From the filed FDD — automated extraction, check the source
2024 FDD · 1+ year old
Cartridge World
Retail & Products · parent company: not identified
Cartridge World sells and refills printer ink and toner cartridges, offering cost-saving alternatives to new cartridges for home and business printers. Stores also sell printers and related supplies. A franchisee runs a retail location refilling and selling cartridges to local customers.
Cartridge World net unit count declined 37.0% over 2021–2023 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. Most numbers on this page come from that document; others come from federal SBA loan records and labor and census data, each labelled with its source:
- 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, transferred and left the system, the main basis for our verdict, which rates how strong the disclosed record is, or says when the system is too new, the filing too old, or the disclosure too thin to judge.
Our rating · opinion
Weaker disclosed record
Below our threshold on the operating record we compute from Item 20 — unit growth, the mix of exits, owner turnover and promise-keeping. What pulls it down: units fell 37% (2021–2023: 173 → 109); most exits were terminations or closures rather than transfers to new owners; the system opened far fewer outlets than it projected (Item 20 Table 5); the fiscal 2023 exit rate was 20.0%, well above the 6.5% median across 23 comparable systems (retail & products). SBA loans to its franchisees approved FY2004–2020 charged off about as often as franchise loans of the same years (39 vs about 43 expected, 0.9×). This is our opinion of the filing, not a finding about the franchisor's finances.
Exit rate · fiscal 2023
20.0%
vs 6.5% median across 23 comparable systems (retail & products)
Cost to open
$75K–$107K
Item 7 total investment range
SBA loan losses · vs same-year loans
0.9×
39 of 171 charged off vs ~43 expected
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Data as of 2026-10-29. Figures come from Cartridge World's public FDD filings (latest: MN 2024, extracted 2026-06-18) and SBA FOIA loan records (through FY2026), extracted by us and possibly containing errors. The rating is our opinion, not investment, legal, or tax advice. Franchisor or owner and see something wrong? Report a correction — we review every request.
Buying an existing Cartridge World? Transfer fee $25,000, resale record and asking-price check →
What each source says
FDD record · SBA loans · model · auditor
The sources broadly agree, and the verdict follows the FDD's operating record.
FDD record · Item 20
Weaker operating record
Units fell 37% (2021–2023: 173 → 109); exit rate 20.0% (fiscal 2023) vs 6.5% median.
SBA loans · vs same-year loans
About as expected (0.9×)
39 charge-offs among 171 resolved loans approved FY2004–2020; about 43 expected.
Modeled risk
Elevated
Directional only — too few seasoned loans to check it.
Auditor opinion · Item 21
Not extracted
We did not extract the audit opinion.
Behind the verdict
the record, factor by factor · Item 20
latest consecutive years · Item 20 Table 1
terminations + ceased-ops vs. all exits · Table 3
transfers vs. base · Table 3
actual vs. projected openings · Table 5
Item 19 disclosure + completeness · shown, not counted in the verdict
Systemwide units
2021–2023
Survival record
FDD Item 20 · outlet status by year
In fiscal 2023, 27 of 135 franchised outlets left the system — an exit rate of 20.0% (fiscal 2023), vs a 6.5% median across 23 comparable systems (retail & products). An exit is not a failure: this counts terminations, non-renewals and "ceased — other reasons" as reported, and excludes transfers to new owners.
Show the outlet tables ↓Hide the evidence ↑
| Status (FTC) | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Outlets at start | 198 | 173 | 140 |
| Opened | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Transfers | 2 | 4 | 1 |
| Terminations | 7 | 12 | 7 |
| Non-renewals | 2 | 5 | 2 |
| Reacquired by franchisor | 0 | 2 | 1 |
| Ceased — other reasons | 12 | 13 | 18 |
| Outlets at end | 173 | 140 | 109 |
| Net change | -25 | -33 | -31 |
The lender's view
SBA 7(a)/504 loan outcomes · compared with franchise loans of the same years
Banks have made 198 SBA-backed loans to Cartridge World franchisees since 2004. Of the 171 approved FY2004–2020 that have resolved, 39 charged off — where about 43 would be expected for franchise loans made in the same years. That is 0.9× the expected rate: these loans defaulted about as often as comparable franchise loans.
All-time, 39 of 172 resolved loans charged off (22.7%). That raw figure mixes every approval year since 2004 — loans made in 2006–08 failed at several times the rate of loans made in 2010–13 across all franchises — so it is shown as evidence, not as the score.
0.9×
39 of 171 resolved (FY2004–2020) vs ~43 expected
22.7%
39 of 172 resolved, every approval year
64.7%
charged-off $ ÷ approved $, defaulted loans
$112,900
what recent franchisees borrowed
56 mo
approval → charge-off, defaulted loans
4 vs 6
distinct banks still lending
Charge-off rate by loan approval year (%) · dashed line = all franchise loans that year
SOURCE: SBA 7(a)/504 FOIA LOAN DATA (DATA.SBA.GOV), FY1991–PRESENT · MATCHED TO CARTRIDGE WORLD BY SBA FRANCHISE NAME/CODE · RESOLVED = CHARGED-OFF + PAID-IN-FULL · EXPECTED = SAME-YEAR RATE ACROSS ALL SBA FRANCHISE LOANS, LOANS ≥ ~6 YEARS OLD
The owner's side of the deal
FDD × federal loan record
Who finances it
Community West Bank
6.1% of this brand's loans
That lender charges off 38.8% of its resolved SBA loans to other franchise brands in the FOIA file, vs 14.8% nationally — a read on that lender's portfolio mix, not a finding about the bank.
Who buys it
71.4%
borrowers with no other franchise SBA loan on record
The rest already owned at least one other franchise. Across the corpus, brands bought mostly by repeat operators have charged off less often than brands sold mostly to newcomers (see methodology).
Does experience help here?
−12.3pp
multi-unit vs single-unit owners
Owners of multiple units default at 13.6%; single-unit owners at 25.9% (each on 15+ resolved loans, owners identified by borrower-name matching).
Computed from 198 SBA 7(a)/504 loans matched to Cartridge World by SBA franchise code in the SBA FOIA file. Debt service assumes level amortization at the average disclosed term and rate. Owner-level splits rely on borrower-name matching and may misclassify. 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 $50,000 franchise fee (Item 5) and a total investment of $75K–$107K (Item 7). The franchisor publishes no earnings claim (Item 19) — ask current and former franchisees for real numbers.
To open (Item 7)
$75K–$107K
all-in investment range
Franchise fee (Item 5)
$50,000
upfront, one-time
Royalty (Item 6)
8%
of sales, ongoing
Starts at a placeholder of $600K — a round figure for the sector, not from Cartridge World’s filings. This brand's FDD makes no Item 19 earnings claim; set your own figure and check it with current and former owners.
Royalty you'd pay / yr
$48K
8% of sales, before profit
Over a 10-yr term
$480K
royalties alone, excl. ad fund
This estimate is computed by software from the brand's public filings and any inputs you enter. No CPA prepared it for you and no assurance is provided on it. Actual results will differ, and the differences may be material.
This is not profit. It covers what the FDD fixes: what you put in, and the royalty you owe on sales. Your take-home depends on cost of goods, labor, rent, and the months to breakeven, none of which the FDD fixes for your unit (some Item 19s include cost data — read it).
Build a real pro-forma for Cartridge World with a buyer-paid CPAModeled risk
FDD Risk Score · a prediction from disclosure and loan-file features
The model puts this brand in its elevated band — but this brand has too few seasoned SBA loans to check the score against, so read it as a band, not a number.
Observed · vs same-year loans
0.9×
39 of 171 seasoned loans charged off
Risk percentile
Elevated
Directional · no point estimate
Modeled · vs same-year loans
band only
too few seasoned loans to check
Top drivers: Item 20 exit rate (raises) · No Item 19 disclosure (lowers) · Investment ceiling (log) (raises) · System size (log units) (raises). Too few seasoned SBA loans to check the score — read it as a band. A linear scorecard trained on brands' vintage-adjusted SBA loss records; full spec and cross-validated accuracy on the methodology page. A score is context, not a verdict.
Public records
Bankruptcy, closure & federal court records · coverage is selective · dockets are not scored
We have no verified public-record signals published for Cartridge World. This is not evidence that no events exist. Check PACER, the FDD's Item 3 (litigation) and Item 4 (bankruptcy), and recent news yourself.
11 questions to ask a Cartridge World 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 questions come from what Cartridge World has disclosed. Each one carries the number it came from, so you can check the answer against the record.
- 01
Cartridge World’s own Item 20 shows 27 of 135 franchised outlets left the system in fiscal 2023 — about 20.0%. 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 · FY2023
- 02
1 units transferred to new owners in fiscal 2023. When you look at those, were they people cashing out a good business — or getting out of a bad one?
Item 20 counts transfers as neutral, but a transfer can be a good sale or a reluctant exit — the filing does not say which.
FDD Item 20 · FY2023
- 03
The system went from 173 units to 109 over 3 disclosed years. What's the explanation you've been given, and do you believe it?
A shrinking system means fewer owners funding the ad fund and support staff you're paying for.
FDD Item 20 · FY2021–FY2023
- 04
SBA loans to Cartridge World franchisees approved 2004–2020 defaulted about as often as franchise loans made in the same years: 39 charge-offs among 171 resolved loans, where about 43 would be expected (0.9×). Did you finance with an SBA loan, and how close did your first two years come to trouble?
This is the lender's view of how these loans ended, from public federal records matched by SBA franchise code — independent of anything the franchisor discloses — compared with franchise loans made in the same years. A charge-off is a loan outcome, not proof the business closed.
SBA 7(a)/504 loan record, seasoned loans FY2004–FY2020 · 0.9× of same-vintage franchise loans
- 05
Item 7 puts the cost to open at $75K–$107K, yet the average recent SBA loan to Cartridge World franchisees was $113K — above the whole range. What did those loans pay for: new units, resales, real estate, several units at once? And what did you actually spend to open, all in?
A loan above the disclosed range can mean buyers routinely overspend Item 7, or that SBA money in this system funds resales, property or multi-unit deals. The filing doesn't say which; an owner can.
FDD Item 7 vs SBA approvals FY2020+
- 06
You pay 8.0% 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
- 07
Cartridge World’s FDD makes no financial performance representation at all — legally, they've told buyers nothing about earnings. What did your first 24 months actually look like, month by month?
When a franchisor won't publish numbers, existing owners are the only source. Silence in Item 19 is a choice, not a requirement.
FDD Item 19 · 2024
- 08
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
- 09
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
- 10
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
- 11
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?
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A broker is usually paid by the franchisor to place you. I'm paid only by you, never by a franchisor you're considering — and the job is pressure-testing Cartridge World’s numbers, including talking you out of a bad deal.
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. Franchisors: send corrections with the page reference and we will review them against the filing and update or annotate the page. Corrections are checked against the filings; nothing you write is published with your name unless you agree to it.
Cartridge World franchise questions, answered from the filings
How many Cartridge World franchised outlets left the system last year?
In Cartridge World's latest FDD Item 20 (fiscal 2023), 27 of 135 franchised outlets left the system — an exit rate of 20.0% — compared with a 6.5% median across 23 comparable systems (retail & products) tracked here. That counts terminations, non-renewals, and "ceased operations — other reasons" as the franchisor reported them; it excludes transfers to new owners. The FDD does not say why each outlet left, and an exit is not the same as a failure.
How much does a Cartridge World franchise cost?
Per Cartridge World's 2024 FDD, buying in requires an initial franchise fee of $50,000 (Item 5) and a total initial investment of $75K–$107K (Item 7).
What royalty does Cartridge World charge?
Cartridge World charges an ongoing royalty of 8.0% of gross sales, per Item 6 of its 2024 FDD.
Does Cartridge World disclose earnings (Item 19)?
No — Cartridge World's 2024 FDD makes no financial performance representation in Item 19. That is legal and common, but it means the franchisor publishes no earnings claim; ask current franchisees for real numbers.
How often do SBA loans for Cartridge World franchises default?
SBA loans to Cartridge World franchisees approved 2004–2020 defaulted about as often as franchise loans made in the same years: 39 charge-offs among 171 resolved loans, where about 43 would be expected (0.9×). All-time, 39 of 172 resolved loans since 2004 charged off (22.7%); that raw figure mixes every approval year, so we compare with same-year loans instead. A charge-off is a loan loss, not proof the business closed. Source: public SBA 7(a)/504 FOIA data.