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
JANI-KING
Other · independent · est. —
Jani-King is a commercial cleaning franchise providing janitorial services to offices, medical buildings, hotels, and other facilities. A franchisee operates a cleaning business servicing recurring commercial contracts, with regional offices handling much of the account sales and administration.
JANI-KING net unit count declined -3.6% from 2023–2025 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
8.2%
fiscal 2025, per Item 20
Cost to open
$50K–$138K
Item 7 total investment range
SBA loan defaults
15.5%
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
2023–2025
Survival record
FDD Item 20 · outlet status by year
In fiscal 2025, 399 of 4,859 franchised outlets left the system — a 8.2% annualized exit rate. Not every exit is a failure — but this is the measurable floor.
Show the outlet tables ↓Hide the evidence ↑
| Status (FTC) | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Outlets at start | 4,992 | 4,928 | 4,872 |
| Opened | 453 | 403 | 317 |
| Transfers | 63 | 64 | 57 |
| Terminations | 146 | 106 | 119 |
| Non-renewals | 21 | 34 | 36 |
| Reacquired by franchisor | 45 | 43 | 46 |
| Ceased — other reasons | 305 | 277 | 244 |
| Outlets at end | 4,928 | 4,872 | 4,750 |
| Net change | -64 | -56 | -122 |
The lender's view
SBA 7(a)/504 loan performance · FY1991–present
Banks have made 68 SBA-backed loans to JANI-KING franchisees since 1995. Of the 58 that have resolved, 15.5% were charged off (defaulted) rather than paid in full, versus 14.8% across 576 rated brands.
15.5%
9 of 58 resolved defaulted
59.8%
avg. charged-off $ ÷ approved $
9.3%
default rate × loss severity
$40,000
what recent franchisees borrowed
43 mo
approval → charge-off, defaulted loans
1 vs 2
distinct banks — pulling back
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 JANI-KING BY FRANCHISE NAME · RESOLVED = CHARGED-OFF + PAID-IN-FULL
The owner's side of the deal
FDD × federal loan record
Who finances it
Citizens Bank, National Association
13.6% of this brand's loans
That lender charges off 8.9% of its loans to other franchise brands, vs 14.8% nationally.
Who buys it
68.3%
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 68 SBA 7(a)/504 loans to JANI-KING 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 $50K–$138K (Item 7). The franchisor publishes no earnings claim (Item 19) — ask current and former franchisees for real numbers.
To open (Item 7)
$50K–$138K
all-in investment range
Franchise fee (Item 5)
$40K
upfront, one-time
Royalty (Item 6)
10%
of sales, ongoing
Your figure — this brand discloses no Item 19 earnings; validate with current & former owners.
Royalty you'd pay / yr
$100K
10% of sales, before profit
Over a 10-yr term
$1M
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 JANI-KING with an independent CPALabor record
US Dept. of Labor enforcement · franchisee-level · FY2005–present
Federal investigators have concluded 29 wage cases against operators of this system, recovering $386K in back wages for 256 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
29
Back wages owed
$386K
Employees affected
256
Since 2020
3
1 of these cases involved child-labor violations, covering 2 minors across the system's franchised locations.
Read this carefully. The employers in these cases are individual JANI-KING franchisees — separately owned businesses operating under the brand name — not JANI-KING 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 2024.
Modeled risk
FDD Risk Score · modeled from the public record
Modeled from the public record, this brand looks safer than 86% of systems we score.
Risk percentile
14 / 100
Measured
Modeled SBA charge-off
8.0%
Observed SBA charge-off
15.5%
Top drivers: System size (log units) (lowers) · Investment ceiling (log) (raises) · Item 3 litigation (log) (lowers) · Share financed by high-loss lenders (lowers). 50+ resolved loans and complete disclosure data — the score is checkable against the brand's observed rate. 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 JANI-KING. 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 JANI-KING's numbers, including talking you out of a bad deal.
Talk to an independent CPA before you buy →JANI-KING franchise questions, answered from the filings
What percentage of JANI-KING franchises closed last year?
In JANI-KING's latest FDD Item 20 (fiscal 2025), 399 of 4,859 franchised outlets left the system — an annualized exit rate of 8.2%. 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 JANI-KING franchise cost?
Per JANI-KING's 2026 FDD, buying in requires an initial franchise fee of $40K (Item 5) and a total initial investment of $50K–$138K (Item 7).
What royalty does JANI-KING charge?
JANI-KING charges an ongoing royalty of 10.0% of gross sales, per Item 6 of its 2026 FDD.
Does JANI-KING disclose earnings (Item 19)?
No — JANI-KING'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 JANI-KING franchises default?
Across 68 SBA-backed loans to JANI-KING franchisees since 1995, 9 of the 58 that have resolved were charged off — a 15.5% 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.