Food & Beverage · registry year 2024 · HQ WI
Culver's Franchise
A Culver Franchising System brand operating in the food & beverage sector, franchising since 1990. According to the 2024 FDD filing for Culver's, this is an editorial comparison record; it does not reproduce the brand's current FDD.
- $2.1M – $5.7M
- Initial investment · Higher entry cost
- 4.0%
- Royalty rate · Below-average royalty
- 930
- Total locations · Mid-size network
- $2.8M
- Avg unit revenue · Above-average unit revenue
FDD outlay schedule
Registry culver-s Culver's
Culver's needs $2.1M–$5.7M to open and charges a 4.0% royalty - an entry cost above the typical food & beverage franchise.
- LO $2.1M
- HI $5.7M
- FEE $55K
- ROY 4.0%
- UNT 930
- I19 Disclosed
- INV# #7/223
- UNT# #99/223
Same-sector Item 7 peers
Nearest Item 7 peer: Applebee's ($2.0M)
Same-sector Item 7 neighbourhood for Culver's (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 Culver's's franchise system looks, from 2 of 2 tracked dimensions.
- Network momentum 3.8% net unit growth (YoY) 62/100 · D
- Financial disclosure Item 19 disclosed 100/100 · A
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 Culver's's investment ranks nationally
Culver's's listed Item 7 low of $2.1M 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.
Culver's vs all tracked franchise brands by listed investment
Initial investment low (FDD Item 7), PlainFranchise brand corpus
$2,100,000 Higher than most higher than 96% 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
- $55K
- Ad Fund Rate
- 2.0%
Revenue Data (Item 19)
- Average Revenue
- $2.8M
- gross revenue per location
* Revenue figures are gross revenue (sales), not profit. This registry does not report operating costs or profit.
Network Size & Growth
Net Growth Rate
Year-over-year unit change
10 locations closed in the last reporting year
Quick Facts
- Sector
- Food & Beverage
- Subsector
- quick service restaurant
- Founded
- 1984
- Franchising Since
- 1990
- Headquarters
- WI
- FDD Year
- 2024
- Item 19
- Disclosed
Important Notice · Culver's
This Culver's page is a registry comparison record, not a verified FDD extract. It does not establish suitability, operating costs, profitability, or expected results for Culver's.
Higher-band investment fields for Culver's
Signature read: 930 locations · Item 7 low $2.1M
Culver's, a Culver Franchising System franchise, has been franchising since 1990 - 6 years after the concept was founded in 1984 , currently with 930 total locations (930 franchised, 0 company-owned; 100% of the recorded total is franchised) in the food & beverage sector, headquartered in WI. The registry records a total initial investment between $2.1M and $5.7M, using the registry's listed low and high fields. The registry records a separate franchise-fee field of $55K and does not list every Item 7 component in this summary.
Royalty payments here are set at 4.0% of gross sales, plus a 2.0% national ad-fund field; the listed percentages sum to 6.0%. Culver's has a recorded Item 19 financial-performance field; Item 19 disclosure is voluntary under the FTC Franchise Rule. The reported average gross revenue per location is $2.8M; the listed royalty rate multiplied by the reported average equals $112K, which is not a total-cost or profit calculation. Revenue is not profit; this registry does not contain a complete operating-cost or profit record.
The unit count trend here is positive -- Culver's posted 3.8% net growth year-over-year (45 openings, 10 closures). The registry records both the reported percentage and the count of openings and closures when those fields are available.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does a Culver's franchise cost?
How many Culver's locations are there?
What are the ongoing fees for a Culver's franchise?
Related reading for Culver's: Understanding FDDs , Culver's lists Item 19 revenue here, how Item 19 fits the 23-item FDD.
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 Culver's's Item 7 and Item 19 fields are labeled (expand)
Nationwide brands with similar investment or network size
Two data-derived peer sets for Culver's , both outside HQ state WI : nearest Item 7 lows and nearest total-location counts, not the same-sector roster below.
Similar listed investment
Nearest Item 7 lows ($2.1M here).
Similar network size
Nearest total location counts (930 here).
What to do with this
Culver's at a glance, drawn from the same figures above.
- Culver's scores 81/100 (B) on our composite opportunity read, combining net unit growth and Item 19 financial-disclosure transparency.
- Its $2.1M – $5.7M entry cost runs above the typical food & beverage franchise.
- Ranks #7 of 223 listed franchises by initial investment. See rankings
- Applebee's sits at a comparable investment level ($2.0M) 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 |