New Horizons

The vendor opportunity at New Horizons

New Horizons, an education franchise headquartered in Florida, operates a small and contracting system of 32 total units—28 franchised and 4 company-owned. The most recent Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) from 2022 reveals a system in decline, with year-over-year unit growth of -24.3%. For software vendors, the addressable market is exceptionally limited: the operator footprint consists of just one mapped operator across approximately one located unit, concentrated entirely in New York state. There are no multi-unit operators on file, and the unit-band split shows a single operator in the 1-unit range, with zero operators in the 2-9, 10-24, or 25+ bands. Average unit volume (AUV) is not disclosed in the FDD. The royalty rate stands at 6.0%, and the initial franchise term is 5 years.

Who controls software purchasing

Purchasing authority at New Horizons is centralized at the franchisor level. The 2022 FDD lists Gregory E. Marsella as the agent for service of process, a role that typically falls to a senior executive or legal representative. No additional C-suite titles—such as CIO, CTO, or VP of Technology—are disclosed in the filing. The absence of a named technology buyer suggests that software decisions likely route through general management at HQ. With no parent company on file, New Horizons appears to be independently owned, meaning there is no larger corporate entity influencing procurement strategy. Vendors approaching this account should expect a direct, top-down decision-making process rather than a distributed model involving franchisee committees or multi-unit operators.

Mandated and current tech stack

The FDD mandates six technology systems across the franchise network: BOS, Franchisor's Website, FSM, MPL, Network Portal, and VLP. These acronyms are listed without corresponding vendor names, so the specific software products behind each mandate remain unknown from the public filing. The breadth of mandated systems—spanning back-office, field service management, and a learning or virtual platform—indicates a franchisor that exerts tight operational control over its technology environment. For vendors selling adjacent or replacement tools, the presence of an existing mandated stack means any pitch must address integration requirements and the franchisor's apparent preference for standardized, system-wide deployments.

Procurement, renewals, and timing

Item 8 of the FDD, which typically details procurement obligations—whether the franchisor designates specific suppliers, maintains an approved vendor list, or allows open purchasing—yielded no extractable signal in the 2022 filing. This absence leaves the procurement model unclear. On the renewal side, Item 17 provides more concrete detail: New Horizons grants an unlimited number of 5-year renewal options, exercisable if the franchisee is in compliance with the Franchise Agreement, including minimum market penetration and performance requirements described in Item 12. The franchisor must also be awarding new franchises in the franchisee's state at the time of renewal notice. Given the system's contraction, the practical likelihood of new franchise awards—and by extension, new technology rollout opportunities—appears low. The contract cycle is tied to the 5-year term, but with declining unit counts, the window for displacement or new sales is narrow.

How to read the New Horizons FDD

The 2022 New Horizons FDD is embedded below for full review. Key sections for software vendors include Item 11, which details the mandated technology systems, and Item 17, which outlines renewal conditions and term lengths. Item 8, covering procurement restrictions, should be examined directly in the PDF, as the extract provided no signal. The filing is registered with state franchise regulators and reflects the system's structure as of the 2022 reporting period. For vendors evaluating whether New Horizons belongs on a target account list, the data points to a small, centralized, and contracting system—one where the total addressable unit count and growth trajectory may not justify significant sales investment. For a ranked target list of franchise systems with stronger expansion signals, FranCloud can help prioritize opportunities based on unit growth, tech mandates, and buyer accessibility.