The International Franchise Association recently released its annual Franchise Business Economic Outlook for 2015 and prospects for the franchising industry are looking good. According to the report prepared by the IFA's Educational Foundation and HIS economics, franchise businesses are once again projected to grow faster than the rest of the economy in this new year. The IFA summarized the following takeaways in a recent press release:
- Franchise businesses will add 247,000 new direct jobs this year, a 2.9 percent increase to 8.8 million direct jobs, over last year.
- The number of franchise establishments will grow this year by 12,111, or 1.6 percent, to 781,794.
- Economic output from franchise businesses is estimated to increase by 5.4 percent over last year to $889 billion.
Certain business segments are expected to outpace others. For businesses looking to start a franchise system and for those people interested in purchasing a franchise, it is important to pay attention to the projected growth of new franchise locations for different types of franchise systems. The report breaks down the industries into 10 business format lines. While all lines are expected to see growth in 2015, some are on pace to outperform others in terms of the number of establishments. Personal service franchises (educational, health care, entertainment, recreation, personal and laundry services, and selected financial activities) are projected to once again rank first in 2015 for new franchise establishments followed closely by personal services and commercial and residential services. Slowest growth is expected in the retail food businesses. We advise anyone looking to venture into franchising (either as a franchisor or franchisee) to read the full report to gauge anticipated trends.
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