Buoyed by growing consumer spending and growth in disposable income levels, FRANdex achieved major year-over-year gains in 2019. In the year, franchise companies’ (excluding McDonald’s) annual returns were almost like those achieved by the S&P 500 and the Russell 2000 indices. Hospitality franchises were the major gainers in the year, up 34.5% y-o-y; overall the returns for non-food franchises (24.3%) outperformed their food counterparts (16.2%).
FRANdata has been studying the trajectory of publicly-traded franchises for more than 3 years. FRANdex tracks the performance, based on market capitalization, of 62 U.S.-based publicly-traded companies operating under and generating income through the franchise business model. All index levels are normalized to 1,000 at Q1 2006 for comparison purposes, and all remaining periods are adjusted accordingly.