Verified — real FDD extraction
Not found in the SBA Franchise Directory under this name — though SBA loans to its franchisees exist; verify eligibility with your lender
HEALTH MART
Health & Wellness · independent · est. —
Health Mart is a pharmacy franchise banner, backed by distributor McKesson, that lets independent pharmacies operate under a national brand with marketing and purchasing support. The franchisee is typically a licensed pharmacist-owner running a community retail pharmacy that dispenses prescriptions and sells over-the-counter products.
HEALTH MART net unit count declined -14.0% from 2024–2026 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
Showing strain
Distress
The disclosed record shows weakness — shrinking units, elevated exits, or churn — worth reading closely before going further.
Exit rate · latest year
18.8%
vs 9.6% across 37 health & wellness systems
Cost to open
$2K–$834K
Item 7 total investment range
SBA loan defaults
9.4%
vs 14.8% avg across rated brands
Behind the verdict
the record, factor by factor · Item 20
3-yr trend · 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
Systemwide units
2024–2026
Survival record
FDD Item 20 · outlet status by year
In fiscal 2026, 815 of 4,346 franchised outlets left the system — a 18.8% annualized exit rate, vs 9.6% across 37 health & wellness systems. Not every exit is a failure — but this is the measurable floor.
Show the outlet tables ↓Hide the evidence ↑
| Status (FTC) | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Outlets at start | 4,658 | 4,544 | 4,347 |
| Opened | 459 | 405 | 376 |
| Transfers | 63 | 79 | 91 |
| Terminations | 432 | 476 | 619 |
| Non-renewals | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Reacquired by franchisor | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Ceased — other reasons | 141 | 126 | 196 |
| Outlets at end | 4,544 | 4,347 | 3,908 |
| Net change | -114 | -197 | -439 |
The lender's view
SBA 7(a)/504 loan performance · FY1991–present
Banks have made 152 SBA-backed loans to HEALTH MART franchisees since 1991. Of the 85 that have resolved, 9.4% were charged off (defaulted) rather than paid in full, versus 14.8% across 576 rated brands.
9.4%
8 of 85 resolved defaulted
71.4%
avg. charged-off $ ÷ approved $
6.7%
default rate × loss severity
$793,621
what recent franchisees borrowed
67 mo
approval → charge-off, defaulted loans
9 vs 18
distinct banks — pulling back
Charge-off rate by loan approval year (%)
SOURCE: SBA 7(a)/504 FOIA LOAN DATA (DATA.SBA.GOV), FY1991–PRESENT · MATCHED TO HEALTH MART BY FRANCHISE NAME · RESOLVED = CHARGED-OFF + PAID-IN-FULL
The owner's side of the deal
FDD × federal loan record
Who finances it
First Financial Bank
39.3% of this brand's loans
That lender charges off 13.1% of its loans to other franchise brands, vs 14.8% nationally.
Who buys it
80.3%
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 152 SBA 7(a)/504 loans to HEALTH MART 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 $0 franchise fee (Item 5) and a total investment of $2K–$834K (Item 7). The franchisor publishes no earnings claim (Item 19) — ask current and former franchisees for real numbers.
To open (Item 7)
$2K–$834K
all-in investment range
Franchise fee (Item 5)
$0
upfront, one-time
Royalty (Item 6)
—
of sales, ongoing
Your figure — this brand discloses no Item 19 earnings; validate with current & former owners.
Royalty you'd pay / yr
$0
0% of sales, before profit
Over a 10-yr term
$0
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 HEALTH MART with an independent CPALabor record
US Dept. of Labor enforcement · franchisee-level · FY2005–present
Federal investigators have concluded 4 wage cases against operators of this system, recovering $11K in back wages for 4 workers, including 1 child-labor case. Some of these cases are recent, not ancient history. These cases name franchisee-owned locations, not the franchisor itself.
Concluded cases
4
Back wages owed
$11K
Employees affected
4
Since 2020
1
1 of these cases involved child-labor violations, covering 1 minors across the system's franchised locations.
Read this carefully. The employers in these cases are individual HEALTH MART franchisees — separately owned businesses operating under the brand name — not HEALTH MART itself. The franchisor is not the respondent and in most cases is not a party. What the record shows is how this system's operators run their payrolls, which is worth knowing before you become one of them. Counts rise with system size and with age: a 20-year-old, 10,000-unit system will out-count a young one regardless of conduct. Source: DOL Wage and Hour Division concluded compliance actions, FY2005–present, most recent finding 2025.
Modeled risk
FDD Risk Score · modeled from the public record
Modeled from the public record, this brand looks safer than 94% of systems we score.
Risk percentile
6 / 100
Loan-corroborated
Modeled SBA charge-off
6.4%
Observed SBA charge-off
9.4%
Top drivers: System size (log units) (lowers) · Share financed by high-loss lenders (lowers) · Item 20 exit rate (raises) · Item 3 litigation (log) (lowers). 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 HEALTH MART. That's a good sign — but it reflects news coverage, not a guarantee.
A broker is paid by the franchisor to place you. An independent CPA is paid by you — and the job is pressure-testing HEALTH MART's numbers, including talking you out of a bad deal.
Talk to an independent CPA before you buy →HEALTH MART franchise questions, answered from the filings
What percentage of HEALTH MART franchises closed last year?
In HEALTH MART's latest FDD Item 20 (fiscal 2026), 815 of 4,346 franchised outlets left the system — an annualized exit rate of 18.8% — compared with 9.6% across 37 health & wellness systems tracked here. 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 HEALTH MART franchise cost?
Per HEALTH MART's 2026 FDD, buying in requires an initial franchise fee of $0 (Item 5) and a total initial investment of $2K–$834K (Item 7).
Does HEALTH MART disclose earnings (Item 19)?
No — HEALTH MART's 2026 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 HEALTH MART franchises default?
Across 152 SBA-backed loans to HEALTH MART franchisees since 1991, 8 of the 85 that have resolved were charged off — a 9.4% default rate, versus about 14.8% across all rated franchise brands. This is the lender's-eye view of franchisee failure, drawn from public SBA 7(a)/504 FOIA data and independent of the franchisor's own disclosures.