Did Hounds Town USA Franchise Deserve the “Emerging Franchisor” Award for 2025?
Beware of Franchise Industry "Awards"
Why This Year’s Emerging Franchisor Winner Raises Questions
Last week, the International Franchise Association (IFA) announced that Hounds Town USA had received its Emerging Franchisor of the Year award. For anyone unfamiliar, the IFA is widely viewed as the leading membership organization supporting franchisors, franchisees, and suppliers across more than 300 industries.
Awards like this do more than recognize achievement. They drive an influx of prospective franchise buyers and generate significant revenue for franchisors. A feature from a supposedly unbiased source such as Entrepreneur Magazine’s Franchise 500 or, in this case, the IFA often gives buyers a false sense of security. It creates the impression that an independent third party has validated the franchise.
That impression is incorrect. We covered major problems with the "Franchise 500" several years ago. You can watch that breakdown here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iBOusezuLw
Many franchises that appear on these lists have high failure rates, low average revenue, and poor franchisee satisfaction. As discussed in our video, the criteria behind many rankings include factors that do not correlate with franchisee success. Notably, franchisee revenue is not even part of the evaluation.
This brings us to Hounds Town USA and its 2025 Emerging Franchisor award. Based on the IFA’s own published requirements, the selection is puzzling.
The First Problem: The Ten Year Rule
The IFA states that nominees cannot have been franchising for more than ten years.
Screenshot of the 5 "rules" shown here:
However, Hounds Town USA’s own website previously stated that its first franchise was awarded in 2012. https://www.houndstownfranchise.com/hounds-town-usas-first-franchisee-celebrates-5-successful-years-business/
Shortly after Sean Kelly from UnhappyFranchisee called attention to this, the page disappeared from Hounds Town’s website. It is still accessible in the Wayback Machine and indexed by search engines. A screen grab of the original page is included here.
The Second Problem: The Selection Committee
We do not know how Hounds Town USA managed to bypass the IFA’s ten year requirement. What we do know is that one of the members of this year’s Emerging Franchisor task force was the CEO of Hounds Town, Rob Flanagan.
Yes, the CEO of the franchise that won the award sat on the task force responsible for the event.
The Third Problem: Franchisee Losses
There is also at least one Hounds Town USA franchise investor who reportedly lost more than $600,000. Anyone interested can search the court filing Bigelow Corporation et al v. Hounds Town USA, LLC for details.
Why This Matters
In a perfect world, awards like these would be accompanied by clear disclaimers stating whether the awarding body received payment, favors, or participated in any form of internal favoritism. They would also disclose whether leaders from the winning franchise sit on the committee running the event. None of that is disclosed. It probably never will be.
So the reality is simple: Buyers must proceed with caution.
Did Hounds Town USA deserve the award? Based on the IFA’s own criteria, it appears the answer is no. By its timeline alone, the franchise should have been disqualified. And in our view, having the CEO participating on the awarding task force is a serious conflict of interest.
What Should Buyers Do Instead?
Awards are handed out constantly in the franchise world, but they are rarely meaningful indicators of success. Instead of relying on labels like “Top Franchise” or “Emerging Franchisor of the Year,” buyers should focus on what actually determines franchise performance. These include financial performance, competitive landscape, demographic alignment, owner skill compatibility, operational model fit, and local market demand.
Even a franchise with strong reviews and many successful owners may not be a good fit for you in a different market or with different skill sets.
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