FIT SERVICE waives royalties for new partners for the first 90 days

FIT SERVICE has announced a royalty waiver for new partners for the first 90 days. To qualify, franchisees must sign an agreement by 31 December 2026. Details of the vehicle servicing franchise’s support offer were reported in a 26 October article by Franchising Catalogue. Alongside the temporary royalty waiver, the chain has announced financial support for launch costs and instalment plans for certain purchases.

What changes for new franchisees

The main feature of the offer is a royalty-free period of 90 days. The company says this will allow partners to redirect the savings towards marketing their garage and recover their investment sooner. This is a temporary concession at launch, rather than the removal of recurring fees for the entire franchise term.

There is a clear deadline for participation: the agreement must be signed by 31 December 2026. However, signing the agreement and opening the garage are separate events. Prospective partners should ensure the agreement specifies when the 90-day royalty-free period begins: on signing, on opening, or on another date agreed by the parties.

The announcement does not state the standard royalty rate. It is therefore impossible to calculate the savings in roubles from the length of the waiver alone. That calculation requires the applicable rate and the rules governing how it is charged. If the fee is linked to revenue, projected turnover for the individual garage during its first few months will also matter.

For the franchising community, the news offers an example of how a chain can support new entrants by reducing their initial financial burden. However, temporary cost relief alone does not provide a full picture of the future business’s finances: regular royalty obligations must be factored back into the financial model once the waiver ends.

Support for launch costs and purchases

Alongside the royalty waiver, FIT SERVICE has announced financial support worth RUB 3.2 million. The offer includes launch advertising for 90 days, which the company says will attract more than 400 customers. An instalment plan covering RUB 800,000 in spare parts and furniture purchases is mentioned separately.

These elements should be assessed individually. Financial support, advertising services and instalment plans serve different purposes and should not automatically be added together as non-repayable funding. In particular, an instalment plan spreads payments over time but does not remove the business owner’s obligation to pay for the goods purchased.

Before signing, prospective partners should request a breakdown of the RUB 3.2 million package: which costs it covers, who pays for the services and what obligations the partner takes on. For the instalment plan, they will need a payment schedule and a list of eligible purchases. This will help them compare the offer with the garage’s actual working capital requirements.

The figure of more than 400 customers is presented as part of the company’s offer. It should not be treated as a result already achieved by every new garage. When planning the advertising campaign, partners should clarify exactly what is being counted — enquiries, first visits or paid jobs — and how marketing results are recorded.

What benchmarks does the chain provide?

The article gives FIT SERVICE’s annual turnover for 2025 as RUB 12.1 billion. It also reports that the chain has helped more than 220 business-owner partners launch their businesses. These figures indicate the reported scale of its operations but do not establish the profitability of an individual garage.

The company’s stated offer includes a turnkey launch within 60 days and annual net profit starting at RUB 5 million. Both figures should be treated as the franchise’s stated benchmarks, rather than confirmation of what a future partner will achieve. The announcement does not support them with a detailed financial model for a specific location.

The chain also offers its own IT system and a dedicated business adviser throughout the partnership. For a business owner, the practical value lies in the scope of this support: which tasks the adviser helps with, which tools the system provides and which responsibilities remain with the garage owner.

When assessing the offer, it is useful to distinguish between the scale of the network and the performance of a prospective site. Total network turnover is not the same as an individual partner’s revenue, while the stated annual profit does not show how much funding will be needed before the business reaches stable operations.

How to assess the waiver before signing

The key calculation for a prospective franchisee is a launch budget that accounts for the end of the royalty-free period. It should show the first 90 days separately from the subsequent months, when royalties become payable under the standard terms. This approach will reveal both the initial savings and the financial burden once the promotion ends.

The duration of advertising support and the instalment payment schedule should be checked in the same way. If several obligations fall due at once, this needs to be reflected in the cash flow forecast in advance. The promise of a rapid launch should also be weighed against the readiness of the premises, equipment and team.

Practical takeaway: FIT SERVICE’s offer allows new partners to temporarily exclude royalties from their start-up costs. Before signing, prospective franchisees should obtain the waiver terms in writing, a breakdown of the support package and a financial projection for the garage beyond the first 90 days. These are the details that will help establish the promotion’s value for a specific project.