Private Mail Center Revenue Benchmark

Average Private Mail Center Revenue per Year 2022 Economic Census

The 2022 Economic Census counts every private mail center with paid employees, including franchised pack-and-ship stores, and publishes their combined annual receipts. Dividing that total by the number of centers gives the average annual revenue per employer establishment shown below.

≈$674,000 /year

Average annual gross revenue per employer establishment

How this is calculated: about $5.2 billion in combined annual receipts divided by 7,755 employer establishments works out to an average annual revenue of $674,000 per employer establishment.

Scope: Private Mail Centers, NAICS 561431. The category covers private mail centers offering mailbox rental, packing, shipping and related services, including franchised pack-and-ship stores. Express couriers and copy shops are counted in separate categories. Classified separately in group 5614: 561410 Document Preparation Services; 561421 Telephone Answering Services; 561422 Telemarketing Bureaus and Other Contact Centers, and 6 further codes. Nothing outside that code is counted on this page.

Source US Census Bureau, 2022 Economic Census, Summary Statistics (ECNBASIC): ESTAB, RCPTOT and PAYANN by NAICS · Vintage 2022 Economic Census · Calculation BusinessNES · Accessed September 2026

Employer Establishments at Year Five Industry group

Business Support Services, NAICS 5614, the 2018 starting count compared with the count of five-year-old establishments in 2023.

Across the 2014 to 2018 cohorts, five-year results ranged from 47.7 to 56.1 percent. This benchmark covers Business Support Services, NAICS 5614, as a whole, and this category accounts for 7,755 of the 30,490 employer establishments in it. A count by age is not a survival rate, because the figures compare two headcounts rather than follow one set of businesses.

Payroll as a Share of Revenue Official data

Payroll divided by receipts, both as published for the same year.

Payroll share of receipts, Private Mail Centers, United States, 2022 Economic Census.

Approximately 24.0 percent of every revenue dollar goes to annual payroll, a modest share in a storefront business where a small counter staff handles many low-value transactions and where carrier charges pass through the register.

Payroll here excludes benefits, employer taxes and owner compensation, and it excludes carrier shipping costs, packaging supplies, franchise royalties and rent, which together carry most of what a center spends.

Business Scale and Ownership Structure Official data

How large the average establishment is, and whether the population is independent operators or multi-site companies.

Scale and ownership, Private Mail Centers, United States, 2022 Economic Census.

The average establishment employed about 5.2 people, and the industry counted 1.7 employer establishments per firm. A center of that size is a counter staffed by a few people, often including the owner, and the establishments per firm figure reflects franchise networks whose company-owned or multi-unit stores sit alongside single-store franchisees.

These are arithmetic industry averages. They state the size of the average establishment and show that multi-establishment ownership exists. They do not show the distribution of business sizes and they do not measure market concentration.

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Data Source Notice

This product uses the Census Bureau Data API but is not endorsed or certified by the Census Bureau.

Figures above are from the 2022 Economic Census reference year, released by the Census Bureau in 2024 and 2025; markets have moved since.

Questions Worth Asking BusinessNES analysis

Private Mail Center: what a franchise storefront's revenue does and does not include.

Before you rely on this benchmark

• How much of the revenue is carrier shipping? Shipping charges collected for the carriers pass through receipts, and the center keeps a commission or a markup rather than the whole amount. Revenue overstates what a mail center earns from its busiest activity.
• Franchise or independent? Franchised centers pay initial fees, royalties and marketing contributions in exchange for brand, carrier contracts and systems, while independents keep their revenue but negotiate carrier terms alone. Both appear here, and the fee load changes the result.
• Which services carry the margin? Mailbox rental brings recurring revenue with almost no cost, printing and notary services carry good margins, and packing labor is billed by the box. The service mix decides how much of a center's revenue is worth keeping.
• Where is the storefront? Mail centers depend on nearby residents and small businesses, so a strip center location with parking and visibility matters more than the size of the store. Rent in a good location is a fixed cost that revenue must cover.
• How seasonal is the counter? Holiday shipping produces a surge in December that can decide the year, with lines out the door and temporary help, followed by quiet winter months. Annual receipts flatten a calendar that a store owner feels acutely.
• What do virtual mailboxes change? Digital mailbox services that scan mail for remote customers add recurring revenue and new competition at the same time. A center's position on that shift shapes its future in a way a census year cannot show.