What is the total number of Belocal franchisees that were excluded from the average yearly commission payments calculation?
Belocal Franchise · 2025 FDDAnswer from 2025 FDD Document
This historical financial performance representation relates to Commission payments we paid from July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025 ("Reporting Period") to 84 BeLocal Publications that were in print as of June 30, 2024 and that had been in print for a full year ("Reporting Publications") and to 88 franchisees who were active franchisees for the Reporting Period ("Reporting Franchisees"). By "in print," we mean that the publication that had been in print for at least one year under the franchisee's management. By "active franchisee" we mean actively involved in in-print activities for at least one Publication for the entirety of the Reporting Period.
We had a total of 135 BELOCAL publication franchises during the Reporting Period. We excluded the Commission payments made to publications that were not in print for the full year. We do not include information for franchisees who have been operating less than one year because we do not consider that information to be as reliable as information from franchisees who have been in operation for at least one year. We also excluded the Commission payments made to publications that were managed by 4 franchisees whose Commission payments were calculated using a different formula than the rest of our franchisees. We do not include in this disclosure document financial information about Publications managed by our affiliate. We do not include in this disclosure document financial information about our franchisees who operate the 13 Test Publications.
Source: Item 19 — FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE REPRESENTATIONS (FDD pages 55–59)
What This Means (2025 FDD)
According to Belocal's 2025 Franchise Disclosure Document, the average yearly commission payments representation excludes several franchisees. The financial performance representation includes data from July 1, 2024, through June 30, 2025, for 84 BeLocal Publications and 88 franchisees. These are referred to as "Reporting Publications" and "Reporting Franchisees." The initial pool consisted of 135 Belocal publication franchises. However, not all of these were included in the financial performance representation.
Belocal excluded commission payments made to publications that were not in print for the full year. Belocal does not include information for franchisees operating less than one year because they deem that information less reliable. Additionally, the commission payments made to publications managed by 4 franchisees were excluded because their commission payments were calculated using a different formula. Belocal also excluded financial information about publications managed by their affiliate and franchisees operating the 13 Test Publications.
In total, Belocal excluded franchisees who hadn't been in operation for a full year, 4 franchisees with different commission calculation methods, those managed by an affiliate, and the 13 Test Publications. While the exact number of franchisees excluded due to being in operation for less than a year is not specified, we know that 135 franchises existed during the reporting period, and only 88 were considered "Reporting Franchisees." This means that 47 (135-88) franchisees were excluded for at least one of the reasons described above. The FDD specifically mentions excluding 4 franchisees due to a different commission formula and 13 Test Publications. Therefore, at least 17 franchisees were specifically excluded, with the remaining 30 (47-17) likely excluded for not being in print for the full year or being managed by an affiliate. A prospective franchisee should seek clarification from Belocal regarding the precise number of franchisees excluded for each reason to fully understand the scope and reliability of the financial performance data.