Wall Street Journal 25 High Performing Franchises
The good: Kudos to research firm Frandata and the Wall Street Journal’s small business section for being open about their selection criteria. The 25 strongest franchisors is sorted from a list of some 2,900 brand concepts. It first searches established franchisors — those who have been in existence for 7 years or more and have over 99 franchise units. It then sorts franchisors that make the most money from franchise efforts.
The bad: There is no analysis of franchise unit financial performance. The report looks at highly profitable franchisors with the lowest failure rate of franchise units reported in the franchisor’s Uniform Franchise Offering Circular. The problem is that such listings of failed franchises in the UFOC are dubious at best.
The bottom line: This is not a list of best performing franchise units to buy but rather a list of strong franchisors that are established and are highly profitable at the corporate level through their franchise efforts. It does show strong franchisors and it does attempt to rank low franchise unit failure rates from reported figures in the UFOC that are not monitored for accuracy.
- WSJ 25 Franchise High Performers, 2008
- High Performers Methodology
- Frandata’s Response to Blue MauMau on Methodology
User remarks on WSJ 25 Franchise High Performers List:
Nick Bibby, franchise consultant: “This effort constitutes no real value for a buyer in search of a quality investment."
Jeff Johnson, franchise satisfaction survey services: I do wonder how many of the items listed in the methodology have anything to do with a prospective franchisee selecting a great franchise opportunity. Someone will have to explain to me what a “brand's average three-year return on equity” has to do with a prospect selecting a franchise??
Please vote below (Among five stars) to rank the Wall Street Journal’s High Performing 25 Franchises
