Education
Primrose Schools Franchise
A premium early-education and child-care franchise operating full-day preschools for infants through kindergarten, with an accredited curriculum. Founded in Marietta, Georgia in 1982 and franchising since 1990; the current SPE franchisor entity dates from 2019. Schools are purpose-built or adapted buildings, which puts the investment in the millions and makes it one of the most capital-intensive franchises in this dataset.
Every franchisor has to file a document called an FDD before they can legally sell you a franchise. Buried in it are the two things a sales rep won't volunteer: what you'll actually spend to open, and whether existing locations are opening or closing. That's what's below, pulled straight from Primrose Schools's own filing.
What it costs to open
From the filing's investment breakdown -- not a "starting at" number a sales rep quoted you.
Franchise fee
$80,000
Total to open
$2,152,500–$7,960,300
Ongoing royalty
7% of gross sales
What you'd actually spend, over time
The upfront cost is only part of it. Plug in what you expect a location to bring in, and see the real total once royalties over a few years are added on top.
Defaulted to a rough education industry average, not a figure from Primrose Schools's own FDD -- change it to your own estimate.
Total cost of ownership over 5 years
$2,275,000 – $8,082,800
Startup investment
$2,152,500–$7,960,300
Royalty per year (7%)
$24,500
Total royalty, 5yr
$122,500
When would you break even?
Revenue alone doesn't tell you this -- it depends on what's left after rent, labor, and everything else. Primrose Schools's FDD doesn't disclose a reliable profit figure (most franchisors don't), so this starts from a typical education profit margin (~15%) and applies it to the revenue you entered above -- adjust the percentage to your own realistic estimate.
Defaulted to a general education industry benchmark, not a figure from Primrose Schools's own filing -- this is a starting point to adjust, not a promise about what franchisees actually make.
At that profit, you'd break even in about
41.0–151.6 years
Weigh that payback period against what you already know: Primrose Schools is opening more locations. A long payback period on a shrinking brand is a very different bet than the same payback period on a growing one.
Is Primrose Schools actually growing?
Franchisors have to report, every year, how many locations opened, closed, or changed hands. Most franchise sites never show you this. Here it is:
Locations opened vs. closed, by year
GrowingFrom Item 20 of Primrose Schools's FDD, the section franchisors use to disclose real openings and closings.
| Year | Franchised units, start | Franchised units, end | Net change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 483 | 505 | +22 |
| 2024 | 505 | 525 | +20 |
| 2025 | 525 | 557 | +32 |
Most recent year (2025): gained 32 franchised units, ending the year at 557 total.
How Primrose Schools compares to other Education franchises
Across the 4 education franchises we've hand-verified so far, the typical range to open runs $1,259,458–$3,595,098, with royalties averaging around 7.3% of gross sales (based on the 4 of them that charge a flat %-of-revenue royalty). That's still a small sample -- treat it as a rough starting point, not an industry-wide benchmark.
Where this came from: California DFPI Registration Application, App ID APP00005373, filed 4/26/2026, effective 6/16/2026. FDD issued April 24, 2026. Item 5: $80,000 initial fee for a new franchisee ($70,000 for existing franchisees). Item 6: 7% royalty; brand fund fee currently 2% (cap 3%) plus 1% local advertising. Item 7: new-build schools total $5,016,600-$7,960,300 (Table A); adaptive-reuse schools $2,152,500-$7,265,300 (Table B); the range shown spans both formats. Item 20 Table 1 franchised outlets. You can pull the same filing yourself from the California DFPI's public franchise search. Filed 2026-04-26. None of this is investment advice -- get the franchisor's current FDD and talk to a real attorney or accountant before you sign anything.
If you see a different unit count elsewhere: franchisors only have to refile their FDD annually, so the numbers here can run 6–18 months behind a franchisor's own real-time marketing claims -- which often aren't independently verified, and sometimes count signed-but-not-yet-open locations. A gap isn't necessarily an error on either side; it's two different snapshots in time from two different sources.