Delve Into IFA's 2025 Franchisor Survey

By: The International Franchise Association
Published: March 5th, 2025

The International Franchise Association (IFA) released its 2025 Franchisor Survey, the fourth annual survey of franchise brands highlighting economic challenges and current trends facing franchised businesses.

Conducted in partnership with FRANdata, this year's survey shows that while inflation concerns are easing, labor issues and sales remain top challenges for franchisors. This year's survey, coupled with the recently released 2025 Franchising Economic Outlook, indicates another strong year of growth for the franchise business model.

"Over the last five years, the franchise community has demonstrated its resilience in the face of unprecedented challenges, coming out stronger than ever before," said Michael Layman, IFA chief advocacy officer. "Reflecting the perspective of leaders from across industries and brands of all sizes, the IFA Franchisor Survey offers an illuminating look into the priorities and concerns for the year ahead, which is shaping up to be a time of incredible opportunity and growth."

Key findings from the 2025 IFA Franchisor Survey include:

• 37% of respondents identify the availability, quality, and cost of labor as their top business challenge.
• 15% of respondents state poor sales are a concern. It was the second most significant concern expressed, especially among personal services (42%) and QSR (23%) brands.
• 70% of respondents report that their franchisees have unfulfilled job vacancies, falling from 80% in 2024.
• 48% of franchisor executives expect franchisee total employment to increase in the year ahead, and 40% expect it to stay the same.
• At 12%, inflation concerns are the third most significant business challenge in 2025, up from 9% in 2024 but below the 2023 level of 20%.
• 66% of respondents plan to adjust wages while 64% intend to increase efficiency to address labor challenges.
• 56% of brands report constrained growth due to labor challenges, compared to 81% in 2023.

"Franchising is an opportunistic growth model that provides important forecasting signals because it cuts across hundreds of economic sectors," said Darrell Johnson, FRANdata chairman and CFO. "What franchisor executives are expecting and how they are adapting to change has implications across the entire business economy."

The survey also explored questions about growth and franchisor-franchisee relationships as part of IFA's commitment to promote Responsible Franchising practices:

• 85% of franchisor executives report having a positive or very positive relationship between their company and its franchisees.
• 42% of franchisor executives report unit economics to be the single most important factor impacting franchisor-franchisee relationships.
• 64% of respondents believe expedited state registration options would support their franchise-growth objectives.
• 54% of respondents plan to use internal franchise sales teams to achieve franchise growth in 2025.

The Franchisor Survey encompasses 171 senior executives from 229 brands across 24 different industries, representing more than 96,000 units and nearly 20% of all domestic franchised businesses.

Click here to read the full survey, and click here for the 2025 Franchising Economic Outlook.

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