Home Franchise Concepts (HFC) is the multi-brand franchise company (Budget Blinds, AdvantaClean, Kitchen Tune-Up, and more) owned by $18B automotive giant JM Family Enterprises, the 17th largest private company in America. For years, it has aggressively targeted, recruited and signed on Veterans as franchise owners. It’s headed by a Navy Veteran, CEO Andrew Skehan. So is Home Franchise Concepts (HFC) ethical & honest in their promotions to Veterans? Are they truly dedicated to supporting and sustaining their Veteran franchisees once they sign their franchise agreements? We’re taking a deep dive to find out… asking hard questions… and seeking the opinions of HFC Veterans. by Sean Kelly, Founder, Franchise Truth for Veterans
Read our series about the franchise offerings of Home Franchise Concepts (HFC), a company that positions its investment opportunities as Vet-Friendly and Top Franchises for Veterans .
Public Audit: Home Franchise Concepts (HFC) Veterans Franchise Program
A key indicator of a brand’s stability and health is the rate is ability and desire franchisees have to maintain their franchised businesses throughout the entire term of their franchise agreements.
Happy, content and profitable franchisees tend to continue to operate the businesses they researched, decided upon and financed, right?
In many ways, this could be considered a failure rate, though with the number of unknown factors that can prompt a franchisee to close or sell their franchise business, I favor “turnover” or “attrition” rate most of the time. It’s less debatable from situation to situation.
But if franchisees have paid franchise fees, signed leases and secured financing based on a ten- or 15- year franchise term –and a high percentage are closing, transferring or having their franchises terminated in years two or three… or even seven or eight… one should dig deeper until they find out the root cause – or walk away.
If some creative, smooth-talking franchise broker or salesperson claims that the high number of sales or transfers is the result of fabulously successful franchisees running out of places to store their gold… or that they cashed out & retired to Fiji… let us know and we’ll look into it.
Unfortunately, we’ve never found an instance where that checked out.
I analyzed the latest Franchise Disclosure Documents (FDDs) from the nine established Home Franchise Concepts franchise brands.
Here’s what I found:
HFC Brands Franchise Turnover Chart (2020-2022)
| FRANCHISE | FDD | VF | AVG | EXITS | RATE | LIT | GAG? |
| AdvantaClean | 3/21/23 | Y | 181 | 99 | 55% | 2 | Yes |
| Aussie Pet Patrol | 4/18/23 | N | 73 | 19 | 26% | 2 | Yes |
| Bath Tune-Up | 2/14/23 | N | 20 | 9 | 45% | 1 | Yes |
| Budget Blinds | 4/18/23 | Y | 1198 | 225 | 19% | 4 | Yes |
| Concrete Craft | 4/1/22 | N | 64 | 47 | 73% | 1 | Yes |
| Kitchen Tune-Up | 2/14/23 | P | 208 | 76 | 37% | 5 | Yes |
| Lightspeed Restoration | 4/17/23 | N | 0 | 0 | 0% | 1 | Yes |
| PremierGarage | 3/21/23 | Y | 163 | 32 | 20% | 1 | Yes |
| The Tailored Closet | 3/23/23 | Y | 163 | 32 | 20% | 1 | Yes |
| Two Maids & a Mop | 4/1/23 | N | 191 | 36 | 40% | 1 | No |
HFC Brands Franchise Turnover Chart Key
FDD This column indicates the date of the FDD used for this data
VF indicates whether the franchise is currently promoted in the VetFran directory (Y) or was known to have been in the past (P)
AVG is the average number of franchises open in the 3-year period reported in the FDD (2022, 2021, 2022)
EXITS is the number of franchises that left the system through closure, termination, transfer, or non-renewal.
RATE is the turnover rate calculated by the commonly accepted formula [EXITS divided by AVG x 100]
LIT indicates the number of government enforcement actions, lawsuits from franchisees or franchisor lawsuits against franchisees to collect royalties and fees disclosed in this FDD. Note that there may be other litigation that doesn’t require franchisor disclosure.
GAG “Yes” in the GAG column means that the franchisor discloses that it has prohibited franchisees, through confidentiality or NDAs from, from sharing negative experiences or opinions with prospective franchisees or others. It indicates that prospective franchisees will likely be forced to give up their right to share any negative franchise experiences or opinions (positive opinions are allowed)
There is no single answer to this question.
We all have a different ideas of acceptable risk.
Considering that buying a franchise vs. starting up an independent business is supposed to minimize risk, what would you, as a prospective franchisee, consider an acceptable risk that in any given 3-year period you would cease to be a franchisee?
The turnover rates of Budget Blinds (19%), PremierGarage & The Tailored Closet (20%) seem to fall in the lower risk range of franchises we’ve examined (with the caveat that the two latter were previously combined as one business.)
As a somewhat arbitrary place to start, we ask: would you agree that turnover of, say, 25% – 40% is cause for serious concern?
If so, Aussie Pet Patrol (26%), Kitchen Tune-Up (37%), & Two Maids and a Mop (40%) fall into the serious concern range.
Would you agree that turnover of 40% to 69% be cause for extremely serious concern?
With a turnover rate of 40% to 69%, shouldn’t prospective franchisees be provided with an explanation for such high turnover, and explain what urgent measures have been taken to better protect the remaining franchisees’ investments?
If so, Bath Tune-Up (45%) and AdvantaClean (55%) fall into the extremely serious concern range.
Turnover of 70% or higher would seem to indicate a catastrophic event (or events), a business upheaval, new competition or a flawed or outdated business model.
HFC has disclosed that Concrete Craft has a 3-year turnover/failure rate of 77%. Despite having the right to take over terminated franchises, it operates no company owned outlets.
Is there a valid justification for continuing to sell Concrete Craft franchises to Veterans? Or non-Veterans, for that matter.
Let’s take a closer look at the company’s 2023 FDD Item 20 for clues:
Footnotes to this chart in the FDD state:
1. One outlet opened in 2020, and the same outlet terminated in 2020.
2. One outlet opened in 2021, and the same outlet terminated in 2021.
3. Two outlets opened in 2022, and the same two outlets terminated in 2022.
4. One outlet opened in 2022, and the same outlet terminated in 2022
Should You Be Selling Concrete Craft as a Great Franchise for Veterans?
Questions for JM Family Enterprises, Home Franchise Concepts (HFC) and Concrete Craft:
We hope to hear from JM Family Enterprises, Home Franchise Concepts (HFC) and Concrete Craft executives and franchisees regarding these serious concerns.
We will be happy to share any corrections, clarifications, rebuttals, or developments regarding any or all of these issues.
WHAT DO YOU THINK? PLEASE SHARE A COMMENT BELOW. (ANONYMOUS COMMENTS ACCEPTED).
Read our Posts Supporting Veterans in Franchising:
VetFran or VetScam? Turnover Rates of IFA-Endorsed Vet-Friendly Franchises
FTC: Stop VetFran’s Deceptive Franchise Marketing to Veterans
Some Franchisors & VetFran Exploit Veterans Even After They’ve Failed
Franchise Warning: JDog Junk Hauling for Veterans (Index)
JDOG Franchise Dream Ends in Veteran Suicide, Double Homicide
What Every Veteran Should Know About the JDog Franchise
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