Franchises · 2026 FDD · Wisconsin DFI filing 640599
Roto-Rooter franchise cost, unit revenue and closures
Opening a Roto-Rooter cost $123,110 to $281,550 in the 2026 FDD; the franchisor gives no unit revenue figure; 3.5% of franchised units closed over three years.
Franchisor: Roto-Rooter Corporation. FDD issued 2026-03-31. Fiscal year end 2025-12-31. Figures re-found on the cited page 2026-11-03.
What a unit costs to open
single franchise.
What a unit pays the franchisor
| Initial franchise fee | $25,000 | Item 5, p. 5 |
|---|---|---|
| Royalty | Monthly Franchise Fee of $280 to more than $36,000 per month, set by a population formula and adjusted each January for CPI | Item 6, p. 6 |
| Advertising fund | no national fund contribution; a local advertising requirement of 11.11 cents per person in the Territory for 2026, rising yearly to 13.81 cents in 2035 | Item 6, p. 7 |
$0.15 per person in the Territory with a $25,000 minimum.
A flat monthly amount, not a percentage of sales.
What a unit sells
Item 19 is optional and is the franchisor's own representation. It is shown here as filed, with the franchisor's measure, sample and period, and nothing is estimated where it is missing.
No Item 19. Roto-Rooter's 2026 FDD makes no financial performance representation (Item 19, p. 28). The revenue-to-investment ratio is undefined for this brand.
Revenue to investment
Undefined: no Item 19 representation.
How many units open and close
| Franchised units | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Start of year | 348 | 341 | 337 |
| Opened | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| Terminated | 6 | 3 | 3 |
| Not renewed | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Reacquired by franchisor | 2 | 3 | 1 |
| Ceased, other reasons | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| End of year | 341 | 337 | 333 |
| Company-owned, end of year | 117 | 116 | 115 |
Item 20, Table 1 p. 29; Table 3 totals p. 44.
Closures are the franchisor's Item 20 counts of units terminated, not renewed, or ceased for other reasons, summed over 2023–2025 and divided by franchised units at the start of 2023. Units the franchisor reacquired are not closures. This is an Item 20 count, not a failure rate.
all three rows sum; blank cells in the printed table read as zero.
Source and method
Every figure above comes from the Roto-Rooter Franchise Disclosure Document issued 2026-03-31, as filed with the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions (filing 640599, registry record). The PDF is the franchisor's and is not hosted here; the item and page beside each figure is where to check it. Item 7 and Item 20 tables were read cell by cell; Item 19 was read by hand; each Item 20 year was checked to sum (start + opened − exits = end) before it was recorded.
There is no royalty on sales. The franchisee pays a flat Monthly Franchise Fee set by the population of its territory, and the initial fee is priced per person..
Informational only, not professional, legal or investment advice. Unitnomics computes from the filing and does not advise on, rank, or refer to any franchise. Last reviewed: November 2026.