Profit Margin
2.6%
Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)
Retail Trade ·NAICS 445
NAICS 445 · IRS SOI 2013 (C corp) · Census CBP 2023
Food and Beverage Stores - Industry Benchmarks
$29,308/yr average annual pay, with 12,030 SBA loans on record for NAICS 445.
- 2.6%
- Net margin
- 3.3M
- Workers employed
- $29,308/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $7.9B
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated August 2026
The verdict · NAICS 445
Food and Beverage Stores runs a 2.6% pre-tax net margin - significantly below average, typical of high-volume, low-margin sectors - across 160K establishments employing 3.3M workers.
- 2.6%
- Pre-tax net margin (IRS SOI)
- 3.3M
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $29,308/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $7.9B
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Use Food and Beverage Stores's NAICS benchmark as a comparison point, not a forecast for one business.
Food and Beverage Stores is reported here with financial measures from IRS Statistics of Income and workforce measures from Census County Business Patterns. The page keeps those source systems distinct, shows unavailable fields rather than estimating them, and links the underlying industry context so readers can compare the same NAICS activity before interpreting a margin or payroll figure.
Source: IRS SOI 2013 (C corporation headline) and Census County Business Patterns 2023
Benchmarking Insights for Food and Beverage Stores
Food and Beverage Stores sits inside Retail Trade at a 2.6% net margin (significantly below average, typical of high-volume, low-margin sectors), $688.3B in aggregate receipts across 97,488 returns, averaging $7.1B per establishment.
160,298 establishments employ 3,333,898 workers (20.8/location) at $29,308/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by Texas and New York.
Food and Beverage Stores sits in the 86th percentile for employment and the 16th percentile for net margin among 3-digit NAICS industries with reported data.
Total Receipts
$688.3B
Annual revenue (IRS SOI)
Net Income
$18.0B
Pre-tax net income
Employment
3,333,898
Total employees (Census CBP)
Avg Payroll / Employee
$29,308/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
160,298
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 5,510; establishment count increased by 1,259. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.
Subscribe to this industry's release updates (RSS)Where each dollar of Food and Beverage Stores revenue goes
Workforce scale
Food and Beverage Stores margin vs national reference points
Food and Beverage Stores net margin 8.7%
Cross-industry median (5%)
p25/median/p75 = 3%/5%/7%
Business Structure Breakdown
Per-entity IRS SOI tables at their own vintages, shares only when every row shares one year (never mix 2013/2017/2022 populations).
C Corporation SOI 2013
97,488 returns 100%
Margin: 2.6% · Receipts: $688.3B
Financial Detail
- Total Tax Returns Filed
- 97,488
- Avg Receipts per Business
- $7.1B
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $97.7B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 20.8
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Beer, Wine, and Liquor Stores NAICS 4453 | 1.7% |
| Grocery Stores NAICS 4451 | 2.7% |
| Specialty Food Stores NAICS 4452 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| California | 371,696 |
| Texas | 286,222 |
| New York | 220,857 |
| Pennsylvania | 151,396 |
| North Carolina | 131,996 |
| New Jersey | 106,049 |
| Massachusetts | 104,787 |
| Ohio | 100,044 |
| Virginia | 94,311 |
| Michigan | 73,698 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
12,030
Total Loan Volume
$7.9B
Avg Loan Size
$655K
Jobs Supported
111,443
Program Breakdown
7(a) 11,101 (92%)
504 929 (8%)
Top SBA Lender
The Huntington National Bank
724 loans in this industry
New Business Share
33.9% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 1,503
2021 2,157
2022 1,652
2023 1,974
2024 2,067
2025 2,344
2026 333
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the average revenue for Food and Beverage Stores?
$688.3B in total annual receipts across all Food and Beverage Stores businesses. Average per business: $7.1B.
How profitable is Food and Beverage Stores?
2.6% net profit margin, significantly below average, typical of high-volume, low-margin sectors.
How many businesses are in Food and Beverage Stores?
160,298 business establishments. Together they employ 3,333,898 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Food and Beverage Stores?
$29,308/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 20.8 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Food and Beverage Stores employment?
California leads with 371,696 workers. Texas (286,222) and New York (220,857) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Food and Beverage Stores receive?
Food and Beverage Stores businesses received 12,030 SBA loans totaling $7.9 billion between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $655K. These loans supported 111,443 jobs at origination. Most lending (92%) came through the SBA 7(a) program.
Nationwide industries with similar benchmark drivers
Two IRS/Census peer sets for Food and Beverage Stores, both at NAICS level 3 and excluding this code so the neighborhoods are not self-links.
According to Census County Business Patterns 2023, Food and Beverage Stores ranks #11 of 77 U.S. industries at the 3-digit NAICS level by total employment. According to IRS SOI 2013 IRS Statistics of Income, its reported pre-tax net margin ranks #63 of 75 at that same detail level.
Similar reported net margin
Nearest peer industries by ABS(IRS pre-tax margin) (2.6% here).
Similar workforce scale
Nearest peer industries by ABS(Census employment) (3,333,898 here).
Read with this industry: Understanding profit margins by industry · Retail Trade · Rankings
Disclaimer: Public IRS/Census data, not financial or tax advice. See our full disclaimer.
Sources: IRS Statistics of Income (SOI) Business Tax Statistics · Census Bureau County Business Patterns 2023
NAICS 445 · CBP 2023 · IRS SOI 2013
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, which released its 2023 County Business Patterns dataset in June 2025, PlainBizBench benchmarks 2,002 U.S. industries against Internal Revenue Service Statistics of Income data. See our methodology for the full compilation process.
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns / SUSB Industry employment scale, payroll, and firm-size benchmarks · 2023
Every figure on PlainBizBench is rendered directly from federal source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page aggregates profit-margin, payroll, entity-type, and SBA-lending benchmarks for this industry, live from the dataset. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.
Disclaimer: Public IRS/Census data, not financial or tax advice. See our full disclaimer.