How Much Does a Playa Bowls Franchise Owner Make?

Officially, Item 19 measures Gross Sales, not owner earnings. For the 2025 calendar year, the median Gross Sales of 223 mature Traditional franchised outlets was $1,094,086, while the average was $1,117,488. Gross Sales is revenue after specified sales-tax, discount, allowance, and return adjustments; it does not subtract food, payroll, rent, royalties, marketing, insurance, repairs, financing, or taxes.

The cohort is substantial but selective. An Operational Franchise Outlet had to be open before the start of 2025 and operate for at least 356 days. New outlets were excluded. Fifteen of the 223 Traditional outlets supplemented shop operations with a mobile food trailer or food truck, and those mobile sales were included in each shop's Gross Sales. Item 19 separately reported Other Outlets, a mixed population of seasonal and nontraditional locations, so those figures are not combined with the Traditional-shop earnings model.

The estimate multiplies three official Item 19 revenue anchors by a broad, independently derived industry margin. The Conservative scenario uses the fourth-quartile median Gross Sales, the Base scenario uses the overall median, and the Upside scenario uses the first-quartile median. The margin center is 5.7129%, derived from 2022 IRS corporation statistics; the model then applies a transparent sensitivity of minus or plus 3.0 percentage points.

• Conservative: $681,587 fourth-quartile median Gross Sales × 2.7129% = approximately $18,500.
• Base: $1,094,086 overall median Gross Sales × 5.7129% = approximately $62,500.
• Upside: $1,549,911 first-quartile median Gross Sales × 8.7129% = approximately $135,000.

The IRS benchmark comes from the IRS Corporation Income Tax Returns Complete Report. For Tax Year 2022, the Food services and drinking places row reports $48.056 billion of net income, $12.775 billion of deficit, and $617.565 billion of total receipts. Net income less deficit divided by total receipts equals 5.7129%.

This is a broad all-corporation net-income proxy, not a Playa Bowls operating margin and not a pure cash-flow measure. It spans different restaurant formats, geographies, capital structures, depreciation policies, interest expense, and owner/officer compensation practices. The model therefore has Limited confidence and should be replaced with actual Playa Bowls shop profit-and-loss statements whenever available.

Officially, Playa Bowls permits a Managing Owner to oversee the shop while an approved Operating Manager handles day-to-day on-site operations. Item 15 requires the owner or Managing Owner to remain personally responsible for management and overall supervision. A shop must always be supervised on-site by either the Managing Owner or an Operating Manager, and each shop in a multi-unit portfolio must have an Operating Manager.

For the owner-operator scenario, the model adds the BLS May 2024 median wage of $63,040 for Food Service Managers in food services and drinking places. This produces owner-operator benefit of approximately $81,500, $125,500, and $198,100 across the three scenarios. The added $63,040 compensates the owner for operating labor; it is not a distribution that would remain if the owner stopped working.

Officially, the current required sales-based burden is 9% of Gross Sales. Item 6 lists a 6% Royalty Fee, a National Marketing Fund Fee currently set at 2%, and franchisee-directed local marketing of at least 1%. At the 2025 median Gross Sales of $1,094,086, that current burden equals approximately $98,500 a year before other operating costs.

The 9% burden is not subtracted again from scenario earnings because the IRS ratio is treated as an all-in net-income proxy; subtracting the same expense a second time could double count it. This is also a major comparability risk: actual Playa Bowls franchisee statements may classify expenses differently from the IRS population.

If the National Marketing Fund Fee rose from its current 2% to the disclosed 4% maximum, the added 2 percentage points would equal about $21,900 at the 2025 median Gross Sales, all else equal. A fully assessed $500 monthly Technology Fee would add another $6,000 annually. Neither potential increase is included in the three published scenarios.

Source: Playa Bowls Franchise Disclosure Document, Item 6, pp. 7-12. Dollar effects are derived from the Item 19 median and rounded to the nearest $100.

The largest uncertainty is the absence of same-brand shop-level expense and profit data. The revenue anchors are official and current, but labor, food cost, occupancy, delivery commissions, insurance, repairs, manager compensation, depreciation, and interest can vary enough to produce earnings below or above the scenario figures.

• Mature-shop selection: Item 19 excludes new outlets. Item 20 reports that 85 franchised outlets opened during 2025, so the official sales cohort does not describe first-year ramp-up performance.
• Sales mix: Fifteen Traditional outlets included supplemental mobile-unit Gross Sales. A shop without that channel may not be directly comparable.
• Format separation: Seasonal and nontraditional Other Outlets were reported separately. Their mixed operating calendars and captive-market economics are not modeled here.
• Margin mismatch: The IRS benchmark covers all corporations in Food services and drinking places, not only fast-casual superfruit-bowl shops or franchised Traditional outlets.
• Accounting treatment: IRS net income can reflect interest, depreciation, and owner/officer compensation conventions that differ from unit-level cash available to a franchise owner.
• Capital and debt: Remodels, equipment replacement, capital expenditures, financing principal, and personal income taxes are excluded from the published owner-earnings range. Item 10 states that the franchisor does not provide or guarantee financing.

The range should be treated as a screening model until actual Playa Bowls financial records are reviewed. The strongest next evidence is written Item 19 substantiation, followed by consistent shop-level profit-and-loss statements from comparable franchisees and actual operating-manager payroll for the target market.

• Request the written substantiation supporting Item 19 Table 2 and confirm the Gross Sales definition, reporting completeness, and treatment of mobile-unit sales.
• Ask mature Traditional franchisees for food and packaging cost, hourly labor, manager pay, payroll taxes, occupancy, delivery fees, merchant fees, insurance, repairs, and local marketing as percentages of Gross Sales.
• Separate owner salary, owner draw, distributions, retained earnings, and business profit rather than treating them as onenumber.
• Compare shops with similar geography, lease structure, operating hours, sales channel mix, and owner involvement; do not blend Traditional and Other Outlets.
• Model debt principal and interest separately using the buyer's actual financing proposal, and reserve separately for equipment replacement and required capital work.
• Interview current and former franchisees listed through Item 20 and ask how long it took to reach mature sales, whether a paid Operating Manager was required, and what changed after the first year.