Building a multi-unit future While some franchisors have owner-operator models, most would like to attract more multi-unit operators (MUOs). Let’s look more deeply at MUOs. How do MUOs look demographically? What common underlying characteristics do they have that can be used to identify the prospects who will become the MUOs of tomorrow? I’ll start with […]
As we head toward 2019 how should we describe today’s multi-unit (MU) and multi-brand (MB) operators? I suspect the answer to that question is about to change. Let’s look at what’s happening to this very important part of the franchise business model and see if we can understand what it means for the future. MU […]
It is increasingly clear that we are near the end of the current economic expansion. While it hasn’t been a robust period, it has been a persistently improving one–and the second-longest growth period in modern U.S. history. What comes next? We have two sets of franchise-related insights into the economic period we’re likely heading into […]
All the statistics point to continuing expansion For the past decade or more, you have heard me say that the majority of franchised units in the U.S. are owned by multi-unit operators. With more than 450,000 franchised units in the country, multi-unit operators control about 54 percent of those units. That’s impressive, and the percentage […]
MUOs control 54% of all franchised units Multi-unit franchise operators control a remarkable 54% of all franchised units in the U.S. today. Currently, 43,212 multi-unit operators control more than 223,213 franchised units in the U.S. The steady expansion of multi-unit dominance had its start in the late 1980s, so it is relatively recent in […]