whether they show up or not. A location at the middle brand sells $627,114 a year; the top group sells $1,244,314. 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 44% 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 $1,244,314 against $353,298 at the bottom. Trade area and site set that range before an owner takes a booking.
How the money works
Opening costs $755,390 to $1,797,750 across the group, and inside one brand the top of the range is typically 1.7 times the bottom. At the middle brand the cost stack runs franchise fees 11.0% of sales. What is left runs 25.1% at the middle brand, which is $312,696 a year at the top group and $88,784 at the bottom. The percentage barely moves between them; the dollars do.
Also disclosed across this group: $549,415, $6,271, $693,963, 4.8, 7.6.
Top performers
These are the things that separate top performers in tanning
At the typical tanning brand, the best group of locations sells $1,244,314 a year. The worst group sells $353,298. That is $891,016 more a year, 3.5 times over, for the same brand on the same agreement. Across these brands, a median of 44% of locations reach their own brand’s average. The average describes the top of a system, not the middle. 2 of the 3 brands here publish bands; the rest disclose no spread at all.
Decided before you open
- What it costs to open.Opening costs run $755,390 to $1,797,750 across the group, and the top of a single brand’s range is typically 1.7 times its bottom. The top group sells $1,244,314 a year against a build that tops out at $1,797,750, so at the heavy end of the range a location sells $0.69 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 $627,114 at the middle brand and $1,244,314 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.
Live operating levers
- 3 of the 3 brands here sell a membership.The owner watches three things. How many people join in a month. How many cancel. What a member spends on top of the plan. The top performers work the cancellations as hard as the joins, because a member who leaves in month four has cost a year of revenue that was already counted. They are GLO Tanning, Palm Beach Tan, Sun Tan City.
- What is left at the end. Where the gap comes from.Of the 1 brands that publish a profit line, the middle one keeps 25.1% of sales, from 25.1% to 25.1%. 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 $312,696 against $88,784 at the bottom, a difference of $223,912 a year that comes from volume alone.
- What the brand charges. The line that works backwards.Fees run a median 11.0% of sales across 3 brands, from 9.5% to 11.5%. 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 $1,244,314 the fees cost $136,874 a year; at $353,298 they cost $38,863. The percentage is the same and the burden is not.
- No brand here prices its cost lines.Not one of these 3 filings publishes wages, rent or cost of sales, so the operating gap between the top and the bottom cannot be read from the documents. The sales figures are all you are given, and everything that turns those sales into earnings has to come from owners you call. Ask three at each end of the system for wages as a share of sales, rent as a share of sales, and what is left at the end.
Context you underwrite around
- How many brands show a ramp.0 of 3 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.
- What is not banded.1 brands publish no bands at all, so their spread is unknown rather than narrow. Read a single average as the upper-middle of a distribution you cannot see.
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
GLO Tanning
Tanning
- 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.
- Fees, and where the minimum bites. Fees run about 9.5% 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.
Palm Beach Tan
Tanning
- 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.
- 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.
- Fees, and where the minimum bites. Fees run about 11.5% 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.
Sun Tan City
Tanning
- 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.
- Fees, and where the minimum bites. Fees run about 11.0% 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.
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.
- At what point do spreadsheets stop coping?What changes at around ten units, and why lenders care.
- I run several locations. Which ones actually make money?Location-level contribution, and what it takes to see it.
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 does your unit sit?
A structured review of your unit economics, cash forecast, and reporting, benchmarked against the brands in this guide.
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.