Shipping Store Franchise Statistics: Mail, Copy and Print Centers

How franchised is the shipping store franchise industry?

Summary. Retail mail and shipping centers sit near the top of both Census franchise rankings used here, while copy shops and commercial printers sit in the lower half. The gap has held across three Economic Censuses.

The 2017 Economic Census counted 4,812 private mail centers (NAICS 561431) in the United States, of which 3,249 were franchise establishments, a franchise share of 67.5% (Census EC1700FRAN). Among the 241 six-digit industries with at least 1,000 establishments and a published franchise count, only new car dealers (100.0%) were more franchised. The median industry was 3.3% franchised, and all industries in the Census franchise file together were 11.5%.

NAICS 561431 covers businesses that rent mailboxes and provide postal and mailing services, alone or with office services such as copying and faxing (Census NAICS 2022 definitions). That is the Census home of the retail shipping store. Copy shops without printing presses are coded 561439, and quick printers and digital print shops are coded 323111.

In 2017, franchises were 4.0% of 5,395 copy and business service centers and 7.4% of 18,203 commercial printing establishments. Private mail centers ranked #2, commercial printing #69 and copy centers #110 in the same 241-industry ranking.

The mail center share was 67.9% in 2007 (Census EC0700CFRA1) and 63.1% in 2012 (Census EC1200CFRA1), so the 2017 level is not a one-year spike. Commercial printing rose from 2.0% in 2012 to 7.4% in 2017.

Franchisee-owned, not company-run

Summary. Almost every franchised mail center is owned by a local franchisee. Franchisor ownership is a small fraction in all three industries.

Of the 3,249 franchise mail centers in 2017, 3,143 were franchisee-owned and 106 franchisor-owned, so 96.7% were franchisee-owned (Census EC1700FRAN). The figure was 98.7% in 2007 and 96.4% in 2012. Across all industries in the 2017 franchise file the franchisee-owned share was 83.3%, so mail centers are more franchisee-run than the typical franchised industry.

As a share of all establishments, 65.3% of U.S. mail centers were franchisee-owned in 2017, against 3.7% of copy centers and 7.0% of commercial printers. One large copy, print and shipping network is company-run rather than franchised: FedEx states that FedEx Office operated approximately 2,000 customer-facing stores in fiscal 2026 (FedEx Form 10-K for fiscal 2026).

Franchise locations vs independents: receipts, payroll, staff

Summary. In mail centers, the franchise location was the bigger business in 2017. In copy centers and printing, franchise locations were much smaller than the non-franchise average, which includes large commercial plants.

Franchise mail centers averaged $631,758 in receipts per establishment in 2017, against $496,791 for non-franchise mail centers, a ratio of 1.27 (Census EC1700FRAN). Payroll per location was $134,634 against $113,473 (ratio 1.19), and staff per location 6.0 against 4.4. Franchise mail centers took 72.6% of industry receipts.

Payroll per employee ran the other way: $22,494 in franchise mail centers against $25,983 in non-franchise ones. Census employment is a March head count that mixes part-time and full-time staff, so this is a payroll ratio, not an hourly wage comparison.

In copy and business service centers, a franchise location averaged $397,871 in receipts against $1,189,085 (ratio 0.33). In commercial printing the figures were $994,529 against $3,882,385 (ratio 0.26). Franchise print shops are storefront quick printers; the non-franchise group includes industrial plants. The 2012 mail-center ratio was 0.93, so the 2017 lead is recent. These are revenue averages from Census, not profit figures; see FDD Item 19 for what franchisors disclose about unit sales. The site’s franchise vs independent business report covers the same comparison across all industries.

Firm-level check: Annual Business Survey, 2020 to 2023

Summary. The Annual Business Survey, which asks firms rather than establishments, agrees with the Economic Census: business support services, the four-digit group that holds mail and copy centers, is among the most franchised industry groups.

In data year 2023 (2024 ABS), 16.5% of responding employer firms in business support services (NAICS 5614) operated all or part of the business as a franchise, with a standard error of 1.7 points (Census Annual Business Survey, data year 2023). The all-sector rate was 4.7%. NAICS 5614 ranked #6 of 174 four-digit industries with a published share. Printing (NAICS 3231) was 8.2%.

The ABS publishes industry only to four digits, so 5614 also contains call centers, collection agencies and credit bureaus, which are rarely franchised. The 2019 data year file has no four-digit franchise rows. The ABS counts firms, not locations, and has no franchisee or franchisor split.

Industry trend since 2017: more mail centers, fewer printers

Summary. Without a new franchise count, BLS establishment data show direction: the mail center industry has grown since 2017 while copy centers lost staff and commercial printing shrank.

The BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages counted 5,045 private mail center establishments in 2017 and 5,810 in 2025, a change of 15.2% (BLS QCEW 561431, 2025). Employment rose from 26,094 to 34,783 (33.3%).

Copy and business service centers had 5,756 establishments in 2025 (2.6% more than in 2017), but employment fell 25.4% to 39,310 (BLS QCEW 561439). Commercial printing establishments fell 9.8% to 17,995 and employment 24.4% (BLS QCEW 323111).

QCEW has no franchise flag. It also counts locations differently from franchise systems: the three retail shipping systems in the FDD section reported 6,272 outlets at the end of 2025, 1.08 times the QCEW count for the whole industry. Some system outlets are therefore coded to other industries or are not separate reporting units, which is one more reason the Census franchise share is a floor.

SBA loans for shipping store franchises and print shops

Summary. Most SBA-backed loans to mail centers go to franchises, and franchise loans are larger. Print shop loans are mostly to independents.

From FY2010 to June 30, 2026, lenders approved 1,419 SBA 7(a) loans to private mail centers, totaling $439,625,400 (SBA 7(a) and 504 FOIA files, as of 2026-06-30). 1,030 of them (72.6%) carried a franchise code, 7.2 times the 10.1% rate for all 7(a) loans. The median franchise-coded loan was $275,000, against $150,000 for uncoded loans; from FY2020 onward the medians were $320,000 and $198,000.

Copy and business service centers drew 563 7(a) loans (43.2% franchise-coded) and commercial printers 3,777 (13.2%). The 504 program, used for real estate and equipment, made 10 loans to mail centers and 723 to commercial printers in the same period.

Lending to mail centers grew: 52 loans in FY2019, 187 in FY2023 and 220 in FY2025. One franchise code accounted for 73.7% of franchise-coded mail center loans. Among loans approved FY2010 to FY2019, 1.5% of franchise-coded mail center loans had been charged off by mid-2026, against 10.3% of uncoded ones; the counts are small, and a charge-off is a loan loss, not a closure (see franchise failure rate).

The FY2024 and FY2025 dip in franchise-coded share is a coding artifact. SBA stopped publishing its Franchise Directory when its 2023 affiliation rule took effect on 2023-05-11 (88 FR 21074) and reinstated it under SOP 50 10 8 from 2025-06-01 (SBA Information Notice 5000-866746). For mail-center loans the franchise-coded share was 87.0% before the withdrawal, 57.6% from October 2023 to February 2025 and 76.8% after reinstatement. Program-wide figures are in SBA franchise loans.

What 2025 and 2026 shipping and print FDDs disclose

Summary. Retail shipping FDDs show lower median new-unit costs than the site’s 259-FDD sample and a uniform 5% royalty. Print franchisors also sell conversions of existing shops, and one sells only acquisitions and conversions.

The site’s 259-FDD sample has no retail shipping or print-and-copy center, so this report read the latest clean FDD on file with Minnesota for four shipping systems and four print systems, issued between 2025-05-20 and 2026-04-23. The median new-unit Item 7 range was $163,499 to $338,565 for shipping and $251,690 to $317,178 for the three print FDDs that offer a new unit, against $265,372 to $573,000 for the 259-FDD sample (franchise initial investment).

The UPS Store FDD puts a new or relocated traditional center at $222,368 to $606,081; PostNet states $240,200 to $306,800. All four shipping FDDs charge a 5% royalty; the median shipping initial fee is $37,475. The print FDDs charge 6.0% at the median, and the Allegra FDD offers no new-unit franchise at all: it sells acquisition and conversion of independent print businesses. 7 of the 8 FDDs include an Item 19 financial performance representation; this report does not reproduce those figures.

These are franchisor estimates for one format each. Rural, remodel, non-traditional and conversion formats have separate ranges in the same documents, and the fact sheet records each one used.

Carrier and parent company filings: stated location counts

Summary. Carrier 10-Ks describe the retail shipping channel but give few franchise counts. FedEx states an approximate count each year; UPS does not state a count for The UPS Store, whose numbers come from its FDD.

FedEx’s 10-K describes its Authorized ShipCenter program as nearly 4,800 franchised and independent pack-and-ship retail locations in fiscal 2022, nearly 4,700 in fiscal 2023, over 4,000 in fiscal 2024 and approximately 5,000 in fiscal 2026 (FedEx Form 10-K for fiscal 2026). These stores belong to many owners and franchise systems; the count is not a FedEx franchise. FedEx Office, which is company-operated, went from approximately 2,200 stores in fiscal 2022 to approximately 2,000 in fiscal 2026, and FedEx states that nearly 800 Office Depot and OfficeMax stores offer its shipping.

UPS’s 10-Ks for 2023 to 2025 list The UPS Store among its access points but state no store count. They do state that goodwill acquired in 2024 was associated with its acquisition of certain locations of The UPS Store (UPS Form 10-K 2024), and that 2025 acquisitions included $40 million for reacquired development area rights (UPS Form 10-K 2025). The FDD shows the same move: company-owned centers went from 2 at the end of 2023 to 16 at the end of 2025, against 5,487 franchised.

Across the eight FDDs, Item 20 shows growth at The UPS Store and Minuteman Press and decline in three print systems: AlphaGraphics, Sir Speedy and Allegra together went from 559 to 514 franchised outlets (-8.1%) between the start of 2023 and the end of 2025, while Minuteman Press grew 6.9%. The chart keeps a fixed order and is not a ranking.

Buyer checklist built from the data

Summary. These checks follow from the numbers above. They are questions to put to a franchisor or lender, not recommendations.

• Read Item 20 for three years of openings, closures and transfers. Three of the four print systems here shrank from 2023 to 2025; the shipping systems grew or held.
• Match the Item 7 format to your site. Shipping FDDs publish separate ranges for new, rural, remodel, express and conversion stores; the new-unit median here is $163,499 to $338,565.
• Count every percentage fee: 5% royalty plus 1% to 2.5% brand fund in the shipping FDDs read here.
• Ask how the carrier relationship works. FedEx describes its ShipCenter network as franchised and independent stores, and UPS has been reacquiring development rights and some locations of The UPS Store.
• Check the SBA route. The median franchise-coded 7(a) loan to a mail center was $320,000 from FY2020; confirm the brand is in the reinstated SBA Franchise Directory.
• Use Item 19, not Census averages, for any revenue question, and compare it with the franchisor’s own definitions. See franchise costs and buying a franchise for the wider process.