Verified — real FDD extraction
Not found in the SBA Franchise Directory under this name — though SBA loans to its franchisees exist; verify eligibility with your lender
Learning Express
Education & Children · independent · est. —
Learning Express is a specialty toy retailer selling educational and developmental toys, games, and gifts. A franchisee operates a neighborhood toy store, curating inventory and providing hands-on customer service to parents and gift shoppers.
Learning Express net unit count declined -9.6% from 2017–2019 per its FDD Item 20.
New to franchising? Start here
A franchise is a business where you (the franchisee) pay a company (the franchisor) for the right to open and run a location using their brand and system — think a local Anytime Fitness or Taco John's owned by a small-business owner, not the corporation.
Before you can buy in, U.S. law requires the franchisor to give you a Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) — a long legal filing covering its fees, finances, and history. The numbers on this page come straight from that document:
- Franchise fee — the one-time cost to buy in.
- Royalty — the ongoing cut of your sales you pay the franchisor.
- Item 20 — how many locations opened and closed, the basis for our verdict (from Proven & strong down to Distressed — or Too new to judge).
The verdict
Showing strain
Distress
The disclosed record shows weakness — shrinking units, elevated exits, or churn — worth reading closely before going further.
Exit rate · latest year
9.2%
vs 6.9% across 20 education & children systems
Cost to open
$182K–$319K
Item 7 total investment range
SBA loan defaults
22.5%
vs 14.8% avg across rated brands
Behind the verdict
the record, factor by factor · Item 20
3-yr trend · Item 20 Table 1
terminations + ceased-ops vs. all exits · Table 3
transfers vs. base · Table 3
actual vs. projected openings · Table 5
Item 19 disclosure + completeness
Systemwide units
2017–2019
Survival record
FDD Item 20 · outlet status by year
In fiscal 2019, 10 of 109 franchised outlets left the system — a 9.2% annualized exit rate, vs 6.9% across 20 education & children systems. Not every exit is a failure — but this is the measurable floor.
Show the outlet tables ↓Hide the evidence ↑
| Status (FTC) | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Outlets at start | 121 | 114 | 111 |
| Opened | 4 | 5 | 2 |
| Transfers | 6 | 2 | 3 |
| Terminations | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Non-renewals | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Reacquired by franchisor | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Ceased — other reasons | 11 | 8 | 10 |
| Outlets at end | 114 | 111 | 103 |
| Net change | -7 | -3 | -8 |
The lender's view
SBA 7(a)/504 loan performance · FY1991–present
Banks have made 93 SBA-backed loans to Learning Express franchisees since 1991. Of the 71 that have resolved, 22.5% were charged off (defaulted) rather than paid in full, versus 14.8% across 576 rated brands.
22.5%
16 of 71 resolved defaulted
61.1%
avg. charged-off $ ÷ approved $
13.8%
default rate × loss severity
$464,857
what recent franchisees borrowed
87 mo
approval → charge-off, defaulted loans
5 vs 1
distinct banks still lending
Charge-off rate by loan approval year (%)
Loan performance by state
SOURCE: SBA 7(a)/504 FOIA LOAN DATA (DATA.SBA.GOV), FY1991–PRESENT · MATCHED TO LEARNING EXPRESS BY FRANCHISE NAME · RESOLVED = CHARGED-OFF + PAID-IN-FULL
The owner's side of the deal
FDD × federal loan record
Who finances it
Readycap Lending, Llc
29.3% of this brand's loans
That lender charges off 31.5% of its loans to other franchise brands, vs 14.8% nationally.
Who buys it
86.2%
first-time franchise owners
The rest already owned at least one other franchise. Across the corpus, brands bought mostly by repeat operators charge off at roughly 10% versus 17% for brands sold mostly to newcomers.
Does experience help here?
Not enough resolved loans to split
Computed from 93 SBA 7(a)/504 loans to Learning Express franchisees joined to the brand's own FDD. Debt service assumes level amortization at the average disclosed term and rate. A lender's rate excludes its loans to this brand, so it reads the lender, not the brand.
What it costs — and what it drags
FDD Items 5–7 · fees, investment, royalty
Buying in means a $35K franchise fee (Item 5) and a total investment of $182K–$319K (Item 7). The franchisor publishes an earnings claim (Item 19) — read its methodology closely.
To open (Item 7)
$182K–$319K
all-in investment range
Franchise fee (Item 5)
$35K
upfront, one-time
Royalty (Item 6)
5%
of sales, ongoing
Your figure — cross-check against this brand's Item 19 and current-owner validation.
Royalty you'd pay / yr
$50K
5% of sales, before profit
Over a 10-yr term
$500K
royalties alone, excl. ad fund
This is not profit. It's the only money the FDD actually pins down — what you put in, and the royalty you owe on every dollar of sales. Your real take-home depends on labor, rent, food cost, and ramp-to-breakeven, none of which any FDD discloses.
Build a real pro-forma for Learning Express with an independent CPALabor record
US Dept. of Labor enforcement · franchisee-level · FY2005–present
Federal investigators have concluded 8 wage cases against operators of this system, recovering $8K in back wages for 36 workers. These cases name franchisee-owned locations, not the franchisor itself.
Concluded cases
8
Back wages owed
$8K
Employees affected
36
Since 2020
0
Read this carefully. The employers in these cases are individual Learning Express franchisees — separately owned businesses operating under the brand name — not Learning Express itself. The franchisor is not the respondent and in most cases is not a party. What the record shows is how this system's operators run their payrolls, which is worth knowing before you become one of them. Counts rise with system size and with age: a 20-year-old, 10,000-unit system will out-count a young one regardless of conduct. Source: DOL Wage and Hour Division concluded compliance actions, FY2005–present, most recent finding 2014.
Modeled risk
FDD Risk Score · modeled from the public record
Modeled from the public record, this brand looks riskier than 93% of systems we score.
Risk percentile
93 / 100
Measured
Modeled SBA charge-off
22.3%
Observed SBA charge-off
22.5%
Top drivers: Share financed by high-loss lenders (raises) · System size (log units) (raises) · Net unit growth (raises) · Item 3 litigation (log) (raises). 50+ resolved loans and complete disclosure data — the score is checkable against the brand's observed rate. A linear scorecard built from this brand's own disclosure figures plus the federal loan record behind its franchisees; full spec and cross-validated accuracy on the methodology page. A score is context, not a verdict.
Distress signals
news-sourced · bankruptcies, closures, lawsuits
No recent closures, bankruptcies, or major lawsuits found in the news for Learning Express. That's a good sign — but it reflects news coverage, not a guarantee.
A broker is paid by the franchisor to place you. An independent CPA is paid by you — and the job is pressure-testing Learning Express's numbers, including talking you out of a bad deal.
Talk to an independent CPA before you buy →Learning Express franchise questions, answered from the filings
What percentage of Learning Express franchises closed last year?
In Learning Express's latest FDD Item 20 (fiscal 2019), 10 of 109 franchised outlets left the system — an annualized exit rate of 9.2% — compared with 6.9% across 20 education & children systems tracked here. That counts terminations, non-renewals, and "ceased operations — other reasons." There is no official failure rate, and not every exit is a failure, but this is the measurable floor.
How much does a Learning Express franchise cost?
Per Learning Express's 2020 FDD, buying in requires an initial franchise fee of $35K (Item 5) and a total initial investment of $182K–$319K (Item 7).
What royalty does Learning Express charge?
Learning Express charges an ongoing royalty of 5.0% of gross sales, per Item 6 of its 2020 FDD.
Does Learning Express disclose earnings (Item 19)?
Yes — Learning Express makes a financial performance representation in Item 19 of its 2020 FDD, reporting a median unit volume of $651K. Read it closely: franchisors choose which units and which metrics to include.
How often do SBA loans for Learning Express franchises default?
Across 93 SBA-backed loans to Learning Express franchisees since 1991, 16 of the 71 that have resolved were charged off — a 22.5% default rate, versus about 14.8% across all rated franchise brands. This is the lender's-eye view of franchisee failure, drawn from public SBA 7(a)/504 FOIA data and independent of the franchisor's own disclosures.