UPS STORE Franchisee Found Success
September 20, 2009 by Sean Kelly
Filed under Business
Also read: Is The UPS Store a Good Franchise Opportunity?
Owners call the UPS Store Franchise “Indentured Servitude,” and “A Nightmare”
Most of the comments we receive on The UPS Store franchise opportunity are negative. Some are from disgruntled franchisees who regret their decision and/or contend that the business model is flawed; others are commenting on the status of one of the many lawsuits launched against the franchisor and its parent..
However, on 2009/09/19 at 12:38pm PrestonF contends that his The UPS Store franchise is so successful he and his partners are planning to expand with more locations. PrestonF writes:
I have owned a UPS Store for 3 years and it broke even in 18 months.
At the end of the 3rd year each owner (2 of us) were paying over $5000.00 in general expenses, such as cell phones, travel, dinners, etc… plus we paid each owner $5000.00 each in owner dividends.
We anticipate paying owner dividends of $10,000.00 at the end of this year. Our basic investment was $200,000.00 and believe at the growth rate we are having we will make back our original investment in 5 to 7 years, plus covering many out-of-pocket expensed that we were paying out of our personal pockets in the past.
Because of our success we have now purchased a second store in our market and think it will meet with the same level of success. It is important that the owners stay involved in their stores and get our in the local community and neighborhood and make sales calls and market the store.
Success comes from hard work not standing behind the counter.
WHAT DO YOU THINK? SHARE A COMMENT BELOW.
What are the store numbers?
Yes! Strange that NO sales numbers were provided and the startup costs of $200,000 seem unrealistic. Is this a NEW startup or what? I’m skeptical too! WHAT ARE THE STORE NUMBERS? Just how much have you two owners been paying out of your own “personal” pockets that isn’t reflected in overhead? If you are making an “earnings claim” —please be forthcoming with the actual numbers.
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Very misleading when the store numbers are not provided! This is not to say that there aren’t some of The UPS Stores who are breaking even or even making profits but it appears that the majority of these stores are not doing very well, while at the same time UPS is maintaining their presence in the marketplace to compete with FedEx and the US Post Office, as well as with the franchisees of their owned subsidiary, MBE.
The UPS Store advertises consistently in Entrepreneur Magazine and it appears they always make it somewhere around the top ten because of their “visibility” in the marketplace. This visibility has been attained through much “churning” and “turnover” of stores, as described in a Wall Street Journal Article a few years ago, where the CEO of MBE advised that profitability was a problem with The UPS Store franchise.
MBE-UPS finds it expedient to NEVER make an earnings claim to new prostects in the FDD. They do, of course, make implied “earnings claims” through their “estimated startup costs” and the famous UPS Brand and logo acts as a shill to sell The UPS Store franchise to prospects, who aren’t provided with any statistics from MBE-UPS itself concerning the actual financial performance of the units that comprise the MBE-UPS Franchised System.
Numbers, please!