Aerus does not publish an official sales, profit, or owner-compensation figure in Item 19. The range above is a deliberately bounded estimate of annual pre-tax owner-operator benefit for one U.S. fixed-location business, before personal income taxes, financing principal, interest, depreciation, and capital expenditures.
This is an independent analytical scenario, not an Item 19 financial performance representation by Aerus Franchising, LLC. It combines identified 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document facts with separately labeled modeling assumptions. Actual results can differ materially because of location, program, product and service mix, sales volume, labor, occupancy, financing, owner involvement, and execution.
Legal franchisor: Aerus Franchising, LLC, owned by Aerus LLC, whose parent is ActivePure Technologies, LLC. Document: 2026 Aerus Franchise Disclosure Document, issued May 18, 2026. Item 19 status: no financial performance representation (Item 19, page 53). Confidence: LIMITED because every earnings figure depends materially on undisclosed outlet revenue, product-cost, and margin assumptions. Operating formats: Standard Program and Associate Program, each requiring a fixed store location and an active Operating Principal. The official Aerus U.S. franchise website provides current brand information. Official external reference points used to test classification and labor questions include the U.S. Census Bureau Economic Census and May 2025 BLS industry-specific wage tables; neither supplies Aerus-specific unit economics.
Item 17 requires at least $10,000 in monthly Gross Sales during each of the prior six months for renewal. It is not an average or typical revenue figure.
Item 6 applies the Royalty to a defined service, labor, parts, and service-package base—not automatically to every dollar of total Gross Sales. It may rise to 12%.
Both programs require local advertising and promotion spending equal to at least 2% of Gross Sales.
Annualized from $500 per month for a Standard Approved Location and $250 per month for an Associate Approved Location.
Item 20 reports 124 U.S. franchised outlets at the start of 2025 and 115 at year-end.
The 2026 FDD reports no franchised-unit sales, operating profit, EBITDA, net income, cash flow, or owner compensation.
How much may an Aerus owner earn in a year?
A reasonable analytical range is about $6,000 to $36,000 in annual pre-tax owner-operator benefit per location, but the figure is estimated rather than official. It applies to a modeled U.S. Standard or Associate fixed-location operation in which the Operating Principal remains active and no separate general-manager salary is charged.
The three scenarios are not probabilities, predictions, quartiles, or franchisor forecasts. They are a transparent stress test built because the 2026 Aerus FDD supplies no unit revenue or profit distribution. The conservative case uses the annualized renewal marker as revenue; the base and upside cases apply explicit multiples to that structural marker. The operating margins are editorial assumptions after ordinary unit-level costs and disclosed recurring obligations.
| Scenario | Modeled annual revenue | All-in operating margin | Estimated owner-operator benefit |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Conservative Structural marker |
$120,000 | 5% | $6,000 |
|
Base Editorial 1.5× revenue multiple |
$180,000 | 10% | $18,000 |
|
Upside Editorial 2.0× revenue multiple |
$240,000 | 15% | $36,000 |
Annual pre-tax benefit before debt service, personal taxes, depreciation, and capital expenditures.
Interpretation: the wide result is caused by two unverified variables moving together—revenue and the residual operating margin. It should not be read as a disclosed Aerus performance distribution.
Source and method: 2026 Aerus FDD, Item 17, page 49, for the $10,000 monthly renewal condition; Item 6, pages 12–18, for recurring obligations. Revenue multiples and 5%/10%/15% margins are independent scenario assumptions. Values are rounded to the nearest $1,000 after calculation.
What does the Aerus FDD actually say about earnings?
The official answer is that the 2026 Item 19 provides no financial performance representation. It does not report Gross Sales, average unit volume, gross profit, Operating Profit, EBITDA, Net Income, owner compensation, or cash flow for franchised or affiliate-operated outlets.
That absence matters. Under the Federal Trade Commission Franchise Rule in 16 CFR Part 436, a financial performance representation includes a stated level or range of actual or potential sales, income, gross profit, or net profit. Aerus chose not to make one in Item 19, so no independent model should be presented as an official franchisor result.
The $10,000 monthly Gross Sales condition in Item 17 is a renewal requirement, not an Item 19 average, median, minimum operating result, or owner salary. Annualizing it to $120,000 creates a structural modeling marker only. Gross Sales remain revenue before product cost, payroll, occupancy, advertising, fees, and other expenses.
Why can the renewal threshold not answer the income question?
Officially, it cannot answer the income question because the threshold says nothing about the cost structure or the number of U.S. Standard or Associate owners who achieve it. The FDD does not identify a reporting cohort, measurement sample, median, range, percentage attaining the threshold, or operating margin associated with $10,000 in monthly Gross Sales. It is therefore useful for contract analysis but weak as a revenue forecast.
How was the owner-earnings range calculated?
The estimate multiplies three transparent revenue assumptions by three all-in operating-margin assumptions. It is a structural scenario for one annual operating period, not a forecast based on reported Aerus outlet results.
- Revenue: $120,000, $180,000, and $240,000. Only $120,000 has a same-brand structural anchor; the higher values are explicit editorial multiples.
- Operating margin: 5%, 10%, and 15% after product or direct costs, ordinary non-owner payroll, occupancy, the applicable Royalty, minimum local advertising, administration and technical support, and routine operating expenses.
- Owner labor: no separate owner salary and no paid general-manager expense are deducted. The result is therefore owner-operator benefit, not passive business profit.
- Financing: interest and principal payments are excluded. A buyer must deduct actual debt service separately.
- Accounting: personal income taxes, depreciation, owner distributions, retained earnings decisions, capital expenditures, and replacement equipment are excluded.
- Program mix: the model does not pretend that Standard Program and Associate Program economics are identical. It is a broad one-location sensitivity because the FDD supplies no separate sales or margin data for either program.
The direct product-cost relationship is not quantified. Item 6 says the Standard Allocation for Consigned Products varies by program and sales volume, and the security deposit equals 88% of the applicable Standard Allocation. Without a disclosed product margin or product-versus-service sales mix, the residual margin cannot be reproduced from the FDD.
The 2022 Economic Census data program is an authoritative source for U.S. industry revenue, employment, and payroll research, while the Retail Trade summary-statistics table can help a buyer test local retail assumptions. The BLS industry list identifies NAICS 449200 as Electronics and Appliance Retailers, but that is only a screening category—not an Aerus classification or a margin proxy. Neither government source isolates Aerus's consignment economics, in-home demonstration model, repair and maintenance services, Standard Program, Associate Program, or required supplier pricing. A generic retail margin was therefore not inserted as if it were brand evidence.
How does owner involvement change the result?
Owner involvement is not optional in the disclosed operating model, and it can determine whether the modeled benefit is labor compensation, residual profit, or both. Item 15 requires an Operating Principal to participate personally in day-to-day operations, whether the franchisee is an individual or an entity.
The $6,000–$36,000 range assumes the Operating Principal performs the central management role without charging a separate general-manager salary to the business. Some of the result therefore compensates the owner for work performed. It should not be described as passive income.
- Active owner-operator
- Performs day-to-day leadership and absorbs the economic value of management labor. The scenario result is estimated owner-operator benefit, not pure operating profit.
- Active principal with a paid general manager
- Still satisfies the required participation obligation but employs a manager. Manager-run pre-tax owner earnings equal owner-operator benefit minus fully loaded manager compensation and any incremental oversight cost.
- Personal take-home pay
- Cannot be estimated responsibly here. Personal taxes, entity structure, distributions, financing, and owner-specific deductions are outside the FDD evidence.
A paid manager can eliminate the modeled residual. At the base scenario, any fully loaded manager cost above $18,000 would reduce pre-tax residual owner earnings below zero before debt service. That is arithmetic, not a claim about actual Aerus managers. Buyers should price the relevant occupation and geography using the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics tables, then verify actual staffing with comparable franchisees.
Which recurring FDD obligations can move owner earnings most?
The most consequential disclosed obligations are product remittances through the Standard Allocation, the limited-base Royalty, local advertising, and the monthly administration and technical support fee. These are official 2026 FDD terms, but the FDD does not provide enough unit-level data to convert all of them into a single verified annual expense ratio.
| Obligation | Standard Program | Associate Program | Earnings treatment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard Allocation | Varies by program and sales volume | Varies by sales volume | Direct product-cost mechanism; amount and effective margin are not disclosed. |
| Royalty | 8%, potentially up to 12% | 8%, potentially up to 12% | Applied to the FDD-defined service, labor, parts, and service-package base, not silently to all modeled revenue. |
| Minimum Local Advertising Expense | At least 2% of Gross Sales | At least 2% of Gross Sales | Included inside the scenario margin rather than subtracted twice. |
| Administration and Technical Support Fee | $500 monthly per primary Approved Location | $250 monthly per Approved Location | Annualized to $6,000 and $3,000 respectively for the key-metric comparison. |
| System Media Fund | Currently $0; 3% if established | FDD table lists 3%, while remarks state it has not been imposed and is not currently charged | Modeled as currently uncharged; buyers should confirm the current written fee schedule. |
Source: 2026 Aerus FDD, Item 6, pages 12–18. Initial investment amounts in Item 7 are startup requirements and are not treated as recurring annual expenses in this earnings model.
What does outlet history add to the uncertainty?
Item 20 shows a shrinking U.S. franchised-outlet population, which raises the importance of outlet-level verification but does not prove why any outlet left or whether remaining owners were profitable. U.S. franchised outlets ended 2023 at 154, 2024 at 124, and 2025 at 115.
The two-year decline from 154 to 115 is 39 outlets, or 25.3%, derived from the FDD totals. Item 20 also records 30 U.S. non-renewals in 2024, followed by seven terminations, two non-renewals, and two other cessations in 2025. These counts are system-population evidence, not earnings data.
End-of-year U.S. franchised outlets reported in Item 20.
Interpretation: the population trend increases uncertainty because the FDD gives no financial-performance cohort that explains how continuing, non-renewing, terminated, transferred, or closed outlets performed.
Source: 2026 Aerus FDD, Item 20, Table 3, pages 58–61. The 25.3% decline is a derived calculation: (115 − 154) ÷ 154.
What should a buyer verify before relying on this range?
For a U.S. Standard or Associate location, earnings remain uncertain until the scenario assumptions are replaced with comparable outlet records. A buyer should do that before making a financial decision. Because Item 19 supplies no sales or profit evidence, the highest-value diligence is a consistent set of actual profit-and-loss statements and owner-workload interviews from current and former U.S. franchisees in the same program and market type.
- Ask Aerus Franchising, LLC in writing whether any supplemental Item 19 substantiation, existing-outlet records, or location-specific performance information is available under the Franchise Rule.
- Obtain at least three years of monthly Gross Sales, product sales, service sales, Standard Allocation remittances, payroll, rent, advertising, technology, repairs, refunds, bad debt, and operating cash flow for comparable outlets.
- Confirm the exact Royalty base and calculate the effective royalty as a percentage of total Gross Sales for each comparable outlet.
- Separate the Standard Program from the Associate Program and do not blend Approved Locations, Satellites, Licensed Outlets, affiliate-operated outlets, or multi-location organizations.
- Record the Operating Principal's weekly hours, selling activity, service work, recruiting duties, and management tasks; then price any labor that a paid replacement would perform.
- Ask current and former franchisees why outlets were not renewed, terminated, transferred, or ceased operations, while recognizing that Item 20 notes some franchisees may have communication restrictions.
- Model debt service separately using the actual financed amount, rate, term, fees, collateral, and required working capital. Do not treat financing principal as an operating expense.
- Have a franchise attorney and accountant reconcile the written fee schedule, supplier terms, state addenda, lease, and historical records before signing.
What is the most defensible earnings takeaway?
The strongest defensible published answer is an independent $6,000–$36,000 annual pre-tax owner-operator benefit scenario, not an official Aerus earnings range. The most important earnings driver is the residual margin after Standard Allocation product costs, payroll, occupancy, advertising, and recurring fees. The largest unresolved uncertainty is that the 2026 Item 19 discloses neither unit sales nor any profit measure for the Standard Program, Associate Program, or a comparable U.S. cohort.
Owner involvement can materially change the interpretation: the FDD requires an active Operating Principal, so the scenario may combine business residual with compensation for the owner's labor. Hiring a general manager reduces that benefit dollar-for-dollar by fully loaded management cost while the principal's participation obligation remains. Before relying on any range, a buyer should verify Item 19's absence of a financial performance representation, request any permitted written substantiation or existing-outlet records, and test the assumptions through consistent franchisee interviews and comparable profit-and-loss statements.