Food & Beverage · registry year 2024 · HQ NC
Golden Corral Franchise
A Golden Corral Corp brand operating in the food & beverage sector, franchising since 1987. According to the 2024 FDD filing for Golden Corral, this is an editorial comparison record; it does not reproduce the brand's current FDD.
- $2.0M – $8.0M
- Initial investment · Higher entry cost
- 4.0%
- Royalty rate · Below-average royalty
- 330
- Total locations · Small network
FDD outlay schedule
Registry golden-corral Golden Corral
Golden Corral needs $2.0M–$8.0M to open and charges a 4.0% royalty - an entry cost above the typical food & beverage franchise.
- LO $2.0M
- HI $8.0M
- FEE $50K
- ROY 4.0%
- UNT 330
- I19 Silent
- INV# #12/223
- UNT# #170/223
Same-sector Item 7 peers
Nearest Item 7 peer: Applebee's ($2.0M)
Same-sector Item 7 neighbourhood for Golden Corral (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 Golden Corral's franchise system looks, from 2 of 2 tracked dimensions.
- Network momentum -3.0% net unit growth (YoY) 0/100 · 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 Golden Corral's investment ranks nationally
Golden Corral's listed Item 7 low of $2.0M 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.
Golden Corral vs all tracked franchise brands by listed investment
Initial investment low (FDD Item 7), PlainFranchise brand corpus
$2,000,000 Higher than most higher than 94% 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
- $50K
- Ad Fund Rate
- 1.0%
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
15 locations closed in the last reporting year
Quick Facts
- Sector
- Food & Beverage
- Subsector
- casual dining
- Founded
- 1973
- Franchising Since
- 1987
- Headquarters
- NC
- FDD Year
- 2024
- Item 19
- Not Disclosed
Important Notice · Golden Corral
This Golden Corral page is a registry comparison record, not a verified FDD extract. It does not establish suitability, operating costs, profitability, or expected results for Golden Corral.
Small-network FDD fields for Golden Corral
Signature read: 330 locations · Item 7 low $2.0M
Golden Corral, a Golden Corral Corp franchise, has been franchising since 1987 - 14 years after the concept was founded in 1973 , currently with 330 total locations (330 franchised, 0 company-owned; 100% of the recorded total is franchised) in the food & beverage sector, headquartered in NC. The registry records a total initial investment between $2.0M and $8.0M, recorded as a low-to-high range in the registry. The registry separately records a franchise-fee field of $50K; its summary does not reproduce every Item 7 line item.
The brand charges 4.0% of gross sales in ongoing royalties with a separate 1.0% national advertising-fund field; the two listed percentages total 5.0%. Golden Corral has no Item 19 financial-performance field in this registry; the FTC Franchise Rule does not require that disclosure.
Unit count is trending down for Golden Corral: a 3.0% net contraction year-over-year with 15 closures on the record. The registry does not attribute the change to a cause or establish an operating or financial outcome.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does a Golden Corral franchise cost?
How many Golden Corral locations are there?
What are the ongoing fees for a Golden Corral franchise?
Related reading for Golden Corral: How to Evaluate a Franchise , Golden Corral 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 Golden Corral's Item 7 and Item 19 fields are labeled (expand)
Nationwide brands with similar investment or network size
Two data-derived peer sets for Golden Corral , both outside HQ state NC : nearest Item 7 lows and nearest total-location counts, not the same-sector roster below.
Similar listed investment
Nearest Item 7 lows ($2.0M here).
Similar network size
Nearest total location counts (330 here).
What to do with this
Golden Corral at a glance, drawn from the same figures above.
- Golden Corral scores 0/100 (F) on our composite opportunity read, combining net unit growth and Item 19 financial-disclosure transparency.
- Its $2.0M – $8.0M entry cost runs above the typical food & beverage franchise.
- Ranks #12 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 |