(Be sure to sign up for our free LunchNLearn Webinar, Wednesday, April 28, at 1 pm ET, in which Cary Sherburne and Richard Romano share the results of the Print and Sign Franchise Reviews.)

In this review, we are covering the five traditional print franchise organizations—Alliance Franchise Brands, AlphaGraphics, Fortusis, Franchise Services, and Minuteman Press International. As we did last year, we are also separately reporting on ProForma, a network of print distributors. While this is a different franchise model than what we usually think of as a franchise network, it still accounts for a substantial amount of revenue—in fact, about $538 million in 2020, up 5% from 2019 levels. Because of its different business model, it was the only network to demonstrate growth during this difficult pandemic period. This is largely due to the fact that many of the distributors were already working from home, and none of them had equipment production platforms they needed to support.

That being said, exclusive of ProForma (whose results are shown at the end of this article), the traditional print franchise networks generated more than $1 billion in systemwide revenue, down 23% from the previous year. Across all five franchises, average shop sales were $676,700.