How Much Does a LINE-X Franchise Owner Make?

It reports no outlet sales or earnings figures. This is an official FDD fact for the current U.S. offer and its franchised-store population: Item 19 states that LINE-X LLC does not make representations about future franchisee performance or the past performance of company-owned or franchised outlets. Therefore, no average unit volume, median sales, operating profit, owner salary, or percentage-achieving figure can be attributed to the franchisor (2026 LINE-X LLC FDD, Item 19, page 71).

The applicable evidence mode is Mode D — Structural FDD-Anchored Estimate. The estimate must start from operating structure, recurring obligations, outlet counts, and official external industry data rather than a same-brand sales distribution. The FTC Franchise Rule Compliance Guide explains why financial performance information must be handled through Item 19 or narrowly permitted supplemental records.

The range combines a same-FDD operating-scale proxy with official IRS margins. It applies to one annualized U.S. LINE-X Store and is estimated, not reported. The central revenue proxy is about $522,000; the three owner-operator benefit scenarios are then calculated using published IRS margin evidence and one explicit upside sensitivity.

The inputs come from 2026 FDD Item 8, pages 35–37, and the 2023 IRS sole-proprietorship table. The 165-outlet denominator is the simple average of 188 outlets at the start and 142 at the end of fiscal 2025. The calculation excludes separately disclosed affiliate purchase revenue to avoid possible overlap. It also assumes that the reported required-purchase revenue is compatible with Item 8’s statement that LINE-X Products approximate 25% of ongoing expenses. Because the purchase figure includes coatings, accessories, and equipment, this is the model’s most consequential compatibility assumption; the output is a proxy rather than store sales.

• Conservative revenue: 80% of the $522,006 central proxy, an editorial spread because the FDD provides no sales distribution.
• Base revenue: the $522,006 structural proxy derived from same-FDD purchasing and outlet-count facts.
• Upside revenue: 120% of the central proxy, also an editorial spread rather than an FDD quartile.
• Conservative margin: 7.9548%, the 2023 IRS net-income margin for all auto-repair and maintenance sole proprietorships.
• Base margin: 18.6574%, the 2023 IRS net-income margin for profitable businesses in the same category.
• Upside margin: 21.6574%, the profitable-business margin plus 3 percentage points as an explicit sensitivity.

What exactly is included in “owner-operator benefit”?

It is a pre-tax economic benefit, not after-tax take-home pay. The measure applies to an owner who works full time in the store and does not pay a separate full-time general manager. It combines residual business net income with the value of work performed by the owner.

Owner salary

No separate owner wage is deducted; owner labor is embedded in the benefit.

Manager compensation

Excluded from the owner-operator scenarios. A manager-run model must subtract loaded manager compensation.

Interest and depreciation

Embedded but not separately identifiable in the IRS tax-return benchmark; the model does not add or remove them.

Capital expenditures

Excluded as a separate annual deduction. The Item 7 startup investment is not treated as a recurring expense (2026 LINE-X LLC FDD, Item 7, pages 29–35).

Debt service

Financing principal payments are excluded. The FDD does not provide standardized third-party loan terms.

Personal income taxes

Excluded. Tax outcomes depend on entity structure, jurisdiction, deductions, and owner circumstances.

Active ownership is economically significant and contractually central during startup. This is an official requirement for a U.S. LINE-X Store under the 2026 offer: the owner must personally supervise the business full time and personally manage the store during its first 12 months. After that period, owner participation is strongly recommended; a full-time manager may be used in specified circumstances, including approved multi-unit operations (2026 LINE-X LLC FDD, Item 15, page 59).

The deduction is dollar-for-dollar. A loaded manager cost above $33,000 would eliminate the Conservative scenario’s residual; above $97,000 would eliminate the Base residual; and above $136,000 would eliminate the Upside residual. These are break-even thresholds, not manager-wage forecasts. Local compensation should be checked against the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics tables, local payroll taxes, benefits, recruiting conditions, and the manager’s actual duties.

Sales mix controls the royalty burden, while marketing and POS charges apply more broadly. These are official current-agreement charges for one U.S. LINE-X Store: 6% of Gross Revenues from Bedliner Services and 2% from other Vehicle Upfit Services, plus a 1.5% Marketing Fund contribution, at least 1.5% local marketing, and a $600 monthly POS System fee. Item 6 also permits the Bedliner Services rate to rise as high as 8% and the other-service rate to rise to 3% with the specified notice.

What does service mix do to the explicit fee burden?

At the $522,000 annual base revenue proxy for one U.S. store, the modeled explicit burden ranges from about $33,300 to $54,200. This is a derived sensitivity, not an official expense result. It includes royalty, 3% combined national and local marketing, and the $7,200 POS fee; it does not include product purchases, occupancy, payroll, insurance, or other operating costs.

Fee source: 2026 LINE-X LLC FDD, Item 6, pages 20–25. The structural owner-benefit model treats the FDD’s “ongoing expenses” as a total expense envelope, so this table decomposes recurring charges rather than subtracting them a second time. If franchisee records show that the Item 8 expense relationship excludes these charges, the earnings scenarios should be revised downward.

The 2026 FDD provides structural inputs for U.S. franchised stores but no store-level sales or profit population. This creates material uncertainty: there is no Item 19 sample size, average, median, quartile, reporting-outlet definition, or percentage-achieving result. There is also no company-owned outlet population available as an operating proxy.

The outlet base changed sharply during the measurement period. Item 20 reports 418 franchised outlets at the end of fiscal 2023, 188 at the end of fiscal 2024, and 142 at September 30, 2025. That is a derived decline of about 66% from the 2023 year-end count to the 2025 count. Item 20 records 169 non-renewals, 60 outlets that ceased operations for other reasons, and four terminations in fiscal 2024; for fiscal 2025 through September 30 it records 12 non-renewals, 37 other cessations, and no terminations. These categories document movement but do not establish its cause or the economics of surviving outlets.

For a proposed U.S. LINE-X Store, a buyer should replace each proxy with location-level records wherever possible. This is a due-diligence recommendation, not an earnings representation. The most useful evidence is a reconciled profit-and-loss statement for the exact store format and period, supplemented by Item 19 substantiation and interviews with current and former franchisees.

• Ask whether LINE-X LLC has written substantiation for any supplemental financial performance information permitted under the FTC Rule, and reconcile it to Item 19.
• Obtain actual annual Gross Revenues by Bedliner Services and other Vehicle Upfit Services, because the mix changes royalty expense.
• Separate product and chemical costs, technician payroll, owner hours, manager compensation, occupancy, insurance, card fees, local marketing, POS fees, maintenance, and recurring equipment needs.
• Ask franchisees to distinguish owner salary, draws, distributions, retained earnings, depreciation, interest, and financing-principal payments.
• Investigate the Item 20 non-renewals and ceased operations, including timing, cause, and whether surviving outlets differ from closed outlets.
• For a manager-run plan, price the full local compensation package and confirm that the operating arrangement is permitted after the first year or approved for a multi-unit owner.

The strongest defensible range is approximately $33,000 to $136,000 per year as estimated pre-tax owner-operator benefit, with a base case near $97,000. It is scenario-based, not official, derived, or guaranteed Item 19 earnings. The most important driver is the combination of store revenue, operating margin, and the owner’s decision to perform full-time management work rather than hire a manager.

The largest uncertainty is the absence of same-brand store-level sales and profit data: the FDD’s required-purchase figures and outlet counts do not reveal a comparable-unit P&L. Before making a decision, a buyer should verify Item 19, request any written substantiation, reconcile actual franchisee statements, and test the model against franchisee interviews—especially service mix, owner hours, manager cost, recurring product expense, and the causes behind Item 20 outlet changes.