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Beth Ewen

Here’s an opening statement for the ages: “Our primary mission at Fortitude Ranch is to keep our members alive in a collapse when most everyone else may be dying,” reads its newly released franchise disclosure document.

Yep, Fortitude Ranch is proof you can franchise anything. In this case, the ultimate in pandemic-era concepts: a members-only survival community equipped to ride out any type of collapse or disaster and long-term loss of law and order. Cost of investment including land purchase ranges from $429,500 to $1.39 million.

Members will pay a few thousand dollars, on average, per person per year for what founders bill as survival for the middle class. They’ll store their weapons on site—one AR 15-style shotgun for each person is recommended, for defensive purposes only.

In peace time members can use the camps for outdoor retreats; two weeks free is included. In a disaster, they’ll be pressed into service to help the ranch manager serve guard duty, shoot at invaders, prepare meals and hunt for food—and wait out the chaos for as long as it takes. “Prepare for the worst but enjoy the present,” is their motto.

“I’ve been a prepper for a long time but figured out a decade ago I’m not going to survive on my own,” said Drew Miller, CEO of Fortitude Ranch, who earned a doctorate from Harvard and is a retired colonel in the U.S. Air Force.

If there’s a cyberattack on the electrical grid, for example, “those systems will be down for a year. Studies show, you could lose 90 percent of the population,” said Miller, revealing a distinctive world view I had never encountered before but one he said is shared by millions.

“Especially with the chaos of a loss of electricity, the lack of law and order, jails can’t function. People will form groups; we call them marauders. If you’ve got stuff prepared, you’ve actually made yourself a good target,” he said.

“If you’re a lone wolf, and especially if you’ve stockpiled a lot of food, a marauder comes, you’re going to get killed.”

Unusual FDD

The franchise disclosure document for Fortitude Ranch, prepared by a Texas law firm and released in August, is like no other. Take the “market and competition” section, for example, which lacks hard numbers because there aren’t any to be found but includes some notable estimates.

“There is no government industry code for the preparedness industry, and no official estimate on the number of preppers. Based on some FEMA and other data, there may be 10 to 20 million U.S. preppers as of 2021,” it says—which indicates plenty of potential customers for membership and franchise ownership. “Based on competitor research and regular contacts with the prepper community, we estimate several thousand survival shelters are built in the U.S. annually.”

A franchisee’s obligations are unusual—and daunting. “You must operate the Fortitude Ranch facility 24 hours a day every day. You must keep the facility safe from theft at all times and, during a collapse, ensure that the facility is adequately defended to deter or defeat any marauder attack,” it says.

No signage is allowed, the FDD states, which poses a marketing challenge to say the least. “FR locations are kept secret. While we do not assume a facility can be hidden, and certainly will be discovered in a collapse, we try to avoid any public disclosure of our exact locations.”

And then there’s the snide commentary throughout the FDD—amusing, but likely misguided. “Due to other regulatory requirements, you will read a lot of nonsense and stupid guidance in this document, wasting your time and ours, and creating a tone of hostility and bureaucracy. This is not what we are like, but due to politicians, bureaucrats and lawyers, we must print many dictated statements, some required to be in bold, to comply with this dictated, regulatory, Nanny State, lawyer-serving, Big Government law,” it states.

Its Item 19 adds more insults. The parent company of Fortitude Ranch “has been profitable since 2020, but we cannot provide our financial data or assist you in estimating your likely financial returns due to bad regulations and worse lawyers. As any business operator with an IQ over 90 knows, the results of business are subject to great risks, uncertainty and sometimes losses.”

An FDD required by regulation that takes shots at regulators—what could possibly go wrong?

‘It’s about staying alive’

Why would franchisees sign a 12-year agreement, as required, for a franchise that is preparing for the imminent end of the world? How will they generate profits in the meantime? “During a collapse, obviously they don’t give a crap about profit, it’s about staying alive. We will survive a collapse,” Miller said, not exactly answering my question but articulating a prepper’s point of view.

“When it’s over, when law and order finally gets established, the opportunities for the survivors are going to be great. So many other people are gone, the survivors will have a lot of opportunities.”

Interest in Fortitude Ranch membership has soared in the last couple of years, he said, which led to their decision to offer franchises. Their goal is to have enough survival communities so every member is only one gas tank away; five corporate-owned compounds are open now. By mid-August and since its FDD release, four groups had contacted Miller about purchasing a franchise.

Members are told they will have to help big time in a disaster and will be busy, especially in the early days. “Rules are set by FR staff, and members will be expected to act at their direction until such time as the security threat ends or local law enforcement is restored,” the member agreement states.

After a while, Miller said, things will normalize. “We’ll have movie nights, and eventually we’ll get to the point where we’ll have some good times.”

Movie nights in the end times in your franchised survivalist compound—I guess I’ve heard everything now.

Beth Ewen is senior editor of Franchise Times, and writes the Continental Franchise Review® column in each issue. Send interesting legal and public policy cases to bewen@franchisetimes.com.