A survey carried out in 2017 by Franchising New Zealand identified the fact that New Zealand had, at that time, the highest proportion of franchises per capita in the world. With around 630 franchise brands, it was estimated that they made up about 7% of the small businesses in New Zealand, employed over 124,000 people and contributed $27.6 billion to the New Zealand economy, plus an additional $11.1 billion in motor vehicle sales and $7.4 billion in fuel sales. We could not find any more recent figures, but which ever way you look at it, franchises make up a significant portion of businesses in New Zealand. As with other business models, there have been individual franchisees fail before Covid-19 came…