A new members-only hub combines trusted industry research with exclusive quarterly financial benchmarking, giving franchisors and franchisees a clearer view of how they’re performing and where to improve.

Franchising generates more data than almost any other business model. The problem is where it sits. It’s spread across FDDs, vendor systems that don’t connect, spreadsheets that never leave someone’s desktop, and reports that are outdated by the time anyone reads them.

“Franchising has always been a data-rich business, yet that data rarely sits where brands and franchisees can actually use it,” said IFA President & CEO Matt Haller. “The result is that even straightforward questions become difficult to answer.”

The International Franchise Association is addressing that problem with the launch of the Franchise Research & Insights Center. It’s a single, trusted destination for franchise intelligence, available exclusively to IFA members on franchise.org.

 

Built on what members said matters most

The center was developed directly in response to IFA’s recent member survey. In that survey, members named improving franchisee financial performance as the top challenge facing franchising today. The new center is designed to give franchisors and franchisees the evidence they need to meet that challenge.

 

Trusted research, under one roof

The Franchise Research & Insights Center brings together industry-leading resources from IFA and Franchise Update Media, including:

• IFA’s annual Franchising Economic Outlook
• Franchise Update Media’s Annual Franchise Development Report (AFDR)
• IFA’s franchisor and franchisee surveys

It builds on that foundation through three new founding partnerships, with Franchise Business Review, FRANdata, FranConnect and ProfitKeeper. The partners will contribute anonymized, aggregated data on financial performance, industry sectors, multi-unit operations, and franchisee satisfaction. That data will power ongoing benchmarking and performance insights for members.

 

Exclusive to franchisor and franchisee members: the ProfitKeeper Franchise Industry Financial Summary

The first partner resource to launch is a financial benchmarking report from ProfitKeeper. It’s built from thousands of franchisee P&Ls, refreshed every quarter, and available only to IFA franchisor and franchisee members.

The report lets members benchmark financial performance from two directions:

• By segment: region, industry, and operator size
• By metric: profit margin, labor cost, cost of goods, and operating expenses

The result is an apples-to-apples view of where a business stands and where there’s room to improve.

 

What franchisor and franchisee members get

With the Franchise Research & Insights Center, IFA members have access to:

• Quarterly financial benchmarking by segment and metric, exclusive to IFA members
• Centralized access to trusted franchise research
• Industry- and region-specific financial performance trends
• Recurring insights on operational and engagement drivers
• Comparative franchise vs. non-franchise data to support advocacy, storytelling, and public perception
• AI-powered search and analysis tools

 

Stronger brands, and a stronger case for franchising

The center gives individual brands better access to timely data. It also strengthens franchising’s collective voice. With evidence at the center of its strategy, IFA is better equipped to protect and defend the franchise model, tell the story of franchising’s economic impact, and lead in conversations with lawmakers, the media, and the broader business community.

“When we can prove franchising’s positive impact with data, we all win,” Haller said.

The Research & Insights Center works alongside IFA’s recently launched Member Resource Hub. Together they give members a vetted, one-stop source of information for planning growth and making decisions in an environment saturated with data.

 

Just the beginning

IFA plans to keep expanding the center with new partnerships, broader research capabilities, and more insights to help members build stronger, more profitable, and more resilient franchise systems.

“This is just the beginning,” Haller said.

The Franchise Research & Insights Center is available now to IFA members at franchise.org.