How Much Does a ZIPS Dry Cleaners Franchise Owner Make?

Item 19 officially discloses Revenue, Production Supplies, Gross Margin, Labor, Rent, Repairs and Maintenance, Utilities, and “Income Before General and Administrative Expenses.” It does not disclose complete operating profit, EBITDA, Net Income, cash available to the owner, distributions, or after-tax take-home pay for the 2025 Plant Store and Drop Store populations.

The disclosed “Income Before General and Administrative Expenses” is a contribution measure, not owner earnings. It excludes the 6% Royalty, the 5% Total Marketing Obligation, the $550 monthly ZIPSsoft fee, and other expenses identified by the FDD, including insurance, licenses, bookkeeping and professional services, debt service, and additional occupancy or employee-benefit costs. Item 19 also says the Labor line includes management personnel and employees and may include compensation paid to an owner in lieu of a manager.

The candidate-population ratios are derived from the included outlets plus the specific exclusions stated in Item 19: one December 2025 corporate-to-franchise sale and four incomplete reporters for Plant Stores; one December 2025 corporate-to-franchise sale and one incomplete reporter for Drop Stores. Source: 2026 ZIPS Franchising, LLC FDD, Item 19, pp. 47–50.

The estimate begins with each format's official average Revenue and official Income Before G&A margin, then subtracts the disclosed Royalty, Total Marketing Obligation, ZIPSsoft fee, and a visible allowance for unreported G&A. The result is an estimated manager-run operating residual before personal income taxes, financing interest and principal, depreciation, capital expenditures, and owner distributions.

• Conservative: Revenue equals 80% of the 2025 Item 19 average; other G&A equals 15% of Revenue.
• Base: Revenue equals 100% of the 2025 Item 19 average; other G&A equals 12% of Revenue.
• Upside: Revenue equals 120% of the 2025 Item 19 average; other G&A equals 9% of Revenue.

The 80% / 100% / 120% revenue spread and 15% / 12% / 9% other-G&A allowances are editorial scenario assumptions, not FDD-reported performance bands. They are used because Item 19 provides no quartiles and does not provide complete G&A. The Plant Store table and its footnote also state different high Revenue figures, so the disclosed maximum was not used as an upside anchor.

A ZIPS Cleaners owner cannot assume a passive model simply because a Store Manager is employed. Item 15 requires an Operating Principal with at least a 10% equity interest to devote full time to supervising and conducting the business; the Store Manager may be that Operating Principal or a separate qualified person.

For a separate-store-manager scenario, the residual earnings estimates above retain the management compensation embedded in the Item 19 Labor line. For an owner-operator scenario, an owner who personally replaces a paid manager may capture some labor value in addition to residual business profit. Using an illustrative, rounded $103,000 national benchmark for General and Operations Managers produces the base-case comparison below. This broad BLS General and Operations Managers profile is a proxy, not a ZIPS-specific wage.

Confidence is LIMITED because the 2026 FDD provides strong same-brand revenue and selected cost data but stops before complete G&A and owner earnings. The 2025 reporting population is useful, but the scenario still depends materially on analytical revenue and overhead assumptions.

• Population coverage: Item 19 includes 43 full-year reporting franchised businesses across seven states for Plant Stores and four states for Drop Stores. The disclosed exclusions imply approximately 86% coverage of the specifically identified candidate population.
• Unaudited submissions: The franchisor states that the tables were compiled from unaudited financial statements submitted by franchisees and that timely financial reporting has historically been difficult.
• Average-versus-median variation: Plant Store average Revenue exceeded the median, while Drop Store median Revenue exceeded the average. A single central figure does not describe the full distribution.
• Plant maximum inconsistency: the Plant Store table lists a $2,378,792 high Revenue value, while the following footnote states $2,964,972. Written substantiation should reconcile the difference before a buyer uses the maximum.
• Format limits: the 24/7 Drop Facility has no separate Item 19 results, so its earnings cannot be estimated responsibly from the Plant Store or standard Drop Store data without additional evidence.
• System population change: Item 20 reports 52 franchised outlets and 20 company/affiliate-owned outlets at year-end 2025. Its note says 21 units moved from franchised to affiliate-owned status because of a parent-entity ownership change, so the franchised-count decline should not be read as 21 operating closures.

Item 20 also reports four franchised openings, two terminations, and 20 outlets classified as ceasing operations for other reasons in 2025, with the ownership-reclassification note providing essential context. These changes make cohort definitions and current ownership status important when interviewing operators. Source: 2026 ZIPS Franchising, LLC FDD, Item 20, pp. 50–54.

A buyer should obtain the Item 19 substantiation, rebuild a complete store-level income statement, and compare it with current franchisee records for the exact format and market. The most important unresolved items are the omitted G&A categories, the treatment of owner compensation in Labor, and actual local manager, occupancy, insurance, and equipment-maintenance costs.

• Request written substantiation for Item 19 and reconcile the two different Plant Store high-Revenue figures.
• Ask for anonymized line-item detail showing Royalty, National Marketing Fund, Regional Marketing Fund or Co-op, Local Store Marketing, ZIPSsoft, insurance, licenses, professional fees, recruiting, and other G&A.
• Confirm whether each comparison outlet is a Plant Store, Drop Store, or 24/7 Drop Facility and whether it is franchised, affiliate-owned, owner-operated, or manager-run.
• Ask current franchisees whether the Labor line includes an owner's W-2 compensation, family labor, a Store Manager, or multiple managers.
• Separate operating earnings from financing: obtain actual loan amount, interest rate, amortization, equipment financing, and annual principal payments.
• Interview recent exits and transferred operators listed in Item 20, while recognizing that the FDD says some current or former franchisees have confidentiality clauses.
• Verify maintenance history and replacement reserves for dry-cleaning, laundry, conveyor, boiler, point-of-sale, and automated-storage equipment.
• Model personal taxes only with a qualified tax adviser after entity structure, owner compensation, state, and deductions are known.

The strongest defensible range is approximately $73,000–$193,000 for a Plant Store and $31,000–$86,000 for a Drop Store in annual manager-run, pre-tax owner earnings per unit. These are scenario-based estimates, not official owner-income figures. The largest earnings driver is Revenue relative to labor and occupancy; the largest unresolved uncertainty is the full amount of G&A omitted from Item 19.

An actively operating owner may realize additional labor value, but the resulting owner-operator benefit is not pure business profit. Before relying on any figure, a buyer should verify the exact Item 19 definitions and substantiation, obtain complete unit-level expense records, and test the assumptions with Plant Store and Drop Store franchisees whose ownership model and market resemble the proposed business.

FDD citations in this article refer to the 2026 ZIPS Franchising, LLC Franchise Disclosure Document, issued April 7, 2026. No public official copy of the matching FDD was identified for linking; Item and page references are therefore provided in plain text.