Franchising

Franchise territories drawn on who lives in them

Censible profiles the people in each franchise territory or outlet catchment, sets your strongest outlets against your weakest, and finds suburbs like your best ones in states you haven't entered yet. It's built on the ABS Census, with every figure traced to its source.

Open the appData and sources
SA1
Territories built from neighbourhood blocks of about 400 people
5–30 min
A drive time around each outlet, or a 1–10 km circle
2011–2031
Three Censuses on the 2026 boundaries, plus projections
Context

Territories and the people in them

The Franchise Council of Australia's 2023 estimate put the sector at about 1,267 franchise systems and more than 94,000 outlets, across food, fitness, retail and home and personal services. Each new outlet comes with a site or territory that the franchisor grants and, under the Franchising Code of Conduct, describes in the disclosure document a prospective franchisee receives before signing.

An outlet's results depend on much the Census can't see, such as the operator, the fit-out and the competition nearby. The people around it are the part that can be measured the same way for every outlet, which lets territories be drawn and compared on the same terms and the outlets that trail be checked against the ones that lead.

An example

From Coorparoo to Perth

Take a fitness franchise whose strongest club is in Coorparoo, in Brisbane's inner south, and which has no clubs in Perth. Coorparoo had about 18,100 residents at the 2021 Census, with 38% aged 20 to 39, 45% of households renting, a third of households made up of one person, and a median household income of $2,101 a week.

Censible's Find ranks Mount Lawley as the closest match in Western Australia, at 74%, with a median household income of $2,111, the same 46% holding a degree and 34% of households made up of one person, followed by West Leederville, Scarborough, Inglewood and Wembley at 69% to 73%. The largest difference is housing, since half of Coorparoo's homes are flats or apartments against 28% in Mount Lawley, and Find lists the closest and furthest figures for each match.

Limitations

What the Census can't tell a franchisor

Censible describes the people who live in an area. It doesn't hold outlet sales, foot traffic, card spending at a particular business or the locations of competing brands, and it doesn't check territories against your franchise agreements. When you upload your outlets with a performance figure, the comparison shows which catchment figures go with your strongest outlets rather than what causes their results, and a network of a dozen outlets can make a pattern look stronger than it is.

The household spending figures are modelled estimates, built from the ABS Monthly Household Spending Indicator and Census incomes, and they describe what residents spend wherever they spend it. Work and travel figures from the 2021 Census were affected by lockdowns in Sydney and Melbourne.

Use cases

What franchisors use it for

From one territory to a rollout in a new state.

  1. 01Profile a territoryDraw a territory, pool the suburbs or postcodes it covers, or set a 1 to 10 km circle or a 5 to 30 minute drive around a site, and see its population, ages, household types, incomes, renting and the languages spoken at home.
  2. 02Compare outlets across the networkUpload your outlets with one figure each, such as sales or memberships, and see which catchment figures go with your strongest outlets and how far your weakest ones differ.
  3. 03Find territories in a new stateSearch for suburbs like your best outlets' catchments in a state you haven't entered, leaving out places where you already have an outlet nearby, with the closest and furthest figures listed for each match.
  4. 04Size the spending around a siteSee modelled household spending at cafes and restaurants, on groceries and in other categories for any catchment, with the method stated.
  5. 05Brief a prospective franchiseePrepare a report on a territory from the same figures and method used for every other territory in the network.

Questions people ask

Draw the next territory from your best outlets

Upload your outlets with one figure each and see what sets the strongest apart.

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