FRANCHISE·WATCH·DESK

Verified — real FDD extraction

SBA-eligible · directory code S0055 since 2017

AMERICA'S SWIMMING POOL COMPANY

Other · independent · est. —

America's Swimming Pool Company (ASP) provides residential and commercial pool cleaning, maintenance, repair, and renovation. Technicians service pools on recurring routes and handle equipment repairs. A franchisee operates a local pool-service business with trucks and technicians covering a territory.

AMERICA'S SWIMMING POOL COMPANY net unit count grew +12.6% from 20222025 per its FDD Item 20.

New to franchising? Start here

A franchise is a business where you (the franchisee) pay a company (the franchisor) for the right to open and run a location using their brand and system — think a local Anytime Fitness or Taco John's owned by a small-business owner, not the corporation.

Before you can buy in, U.S. law requires the franchisor to give you a Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) — a long legal filing covering its fees, finances, and history. The numbers on this page come straight from that document:

  • Franchise fee — the one-time cost to buy in.
  • Royalty — the ongoing cut of your sales you pay the franchisor.
  • Item 20 — how many locations opened and closed, the basis for our verdict (from Proven & strong down to Distressed — or Too new to judge).

The verdict

Proven & steady

Distress

0
STABLE

A real track record with an unremarkable region of the ledger: neither the growth nor the exits stand out, for better or worse. The main concern in the record: too many owners are failing outright rather than selling.

Exit rate · latest year

7.7%

fiscal 2025, per Item 20

Cost to open

$89K–$213K

Item 7 total investment range

SBA loan defaults

25.0%

20 loans resolved — directional only

Behind the verdict

the record, factor by factor · Item 20

hi-1.0.0
Net unit growth35%

3-yr trend · Item 20 Table 1

Strong
Exit quality25%

terminations + ceased-ops vs. all exits · Table 3

Weak
Transfer / churn15%

transfers vs. base · Table 3

Strong
Promise-keeping10%

actual vs. projected openings · Table 5

Strong
Transparency15%

Item 19 disclosure + completeness

Strong

Systemwide units

2022–2025

+12.6%
3642022375202339220244102025

Survival record

FDD Item 20 · outlet status by year

In fiscal 2025, 30 of 392 franchised outlets left the system — a 7.7% annualized exit rate. Not every exit is a failure — but this is the measurable floor.

Show the outlet tables
Status (FTC)2022202320242025
Outlets at start348364375392
Opened37384148
Transfers7231320
Terminations1820714
Non-renewals0001
Reacquired by franchisor0000
Ceased — other reasons371715
Outlets at end364375392410
Net change+16+11+17+18

The lender's view

SBA 7(a)/504 loan performance · FY1991–present

Banks have made 47 SBA-backed loans to AMERICA'S SWIMMING POOL COMPANY franchisees since 2016. Only 20 have resolved so far — too thin for a reliable default rate, but 5 of them charged off.

Charge-off rate

20 resolved · too thin to rate

Loss given default

avg. charged-off $ ÷ approved $

Expected loss

default rate × loss severity

Avg. loan · FY2020+

$272,504

what recent franchisees borrowed

Median time to default

58 mo

approval → charge-off, defaulted loans

Lenders · FY21+ vs FY16–20

12 vs 8

distinct banks still lending

Charge-off rate by loan approval year (%)

Loan performance by state

SOURCE: SBA 7(a)/504 FOIA LOAN DATA (DATA.SBA.GOV), FY1991–PRESENT · MATCHED TO AMERICA'S SWIMMING POOL COMPANY BY FRANCHISE NAME · RESOLVED = CHARGED-OFF + PAID-IN-FULL

The owner's side of the deal

FDD × federal loan record

Who finances it

United Midwest Savings Bank National Association

48.9% of this brand's loans

That lender charges off 35.2% of its loans to other franchise brands, vs 14.8% nationally.

Who buys it

95.5%

first-time franchise owners

The rest already owned at least one other franchise. Across the corpus, brands bought mostly by repeat operators charge off at roughly 10% versus 17% for brands sold mostly to newcomers.

Does experience help here?

Not enough resolved loans to split

Computed from 47 SBA 7(a)/504 loans to AMERICA'S SWIMMING POOL COMPANY franchisees joined to the brand's own FDD. Debt service assumes level amortization at the average disclosed term and rate. A lender's rate excludes its loans to this brand, so it reads the lender, not the brand.

What it costs — and what it drags

FDD Items 5–7 · fees, investment, royalty

Buying in means a $40K franchise fee (Item 5) and a total investment of $89K–$213K (Item 7). The franchisor publishes an earnings claim (Item 19) — read its methodology closely.

To open (Item 7)

$89K–$213K

all-in investment range

Franchise fee (Item 5)

$40K

upfront, one-time

Royalty (Item 6)

7%

of sales, ongoing

If a unit does this in annual sales…$1M/yr

Your figure — cross-check against this brand's Item 19 and current-owner validation.

Royalty you'd pay / yr

$70K

7% of sales, before profit

Over a 10-yr term

$700K

royalties alone, excl. ad fund

This is not profit. It's the only money the FDD actually pins down — what you put in, and the royalty you owe on every dollar of sales. Your real take-home depends on labor, rent, food cost, and ramp-to-breakeven, none of which any FDD discloses.

Build a real pro-forma for AMERICA'S SWIMMING POOL COMPANY with an independent CPA

Modeled risk

FDD Risk Score · modeled from the public record

High risk

Modeled from the public record, this brand looks riskier than 92% of systems we score.

Risk percentile

92 / 100

Loan-corroborated

Modeled SBA charge-off

21.9%

Observed SBA charge-off

25.0%

Top drivers: Share financed by high-loss lenders (raises) · Single-lender dependence (lowers) · System size (log units) (lowers) · Investment ceiling (log) (raises). 15+ resolved loans stand behind this estimate. A linear scorecard built from this brand's own disclosure figures plus the federal loan record behind its franchisees; full spec and cross-validated accuracy on the methodology page. A score is context, not a verdict.

Distress signals

news-sourced · bankruptcies, closures, lawsuits

No recent closures, bankruptcies, or major lawsuits found in the news for AMERICA'S SWIMMING POOL COMPANY. That's a good sign — but it reflects news coverage, not a guarantee.

9 questions to ask a AMERICA'S SWIMMING POOL COMPANY franchisee

Built from this brand's own disclosures · take it to your validation calls

The franchisor will give you a list of owners to call. Most buyers ask whether they like it. These are the questions built from what AMERICA'S SWIMMING POOL COMPANY has actually disclosed — each one carries the number it came from, so you can tell whether the answer squares with the record.

  1. 01

    AMERICA'S SWIMMING POOL COMPANY’s own Item 20 shows 30 of 392 franchised outlets left the system in fiscal 2025 — about 7.7%. Do you know any of those owners, and do you know why they left?

    A franchisor will call these “transitions.” An owner three doors down usually knows whether they sold at a profit or handed the keys back.

    FDD Item 20 · FY2025

  2. 02

    20 units transferred to new owners in fiscal 2025. When you look at those, were they people cashing out a good business — or getting out of a bad one?

    Transfers count as neutral in every ranking. They are the single easiest place to hide distress.

    FDD Item 20 · FY2025

  3. 03

    Item 7 says the low end to open is $89K, but the average recent SBA loan to a AMERICA'S SWIMMING POOL COMPANY franchisee was $273K. What did you actually spend to open, all in?

    Lenders size loans to real project costs. A large gap between the disclosed floor and what banks actually fund is the most common way buyers get underfunded.

    FDD Item 7 vs SBA approvals FY2020+

  4. 04

    You pay 7.0% royalty on gross sales, plus the ad fund, before any of your own costs. On your actual revenue last year, what did you take home as the owner — not revenue, take-home?

    Royalty is charged on sales, not profit. This is the number the brochure never shows and the one your life actually runs on.

    FDD Item 6

  5. 05

    AMERICA'S SWIMMING POOL COMPANY makes an earnings claim in Item 19. Does your unit look like that number — and do you know which units they included to build it?

    Item 19 is legal to build from a flattering subset. Ask whether they excluded new units, closed units, or company stores.

    FDD Item 19 · 2026

  6. 06

    How many months did it take to cover your own costs, and how much cash did you burn getting there?

    Ramp-to-breakeven working capital is the most underestimated line in any franchise purchase, and the most common reason otherwise-good units fail.

    Not disclosed in any FDD — ask an owner

  7. 07

    What does the franchisor charge for that you didn't expect — required tech fees, mandatory remodels, approved-supplier pricing?

    Required spending appears across Items 6, 8 and 11 rather than in one place, so buyers routinely miss the total.

    FDD Items 6, 8, 11

  8. 08

    If your agreement came up for renewal tomorrow at current terms, would you sign again?

    The single most predictive question you can ask. A hesitation is the answer.

    Ask every owner you speak to

  9. 09

    Who else should I call — including someone who left?

    The franchisor's list is curated by definition. Former franchisees are where the unflattering truth lives, and current owners usually know how to reach them.

    Ask every owner you speak to

Want this as a checklist you can take to the calls?

I'll email you the printable version, and tell you if AMERICA'S SWIMMING POOL COMPANY’s numbers move — a new filing, a rising exit rate, a distress signal. Unsubscribe in one click.

Before you sign anythingfree · 30 min · no commission

A broker is paid by the franchisor to place you. I'm paid by you — and the job is pressure-testing AMERICA'S SWIMMING POOL COMPANY's numbers, including talking you out of a bad deal.

Don Drummond, CPA — Virginia #43775 · what I charge

Book a free 30-minute call →
Own or owned a AMERICA'S SWIMMING POOL COMPANY?no appointment · read by a person

This page is what buyers see before they call you for validation. If the record above is wrong — or right in a way the numbers can't show — say so. Corrections are checked against the filings; nothing you write is published with your name unless you agree to it.

AMERICA'S SWIMMING POOL COMPANY franchise questions, answered from the filings

What percentage of AMERICA'S SWIMMING POOL COMPANY franchises closed last year?

In AMERICA'S SWIMMING POOL COMPANY's latest FDD Item 20 (fiscal 2025), 30 of 392 franchised outlets left the system — an annualized exit rate of 7.7%. That counts terminations, non-renewals, and "ceased operations — other reasons." There is no official failure rate, and not every exit is a failure, but this is the measurable floor.

How much does a AMERICA'S SWIMMING POOL COMPANY franchise cost?

Per AMERICA'S SWIMMING POOL COMPANY's 2026 FDD, buying in requires an initial franchise fee of $40K (Item 5) and a total initial investment of $89K–$213K (Item 7).

What royalty does AMERICA'S SWIMMING POOL COMPANY charge?

AMERICA'S SWIMMING POOL COMPANY charges an ongoing royalty of 7.0% of gross sales, per Item 6 of its 2026 FDD.

Does AMERICA'S SWIMMING POOL COMPANY disclose earnings (Item 19)?

Yes — AMERICA'S SWIMMING POOL COMPANY makes a financial performance representation in Item 19 of its 2026 FDD, reporting a median unit volume of $594K. Read it closely: franchisors choose which units and which metrics to include.