How Much Does a Conserva Irrigation Franchise Owner Make?

Item 19 officially reports revenue, gross profit measures, selected operating costs, customer metrics, and a partial residual—not owner earnings. The most useful cost table covers calendar 2024 results for 51 full-time reporting franchisees that had operated for at least two full years, collectively running 135 territories.

The FDD calls the $168,933 average figure “Total Revenue Less Cost of Goods Sold and Certain Required Marketing & Operating Expenses.” That term matters. It includes direct technician labor, materials, equipment rental, royalty, local marketing, the National Branding & Marketing Fee, tools, vehicle expense, merchant fees, insurance, licenses, and IT/telephone. It does not equal gross profit, operating profit, EBITDA, net income, owner compensation, or cash flow.

Source: 2026 Conserva Irrigation FDD, Item 19, pages 42–45. The calendar 2024 cost cohort and fiscal 2025 revenue cohort have different periods and eligibility rules and are shown separately.

Why is the average less useful than it first appears?

The official average is materially influenced by larger multi-territory operators. In the 2024 mature cohort, only 31% of reporting franchisees met or exceeded the $813,066 average, while the median was $545,872. In the fiscal 2025 revenue cohort, all 14 franchisees above $1 million operated more than one territory.

That means a prospective single-territory buyer should not treat the mixed-cohort average as a typical one-territory sales forecast. The separate 12-franchisee single-territory cohort reported a $317,342 median for fiscal 2025, but the FDD does not pair that cohort with a complete single-territory expense statement. Applying the mature mixed-cohort cost ratio to that separate population would require a weaker compatibility assumption, so it is not used in the principal earnings range.

A reasonable analytical range is about $47,000 to $128,000 of annual owner-operator benefit. This is an estimated pre-tax cash benefit before personal income taxes and financing principal payments. It includes the economic value of the owner’s operating labor because the model does not deduct a separate owner salary.

The model begins with the FDD-derived 20.777% partial residual ratio. It then deducts a 10%, 7.5%, or 5% revenue allowance for expenses omitted from the Item 19 partial residual. Those allowances are explicit editorial assumptions, not franchisor-reported margins.

• Conservative revenue: 80% of the official $545,872 median, or $436,698. The 80% factor is an analytical spread because the mature cost cohort does not publish quartiles.
• Base revenue: the official $545,872 median for the mature, full-time reporting cohort.
• Upside revenue: the official $813,066 average, used cautiously because only 31% met or exceeded it.
• Omitted-overhead allowance: 10%, 7.5%, and 5% of revenue for unreported administrative payroll, benefits and unemployment insurance, depreciation, storage or office costs, bookkeeping and professional fees, and miscellaneous operating expense.
• Debt and taxes: financing principal, personal income tax, and owner-specific entity tax effects are excluded. Interest treatment depends on the underlying P&L and should be verified.

Owner involvement changes the economics by roughly the cost of replacing a full-time operating manager. The FDD expects the owner to devote 30–40 hours per week to personally running the business; an owner unable to do so must designate an approved Business Operations Manager.

For a manager-run comparison, the model deducts $72,342, rounded to $72,300, from each owner-operator scenario. This is derived from the latest BLS March 2026 private-industry median total compensation of $34.78 per hour multiplied by 2,080 hours, representing a 40-hour full-time year. It is a broad national labor proxy, not a Conserva-specific or occupation-specific manager salary, so local hiring cost may be materially different.

The scenario’s 20.777% starting ratio already reflects the principal recurring franchise and marketing charges shown in the mature Item 19 cohort. Subtracting them again would double count those costs.

Monthly Branding Royalty

The 2026 FDD uses a year-to-date sliding scale of 8% up to $499,999, 7% from $500,000 to $999,999, 6% from $1 million to $1,499,999, and 5% at $1.5 million or more. The mature cohort’s FDD-calculated average was $61,915, or 7.6% of Revenue.

Individual Advertising Investment

At least $40,000 per calendar year for one territory, $60,000 for two contiguous territories, and $20,000 for each additional contiguous territory. The Item 19 Local Marketing Investments average was $62,631, or 7.7%, and includes the Digital Marketing Fee and Technology Fee.

National Branding & Marketing Fee

1.5% on the first $1.5 million of Gross Revenues. The mature cohort figure was $12,196, or 1.5%.

Technology and digital charges

The 2026 FDD lists a current Technology Fee of $490 per month and Digital Marketing Fee of $300 per month. They are not added separately in the scenario because Item 19 includes them in Local Marketing Investments.

Other conditional fees

National accounts, training, state-license, transfer, audit, late, and technology-upgrade charges may apply in specific circumstances and are not modeled as routine annual costs unless incurred.

The largest unresolved uncertainty is the missing complete P&L by territory count and owner role. The FDD’s strongest expense table is dominated by multi-territory operators and omits several expenses, while its separate single-territory revenue table does not disclose a matching net-income bridge.

Territory count and maturity

A one-territory startup should not assume the economics of a mature multi-territory operator. The principal cohort required at least two full years of operation, and 45 of 51 reporting franchisees held multiple territories. New, transferred, part-time, ancillary, non-reporting, and terminated operations were excluded under the applicable Item 19 rules.

Labor, climate, and service mix

Technician productivity and seasonal utilization can change the result quickly. The FDD’s average direct labor cost was 28.0% of Revenue, materials were 16.8%, and vehicle expense was 6.9%. Winter-weather markets may have seasonal royalty relief at the franchisor’s discretion, but seasonality can also reduce annual utilization. Installation-heavy, repair-heavy, residential, commercial, and package-customer mixes may carry different labor and material economics.

Population changes and outlet turnover

Item 20 shows a growing system but also meaningful transfers and closures. At fiscal 2025 year-end, the system had 210 franchised territories and no company-owned outlets. During fiscal 2025, 22 territories opened, 12 terminated, two were not renewed, and 21 transferred to new owners. Item 19 excludes certain partial-year, transferred, and ceased operations, so its results do not capture every buyer outcome.

Debt service and taxes

Operating benefit is not personal take-home pay. Loan interest may or may not be captured in a franchisee P&L depending on reporting treatment; principal payments are not operating expenses. Personal federal and state income taxes depend on entity structure, jurisdiction, deductions, and owner circumstances, so no after-tax estimate is presented.

A buyer should reconstruct a local, territory-specific P&L rather than relying on the mixed-cohort average. The FTC explains that Item 19 claims must have a reasonable basis and that prospective buyers may request written substantiation; existing and former franchisees remain the best source for expenses not captured in the published table.

• Request written substantiation for the 2026 Item 19 tables, including definitions, reporting templates, and how the franchisor treated missing or inconsistent P&Ls.
• Ask single-territory and multi-territory franchisees for Revenue, technician payroll, administrative payroll, benefits, storage, vehicle count, bookkeeping, depreciation, owner compensation, and debt service separately.
• Determine whether each interviewee is owner-operated or manager-run and how many weekly hours the owner contributes.
• Compare first-year and second-year results with mature results; do not use the mature cohort to erase ramp-up risk.
• Build local wage estimates for technicians, an office or operations manager, payroll taxes, workers’ compensation, and benefits.
• Test the required $40,000 local advertising floor against local demand, season length, lead cost, and territory population.
• Reconcile the franchisee’s actual royalty tier, National Branding & Marketing Fee, Digital Marketing Fee, Technology Fee, and any national-account charges without double counting.
• Review Item 20 contacts for transferred, terminated, and former owners, not only high-performing current operators.