Franchise Opportunities in Florida: Where Franchisors Plan to Open Next

The short version. Franchisors filing disclosure documents over the past ten months project 2,303 new franchised outlets in Florida, second only to Texas and about 2.5% behind it. Another 2,220 Florida outlets have a franchise agreement signed but are not yet open, third behind Texas and California. 617 of the 1,329 brands in our data (46%) plan at least one Florida opening.

Florida's pipeline looks different from Texas's, though. Two travel franchise networks lift Florida's headline, and a few large plans make up a bigger share of it. This article shows what's behind the total and how to read it.

Where these numbers come from

Every franchisor has to hand prospective buyers a Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) and file it with state regulators. Item 20 of that document contains two tables used here:

• Projected openings. The franchisor's own estimate of how many new outlets it expects to open in each state over the next fiscal year, split into franchised and company-owned.
• Signed but not yet open. Outlets where a franchisee has already signed an agreement but the location is not trading yet.

We read both tables from the most recent filing of each of 1,329 brands, received between December 2025 and September 2026, and total them by state. A brand that filed more than once is counted once, using its latest filing.

Florida is a close second, and a different kind of pipeline

On forecasts, Florida and Texas are nearly level: 2,303 against 2,363. On contracts, Texas pulls ahead: 2,603 outlets signed-not-open against Florida's 2,220, a gap of about 17%, and California (2,268) edges Florida into third place. Florida's ratio of signed to projected is 0.96, below Texas's 1.10, which means Florida franchisors are forecasting slightly more openings than they have contracted so far.

About 419 franchisors plan openings in both states, so the two markets are competing for much of the same franchisor attention.

The travel effect

Two home-based travel-agency franchise networks have the largest plans in both states, and Florida's are much bigger: together they project 215 Florida openings, or 9.3% of the state's total, against 120 in Texas (5.1%). Their concepts are home-based, so an "opening" is a new advisor rather than a new storefront.

Florida's role in cruising is the likely context. PortMiami handled a record 8,564,225 cruise passengers in fiscal year 2025 (Miami-Dade County), and Port Everglades handled a preliminary 4.77 million, up 16% (Cruise Industry News). That is about 13.3 million cruise passengers through two Florida ports in a year. The filings don't say why these franchisors plan so many Florida openings, so treat the link as context, not as a finding.

Excluding the two networks, Florida projects 2,088 openings against Texas's 2,243.

Why Florida

• Florida had 23,462,518 residents as of July 2025, up about 196,700 in a year, according to Census estimates (Census Bureau QuickFacts). Only Texas added more people in raw numbers.
• The IFA and FRANdata 2026 outlook ranks Florida as the second-fastest-growing state for franchising, behind Texas (IFA).
• The tourism and retiree economy shows up in the industry mix below.

What is being built: the industries

Food and beverage is still the largest category, at 571 projected openings (24.8%) and 759 signed outlets (34% of Florida's signed total). Its share of the pipeline is smaller than in Texas (30%) because other categories take more.

Retail and professional services are bigger than in Texas. Retail projects 300 openings (13.0% against Texas's 10.8%), and professional services 235 (10.2% against 7.3%). Both are lifted by the two travel networks, which the filings classify under those two headings.

Fitness and recreation is a growth story here too. Studios and recreation concepts project 270 openings and have 387 signed, 1.4 signed agreements per projected opening.

Personal care has a large signed backlog. It projects just 65 openings but has 182 signed outlets, nearly three signed for each projected one.

Home services and cleaning look much like Texas: fast-to-launch models with signed counts below projections.

Fewer, bigger plans than Texas

Of the 617 brands with a Florida plan:

• 501 (81%) plan one to four openings, together 942 openings, 41% of the total.
• Eight brands plan 25 or more and account for 437 openings, 19% of the pipeline. In Texas nine such brands account for 15%.
• The ten largest plans add up to 480 openings, 21% of the pipeline. In Texas the same measure is 16%. Florida's pipeline leans more on its biggest plans, and the two travel networks are a large part of that.

Signed outlets show a similar spread to Texas. Of the 450 brands with at least one signed Florida outlet, 228 (51%) have more outlets signed than they project opening. The ten brands with the most signed Florida outlets hold 428 of the 2,220 (19%).

What this means for different readers

If you are researching a franchise purchase, the data shows which categories are building in Florida, and whether the growth is contracted or only forecast. A category with far more signed outlets than projected openings has a backlog, not necessarily a fast rollout.

If you sell to or serve new franchise locations (lenders, real-estate advisers, suppliers, local marketing firms, contractors), the industry mix and signed-not-open totals show where Florida demand is already contracted.

If you already own a franchise in Florida, the industry table shows which neighboring categories are about to get more crowded.

How to read these numbers carefully

• Projections are estimates. They are a franchisor's forecast for the next fiscal year. Of the 1,329 brands, 617 project at least one Florida franchised opening and 450 report at least one signed outlet.
• Home-based concepts count differently. A new travel advisor and a new restaurant are both "openings" in the filing.
• Signed does not mean open soon. Disclosure documents don't give opening dates.
• State-level only. Item 20 reports by state, so we can't say whether an opening is in Miami, Tampa, Orlando or Jacksonville.
• Duplicate entries. A few franchisors file separate entries for sub-concepts with identical figures. We count those once (five cases in Florida).
• Window and classification. Filings received December 2025 through September 2026. Industry labels are ours, assigned per filing.

Want the brand-by-brand view?

This article uses aggregated totals only. FranchiseTracker tracks every new disclosure filing as it arrives, with state-by-state projections, signed-not-open counts and three-year outlet trends for each brand. Preview the data →

Related: Texas franchise expansion: where franchisors plan to open next

Sources

• U.S. Census Bureau, QuickFacts: Florida (Vintage 2025 estimates)
• Miami-Dade County, PortMiami announces a banner year for cruise passengers
• Cruise Industry News, Port Everglades celebrates record fiscal year
• IFA, 2026 Franchising Economic Outlook (with FRANdata)
• FranchiseTracker analysis of Franchise Disclosure Documents, Item 20 (Table 5), from the Minnesota CARDS public registry