The chain does not leave the shop open, chooses the wrong business model, and headquarters and investors may lose millions each. The six mainstream models are described below: who works, how does it work, how the money is divided, where the pit is。
It's a full-cost company chain
In 2024, lin qingxiang owned more than 800 direct-camp shops throughout the country, with direct ownership of each shop at headquarters, all of which were organized by the shanghai headquarters from site selection, refurbishment to staff training, and branding and product quality were fully controlled. At the heart of this model is the mastery of dialogue at headquarters, the uniform implementation of all business decisions from top to bottom, and the lack of autonomy of the shop。
The carpentry barbecues and well-fired pots are the other two typical, with a weekly tour of the shop by the headquarters supervisory team, with precise food standards to the grams and a fixed score sheet for the health check. However, the expansion was based on real money and silver from headquarters, with the investment cost of a carpentry barber shop exceeding $800,000 in 2025, the opening of 10 shops being an outflow of $8 million in cash, the financial pressure was so great that small and medium brands could not afford it。
Host consortium mode
In south-east asia and europe, leading to the expansion in 2023, hosting alliances were widely used, brands were branded, supply chains and operating teams, local investors were funded to build a shop, and the day-to-day management of the shop was the sole responsibility of the operating manager of the leading product. The walnut conservancy goes this way in changsha, chengdu's door shop, and investors don't have to worry about it until they get a monthly bonus。
This model allows branders to expand in light assets, with investors enjoying returns and taking care of needs. However, the risk was that management at headquarters could not keep pace, that in 2024 there had been a decline in the quality of vegetables at some of the walnut richmond stores, that there had been a marked rise in customer complaints and that, in the end, there had been only closure of the shop, and that the previous investment by the investors in the construction of the shop had gone unsatisfied。
Pure hosting chain mode
In 2025, about 7,000 shops were operated throughout the country, the vast majority of them in a purely custodial mode. The distributor or investor pays a one-time deposit and the first payment, after which the store is fully operated by the manager of the harlem house and the sale of goods is cancelled and returned without conditions. Investors are equivalent to paying for finance, are not involved in any day-to-day operational decision-making and do not have to bear the risk of stock backlogs。
For investors, the threshold is low and the risk is low, and the shaolin home uses "all-round" for marketing, with more than 400 new dealers in 2024, mainly in three or four cities. The cost, however, was a huge stock and operating pressure on headquarters, which in 2023 was close to 200 days of stock turnover, and a tight cash flow, which nearly broke the financial chain。
Alliance model
In 2024, glac was promoted to "stores" in various localities, where branders provided product, training and marketing support, and the association was retrofitted and responsible for day-to-day sales on the basis of the gla standard, with a share of the profits being set at the agreed rate. Investors are required to take part in quarterly headquarters examinations and to cancel authorization directly for two consecutive quarters, without any room for negotiation, with the terms of the contract being written dead。
This model is common in the areas of catering, convenience stores and small retail sales, and is carried out at headquarters in a broad direction and under the auspices of a consortium of businesses. In 2025, a chain of convenience store brands had over 300 new union stores in washington, china, and single-shop investments had been kept within $150,000, owing to the fact that consolidated headquarters procurement had reduced the cost of receiving goods by more than 20 per cent, allowing for profit to be earned by the affiliated parties。
License union chain mode
In 2025, mcdonald's operated more than 42,000 businesses globally, more than 99 per cent of which were chartered, and the country's front-line city single store invested between $3 million and $5 million. The audi electric cars, the spicy ducks, the new chicken chops and the botanical doctors are all front-runners on this track, with the core profit being a brand authorization plus annual management fee revenue。
Chartered union controls are concentrated at key nodes: raw materials must follow designated channels, door-to-door images must be uniform, prices must not be altered privately, and specialized audit teams at headquarters conduct random checks on a regular basis. In 2024, about 200 non-compliance unions were shut down at very high cost, and the unionists had little room for manoeuvre and compliance was the bottom line。
Door partnership model
The partnership system was launched in 2023, with single shop owners and core employees co-financing shares, with profits distributed in proportion to the contribution, and the pilot shop was 15 per cent higher than the non-partner shop in 2024. A similar mechanism has been introduced in the field of orchards, sibe and shebaad, whereby first-line workers are transformed from workers to co-operators, and benefits are more tightly tied and motivated。
This model is premised on the profitability of the shop, which in 2024 earned more than $600,000 a year in partner stores in beijing and shenzhen, with a significantly higher retention rate. However, when the industry goes down and the shop loses, the tension is rapidly exacerbating, and in 2025 three partnerships in the orchard ceased their cooperation because of the profit-sharing dispute, which eventually ended。
What kind of business you're in, what kind of chain business model is best suited to your funding and team skills? Let the comment section tell you what you think, and if it's useful, it'll be sent to a friend who's in the middle of a shop。
