Franchise Group, Inc., is an American publicly traded holding company that acquires and manages mainly

franchise Franchise may refer to: Business and law * Franchising, a business method that involves licensing of trademarks and methods of doing business to franchisees * Franchise, a privilege to operate a type of business such as a cable television p ...

companies. It owns brands in various retail industries including

American Freight American Freight Furniture, Mattress, Appliance, or American Freight, is an American retail company that sells furniture, mattresses and home appliances. The company's history dates to 1968, when Sears established a surplus store in Kansas City, M ...

, Buddy's Home Furnishings,

The Vitamin Shoppe The Vitamin Shoppe (formerly Vitamin Shoppe Industries, Inc., stylized as theVitaminShoppe) is an American, New Jersey-based retailer of nutritional supplements. It also operated three stores in Canada under the name VitaPath from January 2013 u ...

Pet Supplies Plus Pet Supplies Plus (also styled Pet Supplies "Plus"), founded in 1988 in Redford, Michigan in the United States, is a privately held pet supply retailing corporation with a major presence in the US. As of 2005, it was the third largest specialty p ...

Sylvan Learning Sylvan Learning, Inc. (formerly Sylvan Learning Corporation) consists of franchising, franchised and corporate supplemental learning centers which provide personalized instruction in Reading (process), reading, writing, mathematics, study skills, ...

and Badcock Home Furniture.

History

The Franchise Group was founded in 2019 through the merger of

Liberty Tax Liberty Tax, is a chain of franchise and company-owned locations that provide tax preparation services. It is known for its wavers, people in Statue of Liberty costumes and Uncle Sam costumes, used as a form of guerrilla marketing. It is the thi ...

and Buddy's Home Furnishings. It originally operated under the name Liberty Tax but changed its name to the Franchise Group, leaving Liberty Tax and Buddy's Home Furnishings as subsidiaries. It began expanding in 2019 with the acquisition of

and

Sears Outlet American Freight Furniture, Mattress, Appliance, or American Freight, is an American retail company that sells furniture, mattresses and home appliances. The company's history dates to 1968, when Sears established a surplus store in Kansas City, M ...

. The Franchise Group purchased

for $450 million in cash in 2020. After the acquisition, the company merged Sears Outlet into American Freight. On November 5, 2020, Franchise Group announced that it would acquire

Fort Smith, Arkansas Fort Smith is the third-largest city in Arkansas and one of the two county seats of Sebastian County. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 89,142. It is the principal city of the Fort Smith, Arkansas–Oklahoma Metropolitan Statistical Are ...

-based regional furniture retailer FFO Home, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on the same day. The acquisition was completed on December 29. In 2021, the Franchise Group sold Liberty Tax to NextPoint Financial for $249 million. The same year, it purchased

in a deal valued at $700 million,

for $81 million, and Badcock Home Furniture for $580 million. In 2023, the Franchise Group announced a partnership with YTWL Retail to launch YTWL Shop in the USA.

Subsidiaries

Current subsidiaries

; a chain of discount furniture and home furnishing stores that was acquired in February 2020 * Buddy's Home Furnishings; offers home furniture including sofas, chairs, dining tables, as well as electronics, and appliances. Buddy's Home Furnishings serves clients in the United States. *

; offers nutritional supplements in every 785 stores across the U.S., as well as online. Acquired by Franchise Group in December 2019 after Irving Place Capital sold the remaining shares of the company and its division, Super Supplements to Franchise Group in the same year. *

; offers pet supplies and services in 400-plus locations in 30-plus US states. *

; supplemental learning centers which provide personalized instruction in reading, writing, mathematics, study skills, homework support, and test preparation for college entrance and state exams. * Badcock Home Furniture; furniture store chain with over 370 company and dealer owned furniture stores in eight states across the southeastern United States.

Former subsidiaries

Sears Outlet Stores American Freight Furniture, Mattress, Appliance, or American Freight, is an American retail company that sells furniture, mattresses and home appliances. The company's history dates to 1968, when Sears established a surplus store in Kansas City, M ...

; outlet version of Sears department stores located in various retail locations across the U.S., as well as online. Sold to Franchise Group in October 2019 while

Transform Holdco Transform SR Brands LLC (trade name, doing business as Transformco, referred to as "New Sears") is an American privately held company formed on February 11, 2019, to acquire some of the assets of Sears Holdings, Sears Holdings Corporation. T ...

completed the acquisition of the remainder of Sears Hometown at the end of the same business day. In April 2020, Sears Oulet was merged into American Freight and the stores were rebranded American Freight. *

; facilitates refund-based tax settlement financial products, including tax preparation, refund anticipation loans, electronic refund checks, and personal income tax refund discounting. Liberty Tax Service conducts its business in the United States.

References

External links

* {{authority control Holding companies of the United States American companies established in 2019 Franchises Companies listed on the Nasdaq