Main Street Monday — Economic Census Shows Franchising Key to Many Industries

April 2, 2018

By Bob Coleman
Editor, Main Street Monday

Main Street Monday — Economic Census Shows Franchising Key to Many Industries

Franchise data from the 2012 Economic Census estimated 122,042 limited-service franchise restaurants make up approximately 54 percent of all fast-food restaurants in the United States, nearly 70 percent of the sales of fast-food restaurants ($185.4 billion), and about 73 percent of the employment of fast-food restaurants (3.6 million).

Further stats:

• About 63 percent of the 3,149 private mail centers and 53 percent of the 3,186 diet and weight reducing centers in the United States are franchises.
• While only 3 percent of the 23,931 used car dealers in the United States are franchises, these franchise dealers make up approximately 24 percent of the sales of this industry ($67.2 billion) and 17 percent of the total employment in the industry (124,394).
• Only 77 of the 10,243 general warehousing and storage businesses are franchises, but these businesses reported annual payroll per employee of $114,598, which is $75,954 more than the average for all businesses in this industry.
• While franchise businesses can be operated by either the franchisor (the company that owns the franchise) or the franchisee, about 93 percent of the 5,982 optical goods franchise stores are operated by the franchisor. The opposite is true for car dealers: 100 percent of the 21,292 new car dealers in the United States are operated by a franchisee.

Detailed data on franchises comes from the Economic Census, which is taken every five years, and covers employer businesses in the United States. The 2017 Census data collection begins May 1 with a survey mailing to U.S. businesses.

Source www.census.gov