Texas and Florida Franchise Expansion Report: Q4 2026

The short version. Of the 1,381 brands in our franchise disclosure data, 824 (60%) project at least one new franchised outlet in Texas or Florida. Together they project 4,726 openings, about a fifth of the 23,534 projected nationwide, and report another 4,673 outlets signed but not yet open. Food and beverage is the largest category by a wide margin: 211 brands and 1,271 projected openings. Home services and trades is second by brand count, with 116 brands, but fourth by openings (438), because its plans are small.

This is the first edition of a quarterly report on Texas and Florida, the two largest franchise pipelines in the country. It uses aggregated totals only: no brand is named or ranked.

Where these numbers come from

Every franchisor must give prospective buyers a Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD). Item 20 contains two tables used here:

• Projected openings. The franchisor's own estimate of new outlets it expects to open in each state over the next fiscal year.
• Signed but not yet open. Outlets where a franchisee has signed an agreement but the location is not trading yet.

We read both tables from the most recent filing of each of 1,381 brands, received between October 2025 and early October 2026, and total them for Texas and Florida. A brand that filed more than once is counted once, using its latest filing.

Texas and Florida at a glance

The two states are close on forecasts: 622 brands plan a Texas opening and 631 a Florida one, projecting 2,391 and 2,335 outlets. Texas is ahead on contracts: 2,642 signed-not-open against 2,259 in Florida, a gap of 17%. Texas has 1.10 signed outlets for every projected one; Florida has 0.97.

These totals are higher than in our earlier state articles because the data window has moved forward: this edition includes filings received through October 5, 2026.

Food leads on volume. Home services leads on breadth.

Food and beverage is the largest category on both measures: 211 brands (26% of those planning) and 1,271 projected openings (27%). Fitness and recreation follows on volume with 514 openings from 93 brands, then health care with 455 from 73.

Home services and trades breaks the pattern. It has the second-largest number of planning brands, 116, and the largest gap between its share of brands (14.1%) and its share of openings (9.3%). That gap is the size of the average plan.

The average home services brand projects 3.8 openings across Texas and Florida, against 6.0 in food and beverage and 5.7 across all industries. Only real estate averages less among the larger categories. Many brands each adding a few outlets is a different market from a few brands adding many. The filings show the pattern but not the reason for it.

Where Texas and Florida differ

Texas is ahead in food and beverage (690 against 581) and health care (242 against 213). Florida is ahead in home services (227 against 211), support services (201 against 151) and cleaning and restoration (157 against 130). Together, the three Florida-led service categories add 585 projected openings in Florida and 492 in Texas.

The filings can't say why. Florida's housing stock, climate and service economy are plausible explanations, and none of them is something these tables measure.

Large plans make up a big share of the openings

Plans are concentrated at both ends. 536 brands (65%) plan one to four openings between them, 1,121 outlets. At the other end, 27 brands plan 25 or more and account for 1,324 outlets, 28% of the total. A handful of large plans therefore move the totals as much as the long tail of small ones, which is why we show plan sizes rather than rankings of individual brands.

Where contracts run ahead of forecasts

Signed-not-open outlets exceed projected openings in some categories and trail in others. Across Texas and Florida:

• Personal care has 2.7 signed outlets for every projected opening (475 against 176).
• Fitness and recreation has 1.5 (779 against 514), and food and beverage 1.35 (1,714 against 1,271).
• Home services and trades has 0.76 (331 against 438). 31 of the 128 home services brands with a plan or a signed outlet have more signed than projected, 24%, against 43% of food and beverage brands.
• Support services (0.30) and cleaning and restoration (0.34) have the fewest signed per projected opening.

Two readings fit, and the filings can't tell which applies. Franchisors may forecast conservatively in some categories. Or categories that need a lease or build-out take longer to open, so a signed backlog outlasts the forecast window. Faster-to-open models would show the opposite pattern, which is what home services, cleaning and support services look like here.

What this means

If you are weighing a franchise purchase, the pipeline shows where franchisors are putting capacity, not where demand is. Food and beverage will be crowded because most brands plan there. Home services has the most brands per opening, so there is a wider choice of concepts at a smaller scale.

If you supply franchisees (real estate, construction, equipment, staffing), openings per category are the useful figure, and food, fitness and health care carry the most.

If you own a franchise in either state, the plan-size table shows how many brands in your category are adding outlets and how large those plans are.

How to read these numbers carefully

• Projections are estimates. They are the franchisor's forecast for the next fiscal year, and some brands leave rows blank or report zero.
• 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 growth is in Miami, Houston, Dallas or Tampa.
• A brand can plan in both states. Brand totals count each brand once across the two states: 824, not 622 plus 631.
• Duplicate entries. A few franchisors file separate entries for sub-concepts with identical figures. We count those once.
• Classification. Industry labels are assigned per filing, so similar brands can land in different categories, and one brand can appear in two. Brand counts by industry add to 823 against 824 unique brands for that reason. "All other" combines two categories with fewer than ten brands between them.
• Source coverage. Our filings come from the Minnesota public registry. Texas does not register franchise offerings, and Florida requires only an annual exemption filing, so a brand that never filed in Minnesota is not in our data.
• Window. Filings received October 16, 2025 to October 5, 2026; the latest filing per brand is used.

Want the brand-by-brand view?

This report 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: Franchise opportunities in Texas, franchise opportunities in Florida and Texas franchise industries: where the market is built out.

Sources

• Texas Secretary of State, Form 2703: Business Opportunity Exemption Notice (a one-time $25 filing; form revised 05/2016)
• Florida Administrative Code, Rule 5J-10.002 (annual franchise exemption filing, DACS Form 10500, $100 fee)
• FranchiseTracker analysis of Franchise Disclosure Documents, Item 20 (Table 5), from the Minnesota CARDS public registry, filings received 2025-10-16 to 2026-10-05