How Franchises Recruit Multi-Unit Owners

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.

Signing multi-unit franchisees

The opportunity to bring a franchisee into the system who intends to operate multiple units is an attractive one for many franchises. It helps with the overall growth of the franchise when they receive a commitment for multiple new locations. Many multi-unit operators are growth-minded individuals, which may lead to additional expansion under their ownership in the future. Some new franchisees may also own franchises with other brands, which brings experienced operators into the system.

Franchise Update asked development executives about their approach to adding multi-unit franchisees. The results were covered in the latest AFDR.

Eighty-four percent of the survey respondents said they sold multi-unit franchise opportunities. Most of the franchises surveyed (73 percent) said they sold both single and multi-unit franchise opportunities. Eleven percent responded that they sold exclusively multi-unit opportunities.

We also asked franchisors about the size of their average deals. More than half (55 percent) said it was one unit or territory. The next-largest response was 2-3 units/territories, which received 35 percent of the responses, followed by eight percent of respondents saying 4-5 units/territories. Only three percent said their average deal was six or more units.

Planning to operate multiple franchises is a significant financial commitment. We asked franchise development teams if they have a minimum liquidity threshold that must be met when opening or acquiring new locations. Not surprisingly, 88 percent of the franchises said they had a minimum financial requirement for new multi-unit owners.

Finally, we were curious about the number of multi-brand operators in franchise systems. We asked the survey respondents if they had owners who were also franchisees of other systems, and 72 percent said they did.

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/.