Food & Beverage · registry year 2024 · HQ TN
Carl's Jr Franchise
A Inspire Brands brand operating in the food & beverage sector, franchising since 1984. According to the 2024 FDD filing for Carl's Jr, this is an editorial comparison record; it does not reproduce the brand's current FDD.
- $1.4M – $2.2M
- Initial investment · Higher entry cost
- 5.0%
- Royalty rate · Mid-range royalty
- 1,050
- Total locations · Mid-size network
FDD outlay schedule
Registry carl-s-jr Carl's Jr
Carl's Jr needs $1.4M–$2.2M to open and charges a 5.0% royalty - an entry cost above the typical food & beverage franchise.
- LO $1.4M
- HI $2.2M
- FEE $35K
- ROY 5.0%
- UNT 1,050
- I19 Silent
- INV# #22/223
- UNT# #91/223
Same-sector Item 7 peers
Nearest Item 7 peer: KFC ($1.4M)
Same-sector Item 7 neighbourhood for Carl's Jr (registry year 2024). Listed lows only - not a profit, cost-of-living, or suitability claim. Verify the current FDD before relying on these figures. How we place brands →
Franchise Opportunity Health Score
How healthy and transparent Carl's Jr's franchise system looks, from 2 of 2 tracked dimensions.
- Network momentum -0.9% net unit growth (YoY) 10/100 · F
- Financial disclosure Item 19 not disclosed 0/100 · F
Benchmarked against the 223-brand tracked corpus (p10-p90 range per dimension); a higher score means a growing unit count and a disclosed Item 19. See how we place brands.
Where Carl's Jr's investment ranks nationally
Carl's Jr's listed Item 7 low of $1.4M against every one of the 218 tracked franchise brands with a disclosed initial investment. Listed figures only, verify in the current FDD before relying on them.
Carl's Jr vs all tracked franchise brands by listed investment
Initial investment low (FDD Item 7), PlainFranchise brand corpus
$1,400,000 Higher than most higher than 90% of 218 franchise brands
Franchise brands, banded by listed Item 7 low
Each bar is a $0.001K-wide band; taller bars hold more franchise brands. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count and share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source PlainFranchise editorial comparison registry · 2024-12-31
Investment Overview
- Franchise Fee
- $35K
- Ad Fund Rate
- 4.0%
Revenue Data (Item 19)
Item 19 Not Disclosed
This franchisor did not provide financial performance data in their FDD. This is common, disclosure is optional.
Network Size & Growth
Net Growth Rate
Year-over-year unit change
40 locations closed in the last reporting year
Quick Facts
- Sector
- Food & Beverage
- Subsector
- quick service restaurant
- Founded
- 1941
- Franchising Since
- 1984
- Headquarters
- TN
- FDD Year
- 2024
- Item 19
- Not Disclosed
Important Notice · Carl's Jr
This Carl's Jr page is a registry comparison record, not a verified FDD extract. It does not establish suitability, operating costs, profitability, or expected results for Carl's Jr.
Higher-band investment fields for Carl's Jr
Signature read: 1,050 locations · Item 7 low $1.4M
Carl's Jr, a Inspire Brands franchise, has been franchising since 1984 - 43 years after the concept was founded in 1941 , currently with 1,050 total locations (1,050 franchised, 0 company-owned; 100% of the recorded total is franchised) in the food & beverage sector, headquartered in TN. This editorial registry lists a total initial investment from $1.4M to $2.2M, recorded as a low-to-high range in the registry. A franchise-fee field of $35K is recorded separately, while the registry summary does not reproduce the full Item 7 schedule.
Royalty payments here are set at 5.0% of gross sales with a separate 4.0% national advertising-fund field; the two listed percentages total 9.0%. Carl's Jr has no Item 19 financial-performance field in this registry; the FTC Franchise Rule does not require that disclosure.
Carl's Jr's footprint shrank over the past year, down 0.9% with 40 closures on the record. The percentage does not identify why the count changed or what it means for a specific location.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does a Carl's Jr franchise cost?
How many Carl's Jr locations are there?
What are the ongoing fees for a Carl's Jr franchise?
Related reading for Carl's Jr: How to Evaluate a Franchise , Carl's Jr has no Item 19 in this registry, diligence without a financial performance representation.
Snapshot uses the registry's listed Item 7 initial-investment low and Item 20 location-count fields. It is a descriptive comparison, not a ranking or investment recommendation.
How Carl's Jr's Item 7 and Item 19 fields are labeled (expand)
Nationwide brands with similar investment or network size
Two data-derived peer sets for Carl's Jr , both outside HQ state TN : nearest Item 7 lows and nearest total-location counts, not the same-sector roster below.
Similar listed investment
Nearest Item 7 lows ($1.4M here).
Similar network size
Nearest total location counts (1,050 here).
What to do with this
Carl's Jr at a glance, drawn from the same figures above.
- Carl's Jr scores 5/100 (F) on our composite opportunity read, combining net unit growth and Item 19 financial-disclosure transparency.
- Its $1.4M – $2.2M entry cost runs above the typical food & beverage franchise.
- Ranks #22 of 223 listed franchises by initial investment. See rankings
- KFC sits at a comparable investment level ($1.4M) in the same sector. Compare
Editorial comparison registry, not a source-linked FDD record. Verify the current FDD before relying on any figure.
Read our methodology - what this registry can and cannot establish.
Source: PlainFranchise editorial registry Record-level FDD source link and retrieval date pending
| Publisher | PlainFranchise |
| Sources | Public state franchise disclosure registries and FDD filings |