How Much Does an Interstate All Battery Center Franchise Owner Make?

It discloses no historical or projected sales, gross profit, operating profit, EBITDA, net income, cash flow, or owner compensation for franchised or company-owned Centers. That is the official answer for the applicable 2026 U.S. offering. Item 19 says IBFAD does not make a financial performance representation, so there is no franchisor-reported average owner income to quote.

The absence of an Item 19 number does not prove that earnings are high, low, positive, or negative. It means the strongest same-brand evidence establishes the business structure and recurring obligations, while revenue and margin must be modeled with lower-confidence external evidence. The Federal Trade Commission’s franchise guidance explains that earnings claims must appear in Item 19 when a franchisor makes them and should have a reasonable supporting basis.

The estimate starts with a $2.284 million broad-industry sales anchor, applies a transparent 80%–120% revenue spread, and converts each revenue case through a FDD-adjusted operating-margin sensitivity. The applicable unit is one stabilized, manager-run Center. All three outcomes are editorial scenarios, not probabilities or franchisor forecasts.

The Census benchmark is useful because it measures revenue per physical retail establishment, and ARTS supplies compatible gross-margin and operating-expense ratios for the same broad NAICS group. The Census NAICS definition for 4413, however, includes automotive-parts retailers and tire dealers. Interstate All Battery Center also serves non-automotive consumer and commercial battery demand, so the category fit is incomplete.

An owner who is approved, trained, and personally fills the required store-manager role could have an estimated owner-operator benefit of about $98,000 to $288,000, versus $45,000 to $234,000 for a manager-run structure. The difference is a $53,380 national mean wage benchmark for a first-line supervisor of retail sales workers. It is compensation for work performed, not passive business profit.

The 2026 FDD does not require the owner personally to supervise daily operations, but Item 15 requires an on-premises trained general store manager and a dedicated B2B salesperson. Items 7 and 11 contemplate that the trained store operator may be the owner, an Operating Principal, or a designated general manager. A buyer should confirm in writing that the proposed owner-manager staffing plan satisfies the current operating standards.

At the $2.284 million base revenue anchor, the modeled annual royalty, required marketing, and fixed technology burden is about $244,995, or 10.72% of sales. This is an official-FDD-based fee calculation, not the Center’s total operating cost. Inventory, payroll, occupancy, insurance, utilities, delivery, card fees, and other operating expenses remain separate.

Item 7’s $179,200–$438,000 initial investment is not deducted from one year of sales. Startup spending and initial working capital are balance-sheet and financing decisions, not recurring annual operating expenses. The FDD also says its three-month “Additional Funds” estimate excludes debt service, owner compensation, royalties, and marketing contributions.

The confidence is LIMITED because the FDD supplies no same-brand revenue or profit distribution, and the model depends materially on a broad 2022 retail-industry proxy. The estimate is useful for sensitivity analysis, but it cannot establish a normal, median, or probable Interstate All Battery Center outcome.

• Revenue comparability: the $2.284 million anchor is the mean for NAICS 4413 establishments, including automotive-parts retailers and tire dealers. It is not adjusted for Interstate All Battery Center’s commercial-account mix, battery categories, territory, or store maturity.
• Time mismatch: the operating benchmark is from 2022, while the governing FDD is from 2026. The model does not inflate sales, wages, rent, inventory costs, or margins to 2026.
• Expense comparability: ARTS operating expenses include payroll, fringe benefits, rent, utilities, depreciation, and other operating costs for the industry group. Actual IABC staffing, occupancy, delivery, recycling, and supplier economics may differ.
• Margin sensitivity: the ±3 percentage-point margin band is an editorial assumption because no same-brand margin distribution is disclosed. A three-point change on $2.284 million of sales moves annual earnings by about $68,500 before fixed fees.
• Ramp-up exclusion: the scenarios represent a stabilized unit. They do not model opening-year ramp-up, the first-year marketing campaign, temporary working-capital deficits, remodels, or replacement capital expenditures.
• Outlet-population signal: Item 20 reports 133 franchised and 36 company-owned outlets at fiscal year-end 2026, down from 157 franchised and up from 13 company-owned one year earlier. The table describes ownership counts, not sales or profitability, and should not be converted into an earnings claim.

The ARTS glossary defines gross margin as sales minus cost of goods sold and states that total operating expenses exclude cost of goods sold, interest, capital expenditures, and income, sales, and excise taxes. Therefore, this article’s modeled earnings are before interest, financing principal, personal income tax, and capital expenditures. Depreciation and amortization are embedded in the ARTS operating-expense benchmark.

A buyer should replace the external assumptions with actual Center-level records wherever possible. The most decision-useful evidence would be a consistent set of recent income statements from comparable franchised Centers, reconciled to the 2026 FDD definitions and the proposed owner role.

• Ask IBFAD in writing to confirm that Item 19 contains no financial performance representation and request the written substantiation for any separate sales or earnings statement made during the sales process.
• Interview current and former franchisees listed in Item 20 about annual Gross Sales, cost of goods sold, gross margin, payroll, manager compensation, B2B sales costs, rent, delivery expense, bad debt, and replacement capital expenditures.
• Separate mature Centers from new, transferred, remodeled, company-owned, Branch Center, and distributor-linked locations. Do not average structurally different units.
• Confirm whether the buyer will act as the trained general store manager or employ one, and whether an Operating Principal is required for the ownership structure.
• Model the royalty minimums, first-year Local Store Marketing floor, future percentage increases, technology upgrades, required inventory sourcing, insurance, and supplier terms for the specific proposal.
• Keep financing separate: calculate interest and principal from the buyer’s actual loan amount, rate, amortization, and collateral terms. The 2026 FDD states that IBFAD does not offer or guarantee financing.
• Reconcile any claimed “owner income” to a defined measure: business operating profit, owner salary, distributions, retained earnings, or owner-operator labor value. Do not combine them silently.