Five Guys Franchise

Five Guys, a Five Guys Enterprises franchise, has been franchising since 2003 - 17 years after the concept was founded in 1986 , currently with 1,757 total locations (1,557 franchised, 200 company-owned, a 89% franchise-to-corporate ratio that signals the operator's reliance on independent owners) in the food & beverage sector, headquartered in VA. Per the 2024 FDD, budget a total initial investment of $314K to $958K - a 205% spread between the low and high end that reflects how site size, market, and buildout scope change the capital requirement. That total bundles the franchise fee of $25K together with equipment, leasehold buildout, and the working capital needed to get through ramp-up.

Ongoing royalties run 6.0% of gross sales, plus a 1.5% national ad-fund contribution on top -- 7.5% combined out of every sales dollar. Worth noting: Five Guys is among the roughly one-third of U.S. franchisors that voluntarily disclose financial performance data in Item 19. The reported average gross revenue per location is $1.5M, which works out to about $90K in annual royalty for a typical unit. Revenue is not profit, actual franchisee take-home depends on rent, labor, cost of goods, and local demand.

The unit count trend here is positive -- Five Guys posted 2.9% net growth year-over-year (80 openings, 30 closures). Consistent expansion usually means the unit model pencils out for new owners, but a late-cycle growth spike can also come from an aggressive sales push rather than genuinely strong store-level economics.