How Much Does a Rocket Fizz Franchise Owner Make?

The official disclosure measures Gross Revenue, not owner earnings. Item 19 reports unaudited historical sales for franchised Rocket Fizz Shops that had operated for more than one year by December 31, 2025. It does not provide cost of goods sold, store payroll, rent, EBITDA, operating profit, net income, owner salary, distributions, or cash flow.

The 2025 population included 94 mature franchised shops and excluded nine of the 103 franchised shops operating at year-end because the excluded shops had not been open for more than one year. Six shops that ceased operating during 2025 were also outside Table A; the FDD says one had operated for less than 12 months and one was temporarily closed before relocation. These exclusions matter because the published revenue distribution does not represent every shop that operated during the year.

Source: 2026 Rocket Fizz FDD, Item 19, pages 40–47. “Gross Revenue” follows the FDD definition and excludes bona fide refunds, specified taxes, and redeemed gift-certificate value. The FDD explicitly states that the figures do not reflect the costs and expenses needed to determine net income or loss.

The model applies a transparent operating-margin range to three official FDD revenue anchors. Conservative revenue uses the 2025 Quartile D median, the base uses the 2025 system median, and upside revenue uses the 2025 Quartile A median. These are analytical scenarios, not probabilities or forecasts.

The central margin is derived from the Census Bureau’s 2022 data for U.S. employer firms in NAICS 445 Food and Beverage Stores. The Annual Retail Trade Survey tables report a 28.7% gross margin and $217.589 billion of operating expenses on $948.836 billion of sales. Operating expenses therefore equal 22.93% of sales, leaving a derived 5.77% operating residual before interest and income taxes.

The Census ARTS definitions exclude cost of goods sold, interest expense, income and sales taxes, capital expenditures, and invested funds from total operating expenses. They include payroll, benefits, occupancy-related costs, depreciation and amortization, license fees, and other operating expenses. Because “other operating expenses” can already contain franchise-like charges, the Rocket Fizz royalty is not subtracted a second time from the all-in benchmark margin. That avoids a known double-counting error but leaves uncertainty over whether the broad benchmark fully reflects Rocket Fizz’s 5% royalty and required-system expense profile.

• Conservative: $270,791 revenue × 2.77% margin, where the margin is the 5.77% benchmark minus three percentage points.
• Base: $410,687 revenue × 5.77% central benchmark margin.
• Upside: $775,201 revenue × 8.77% margin, where the margin is the benchmark plus three percentage points.
• Rounding: calculations use full-precision ratios and are rounded to the nearest $100 for publication.
• Exclusions: personal income taxes, debt principal, owner-specific financing, major replacement capital, and future remodeling are not deducted. Census operating expenses include depreciation; the benchmark excludes interest.

Replacing a paid General Manager can add approximately $50,110 of labor value to each scenario, but that addition is compensation for work—not pure profit. The 2026 FDD requires a Principal Owner to devote full time to the Rocket Fizz Shop and remain responsible for operational decisions. The shop may be under the direct control of the Principal Owner or a trained General Manager, so a manager-supported structure is possible, but the FDD does not support a passive-owner assumption.

The labor-value adjustment uses the BLS 2025 median annual wage for first-line supervisors/managers of retail sales workers in Food and Beverage Stores. It excludes employer payroll taxes and benefits, so the true avoidable manager cost could be higher. Conversely, a working owner may still need supervisory coverage, and the owner’s actual duties may not replace a full manager position dollar for dollar.

Manager-run residual earnings

Cash modeled as remaining after ordinary store-level operating expenses, before personal income taxes and debt principal. The benchmark is intended to include normal payroll and depreciation.

Owner-operator benefit

Manager-run residual earnings plus $50,110 of manager-replacement labor value. The labor component compensates the owner for active work.

Owner salary or draw

A method of paying the owner; it does not by itself establish the shop’s economic profit. Entity structure and accounting treatment can move amounts between payroll, draws, distributions, and retained earnings.

After-tax take-home pay

Not estimated. Federal, state, local, payroll, and self-employment tax outcomes depend on the owner and entity.

The 5% royalty is the largest disclosed recurring system charge, and a future Marketing Fund could reduce cash flow by another 1%–2% of Gross Revenue. The 2026 FDD states that the Marketing Fund was not operating for 2025, but RPM Summit Group, LLC may establish it with 90 days’ notice.

At the $410,687 base revenue anchor, 5% equals approximately $20,534, which exceeds the $10,800 annualized minimum royalty. A 1% Marketing Fund would equal about $4,107; a 2% contribution would equal about $8,214. These calculations show fee exposure, but they are not deducted again from the scenario results because the Census operating-expense benchmark is already an all-in expense measure and does not isolate franchise fees. Subtracting both would risk double counting.

Sources: 2026 Rocket Fizz FDD, Items 6, 8 and 11, pages 4–9, 14–17 and 20–28. Annualized fixed-fee amounts use the disclosed monthly ranges. Product purchases, occupancy, payroll and local operating costs are not supplied as Item 19 expense ratios.

Confidence is limited because the same-brand FDD provides a strong revenue distribution but no same-brand profit data. The model must translate Rocket Fizz Gross Revenue through a broad government benchmark for Food and Beverage Stores. That benchmark is authoritative, but it combines multiple retail formats and cost structures rather than isolating candy-and-soda franchises.

Which variables can move annual earnings most?

Merchandise gross margin, occupancy, labor structure, and revenue level are the primary operating drivers. The FDD describes typical shops in high-traffic pedestrian, suburban, urban, downtown, mall, and lifestyle-center locations, so rent and common-area charges can vary substantially. Product mix and supplier economics can also differ from the broad NAICS 445 benchmark.

• Sales distribution: 2025 mature-shop Gross Revenue ranged from $159,305 to $1,186,181, showing substantial unit variation.
• Inventory economics: Rocket Fizz requires approved products, proprietary products, and a three-week inventory rotation, but the FDD does not disclose franchisee cost of goods as a percentage of sales.
• Labor: a paid General Manager lowers residual cash but can reduce the owner’s direct store-management workload; the FDD still requires a full-time Principal Owner.
• Occupancy: high-traffic retail locations may support sales but can carry materially different rent, common-area maintenance, insurance, and utility burdens.
• Debt: principal payments are not operating expenses. Interest is also outside the Census residual used here, so buyer-specific borrowing would reduce cash available to the owner.
• Capital needs: depreciation is embedded in the benchmark, but actual cash spending for replacements, refreshes, and future remodels will not match depreciation in a given year.

What does Item 20 add to the earnings decision?

Item 20 provides operating-population context, not a profit measure. Franchised outlets increased from 89 at the end of 2023 to 101 at the end of 2024 and 103 at the end of 2025. During 2025, eight franchised shops opened and six ceased operations for reasons classified outside termination, non-renewal, or franchisor reacquisition. There were no company-owned shops at year-end 2025, so no current company-store profit proxy is available.

Item 20 also lists current, former, transferred, and not-yet-open franchisees. The FDD notes that some current or former franchisees have signed confidentiality provisions that may restrict open discussion. That makes it important to contact a broad cross-section rather than relying on one high-performing operator or one promotional testimonial.

A buyer should replace every broad assumption with store-level evidence before making an investment decision. The FDD says written substantiation for Item 19 is available on reasonable request, and the FTC recommends comparing disclosed results with information from current and former franchisees.

• Request Item 19 written substantiation and confirm how each 2025 shop was assigned to a quartile.
• Ask mature franchisees for annual sales, product cost, shrink, payroll, manager compensation, rent and common-area charges, card fees, insurance, utilities, royalty, technology charges, and store-level operating profit.
• Separate owner salary, draw, distributions, retained earnings, depreciation, interest, and debt principal in each interview.
• Compare owner-operated shops with shops using a General Manager, and record the owner’s actual weekly hours.
• Ask about stores that closed, relocated, transferred, or were excluded from the 2025 Item 19 population.
• Verify whether a Marketing Fund is active when the franchise agreement is signed and model both the 1% and 2% permitted levels.
• Obtain site-specific rent, common-area maintenance, utility, wage, insurance, and local tax quotes rather than using national averages.
• Confirm required inventory purchasing terms and calculate realized gross margin from invoices and point-of-sale data.