Where the units are and who operates them
98.3% of the companies behind units opened in 2025 are limited liability companies, compared with 86.1% in 2019, and 91.6% among other companies in the same activities
Share of limited liability companies, single-member ones included, among the 6,594 companies opened in 2025 that operate units of the measured networks, excluding MEI
See the full table (9 rows)
| Segment | Companies 2015 to 2018 | Limited liability 2015 to 2018 | Sole proprietor 2015 to 2018 | Companies 2022 to 2025 | Limited liability 2022 to 2025 | Sole proprietor 2022 to 2025 | Same activities, limited liability 2022 to 2025 | Same activities, sole proprietor 2022 to 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gyms and sports | 162 | 87.0% | 9.3% | 1,359 | 97.8% | 1.4% | 83.0% | 14.4% |
| Food | 2,653 | 83.3% | 10.7% | 6,168 | 98.3% | 1.7% | 92.1% | 7.7% |
| Food, retail and distribution | 1,241 | 81.1% | 13.5% | 3,348 | 97.8% | 2.2% | 91.4% | 8.4% |
| Education | 897 | 82.2% | 13.5% | 1,039 | 96.6% | 3.2% | 90.6% | 6.5% |
| Fashion and accessories | 2,193 | 82.3% | 12.2% | 3,889 | 97.6% | 2.4% | 92.1% | 7.6% |
| Health, beauty and wellness | 2,028 | 88.9% | 7.3% | 4,563 | 97.9% | 2.0% | 88.3% | 10.5% |
| Services and other businesses | 2,083 | 81.6% | 14.9% | 6,788 | 96.5% | 3.4% | 92.2% | 7.1% |
| Tourism and hospitality | 151 | 84.1% | 13.9% | 114 | 95.6% | fewer than 5 | 92.6% | 5.0% |
| All measured networks | 11,405 | 83.5% | 11.7% | 27,268 | 97.5% | 2.4% | 90.9% | 8.4% |
Sole proprietors by year of openingShare of the companies opened in each year, excluding MEI. * 2019 is the year of Law 13.874, which allowed the limited liability company with a single member. Law 14.195, of 2021, converted the existing EIRELIs into single-member limited liability companies.
| Year of opening | Network companies | Limited liability, networks | Limited liability, same activities | Sole proprietor, networks | Sole proprietor, same activities | EIRELI, networks | EIRELI, same activities |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 1,802 | 82.2% | 57.8% | 16.0% | 40.6% | 1.4% | 0.9% |
| 2012 | 1,965 | 82.6% | 59.9% | 12.7% | 36.9% | 4.2% | 2.4% |
| 2013 | 2,364 | 82.8% | 60.3% | 12.8% | 35.5% | 4.3% | 3.5% |
| 2014 | 2,378 | 85.3% | 61.1% | 10.0% | 33.9% | 4.7% | 4.4% |
| 2015 | 2,576 | 83.3% | 63.5% | 11.6% | 30.9% | 4.9% | 5.0% |
| 2016 | 2,695 | 81.9% | 65.6% | 12.5% | 28.3% | 5.3% | 5.3% |
| 2017 | 2,895 | 83.0% | 67.4% | 12.2% | 27.0% | 4.6% | 4.8% |
| 2018 | 3,239 | 85.5% | 70.4% | 10.7% | 24.6% | 3.6% | 4.3% |
| 2019* | 4,060 | 86.1% | 72.9% | 10.2% | 22.5% | 3.5% | 3.5% |
| 2020 | 4,192 | 92.2% | 81.8% | 6.1% | 15.8% | 1.6% | 1.5% |
| 2021 | 6,005 | 95.0% | 85.9% | 4.4% | 12.9% | 0.5% | 0.6% |
| 2022 | 6,560 | 96.5% | 89.2% | 3.4% | 10.2% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| 2023 | 6,956 | 97.4% | 91.2% | 2.6% | 8.3% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| 2024 | 7,158 | 97.8% | 91.7% | 2.0% | 7.7% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| 2025 | 6,594 | 98.3% | 91.6% | 1.6% | 7.4% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
The CNPJ (Brazilian company registry) records the natureza jurídica (legal form) of the company that holds each establishment, which makes it possible to observe how the companies that operate franchise network units are constituted. The indicator covers 79,275 companies of the 503 measured networks, identified by the CNPJ root and excluding MEI (individual microentrepreneur regime), and groups them by the year in which the head office opened.
Among the companies opened in 2025, 98.3% are limited liability companies and 1.6% are sole proprietors. Among those opened in 2019, the year of Law 13.874, which allowed the limited liability company with a single member, the shares are 86.1% and 10.2%. In the same CNAEs (national classification of economic activities) and years, weighted by the networks' mix of activities, the set of other companies also shows a rise in limited liability companies, from 72.9% to 91.6%, with sole proprietors going from 22.5% to 7.4%.
The legal form table of Receita Federal (the federal tax authority) has no code for the single-member limited liability company, which is registered as a limited liability company, so the database does not show how many of these companies have a single member. The rise of limited liability companies and the decline of sole proprietors are consistent with the adoption of that form, although the data do not demonstrate it. The EIRELI (individual limited liability company), in force since 2012, reaches 5.3% of the companies opened in a single year and no longer appears among openings after 2021, when Law 14.195 converted the existing ones into single-member limited liability companies.
How we calculate
We start from the establishments that the observatory's census attributes to the measured networks, in any registration status, in reference month October 2026, and group them by CNPJ root, so that each company counts once, even with several units, except when it has units in more than one segment, in which case it is counted in each. The year is that of the head office's activity start date. The legal form comes from the Empresas (companies) file and is grouped into limited liability company (codes 2062 and 2240), corporation (2046 and 2054), EIRELI (2305 and 2313), sole proprietor (2135) and others. MEI is the sole proprietor that opted into that regime at some point, according to the Simples file.
The comparison uses all head offices with the same primary CNAEs, outside any CNPJ root of the networks and also excluding MEI, with the distribution calculated by CNAE and year and weighted by the CNAE mix of the network companies in each year. The ranges from 2015 to 2018 and from 2022 to 2025 leave out the transition between Law 13.874, of September 2019, and Law 14.195, of August 2021. In the chart, the asterisk marks the year 2019.
What this figure does not show
- The single-member limited liability company cannot be separated. The legal form table has no code of its own for it, and the partners file, the only one that would identify it, is not used by the observatory. The qualification of the responsible person in the Empresas file does not serve as a substitute, since 97.2% of the limited liability companies opened in 2019 and 97.5% of those opened in 2025 show the same qualification of managing partner.
- The legal form is the current one, not the one at opening. Of the 1,216 EIRELIs that still carry that code in the networks, 1,215 are deregistered, a sign that the active ones were recoded as limited liability companies. There are also EIRELIs whose head office opened in 2010, before the type existed, and 1,580 limited liability companies that have opted into MEI. For this reason, the share of limited liability companies is overestimated in the earlier years, and the recent rise tends to be underestimated.
- Among companies already deregistered, whose legal form no longer changes, the share of sole proprietors goes from 16.1% in the 2015 to 2018 period to 3.9% in the 2022 to 2025 period, in the same direction as the whole set, which goes from 11.7% to 2.4%.
- MEI is left out of the percentages. Identifying the units depends on the trade name, and the share of MEI with a trade name in the same CNAEs falls from 29.0% among those opened in 2019 to 0.4% in 2024, so the MEI series in the networks reflects how the registry is filled in. The count identified 3,129 companies in that condition, some of them possibly namesakes or resellers.
- Units are counted by their current trade name. Namesakes are included, and units with another name are left out. The percentages describe the networks identified today, and their composition changes from one year to the next. Of the 237 networks with at least 10 companies in both ranges, 177 have a smaller share of sole proprietors in the 2022 to 2025 period.
- The timing coincidence with the laws does not demonstrate an effect of those laws. The comparison includes independent businesses and does not measure an effect of the franchise model.
Frequently asked questions
What is the most common type of company for opening a franchise?
The limited liability company. Among the companies opened in 2025 that operate units of measured networks in the CNPJ (Brazilian company registry), 98.3% are limited liability companies, a category that includes the single-member limited liability company, and 1.6% are sole proprietors, excluding MEI (individual microentrepreneur regime).
How many franchises are opened as single-member limited liability companies?
The figure is not available in the open database. Receita Federal (the federal tax authority) has no natureza jurídica (legal form) code for the single-member limited liability company, which is registered as a limited liability company, and the distinction depends on the list of partners, which the observatory does not use.
Did the Economic Freedom Law change the type of company franchisees use?
The share of sole proprietors among the companies behind franchise units fell from 10.2% among those opened in 2019 to 1.6% in 2025, and the share of limited liability companies rose from 86.1% to 98.3%. The movement coincides with Law 13.874 of 2019 and also appears among other companies in the same activities, which does not demonstrate an effect of the law.
Report an error on this page (in Portuguese)
Where the units are and who operates themOther indicators in the same group
Maintained by Marktech, which serves franchise networks and franchises. The brands cited belong to their owners and are mentioned here only to identify the network the data refers to.