The ranking in the Franchise Times 200 is based on total sales of US-based franchise companies, worldwide. The roster presents you the franchise companies’ current rank, previous rank, worldwide sales figures, domestic, international and overall franchise unit counts, along with ‘percent franchised’, which indicates the percentage of total number of franchise units which are owned by franchisees.
The only ‘stumbling block’ of the Top 200 Franchise Systems is that listing is voluntary, which means annual comparisons of the franchises were made difficult. Nevertheless, this list is a great reference for franchisors, franchisees, and franchise professionals.
Things worth noted from the Top 200 Franchise Systems list
Here is a glimpse of the Top 5 of the 200 franchises listed:
| Rank | Franchise Company | Worldwide Sales ($millions) | Total Units | % Franchised |
| 1 | McDonald’s | 70,693 | 31,967 | 80% |
| 2 | 7-Eleven | 53,700 | 35,603 | 95% |
| 3 | KFC | 17,800 | 12,459 | 86% |
| 4 | Subway | 12,900 | 30,257 | 100% |
| 5 | Burger King | 12,789 | 11,925 | 88% |
Please note that McDonald’s and 7-Eleven are way over the other franchises and dominate the franchising world in term of worldwide sales figures, at $70.7 billion and $53.7 billion, respectively (KFC, rank #3, ‘only’ makes $17.8 billion in sales – notice the huge gap between KFC and 7-Eleven, rank #2.)
A total of 32 industries are represented on the Top 200 list. Some are less represented compared to a decade ago, but some others are growing well, especially the commercial maintenance services and home services companies.
Here’s an analysis worth noted from the report:
Indeed, it at least appears as if newer franchisors are intent on operating brands, rather than stores. Consider that a third of the top 100 franchise systems are 98 percent or more franchisee-owned. That figure increases to nearly 50 percent for the next 100 companies. And fully 70 percent of franchisors that didn’t make the 200, but for which we have information, are nearly all franchisee-owned. In other words: The smaller—and perhaps newer—the company, the more likely it is to be fully franchised.
Well, maybe having own units to represent what a franchise company can do is not relevant anymore these days…
For the full roster of the 200 franchises, including a very useful analysis from the bird’s eyes view regarding the listed franchise companies, you can visit Franchise Times Magazine’s 2009 Franchise Times 200 franchise directory.
