Information in Item 19 of the FDD

Franchise Update Media has been researching franchise lead generation and franchise recruitment processes for more than a decade. An annual in-depth online survey queries franchise development professionals about a number of issues related to their lead generation and recruitment strategies. The results are presented each year in the Annual Franchise Development Report (AFDR).

The AFDR is a valuable resource that can provide crucial insights into franchise development, lead generation, and recruitment best practices. It’s the kind of information that can help brands assess what they are doing right, and what needs improvement.

The annual project seeks to identify what’s new and innovative in franchise lead generation, recognize the methods and approaches yielding the best results, and gain insights into franchisors’ perspectives on current and future business performance.

Survey participants were franchisors who completed an in-depth questionnaire online. Responses were aggregated and analyzed to produce a detailed view into the recruitment and development practices, budgets, spending allocations, and strategies of a wide cross-section of franchisors. The data along with accompanying commentary and analysis provided the basis for the 2025 AFDR.

The in-depth report features results from more than 110 organizations actively expanding their franchise systems. The thoroughly researched report spotlights the latest trends and reveals various franchise lead-generation and sales trends. The AFDR represents companies totaling more than 50,000 franchise units and 42 industry categories.

Franchise Update Media creates this report annually and shares its findings with franchise development teams to give them an edge in their lead generation and recruitment efforts.

What is in your FDD?

Item 19 is perhaps the most popular and well-known section of the Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD). It is the part of the document where the franchise discloses its financial performance representations. It is also the area that franchise candidates often first reference to get an idea of the sales, income, or profits that they can expect to achieve upon entering the franchise system.

Franchise Update asked development executives about some of the financial information they included in Item 19 of their FDD. The findings in the latest AFDR show the variety of financial disclosures and what they may have modified over the previous year.

Franchisors are not required to make financial performance representations to prospective franchisees. If they do, however, that information is contained in Item 19 of the FDD. We first asked franchisors in the survey if they included FPRs in their FDD, and an overwhelming majority (91 percent) said they did.

We then asked survey respondents what financial information they included in their Item 19s. Nearly everyone (94 percent) said they listed revenue projections in that section, which may also be the primary item franchise candidates check when reviewing the entire FDD. Other information franchisors said they included in Item 19 was expenses (63 percent), profitability (49 percent), and an entire P&L statement (24 percent).

Survey respondents were then asked if they had modified their franchise program to reduce franchise start-up costs over the past 12 months. Slightly more than two-thirds of the franchisors said they had not (68 percent).

For those who made changes to their franchise programs over the past year, we asked which areas they have modified. The two most popular responses were investment amounts and new build-out options, each with 58 percent. Other responses included franchise fees (18 percent) and royalty fees (13 percent).

For more information about the 2025 AFDR and how you can purchase the report, please scan the QR code below or click afdr.franchiseupdate.com/.