Food & Beverage · registry year 2024 · HQ IL
Potbelly Franchise
A Potbelly Corp brand operating in the food & beverage sector, franchising since 2001. According to the 2024 FDD filing for Potbelly, this is an editorial comparison record; it does not reproduce the brand's current FDD.
- $476K – $1.0M
- Initial investment · Higher entry cost
- 6.0%
- Royalty rate · Above-average royalty
- 630
- Total locations · Mid-size network
FDD outlay schedule
Registry potbelly Potbelly
Potbelly needs $476K–$1.0M to open and charges a 6.0% royalty - an entry cost below the typical food & beverage franchise.
- LO $476K
- HI $1.0M
- FEE $30K
- ROY 6.0%
- UNT 630
- I19 Silent
- INV# #60/223
- UNT# #128/223
Same-sector Item 7 peers
Nearest Item 7 peer: The Habit Burger Grill ($500K)
Same-sector Item 7 neighbourhood for Potbelly (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 Potbelly's franchise system looks, from 2 of 2 tracked dimensions.
- Network momentum 0.8% net unit growth (YoY) 29/100 · 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 Potbelly's investment ranks nationally
Potbelly's listed Item 7 low of $476K 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.
Potbelly vs all tracked franchise brands by listed investment
Initial investment low (FDD Item 7), PlainFranchise brand corpus
$476,000 Around the middle lower than 27% 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
- $30K
- Ad Fund Rate
- 2.0%
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
- fast casual restaurant
- Founded
- 1977
- Franchising Since
- 2001
- Headquarters
- IL
- FDD Year
- 2024
- Item 19
- Not Disclosed
Important Notice · Potbelly
This Potbelly page is a registry comparison record, not a verified FDD extract. It does not establish suitability, operating costs, profitability, or expected results for Potbelly.
Higher-band investment fields for Potbelly
Signature read: 630 locations · Item 7 low $476K
Potbelly, a Potbelly Corp franchise, has been franchising since 2001 - 24 years after the concept was founded in 1977 , currently with 630 total locations (395 franchised, 235 company-owned; 63% of the recorded total is franchised) in the food & beverage sector, headquartered in IL. The listed total initial investment is $476K to $1.0M, recorded as a low-to-high range in the registry. The registry records a separate franchise-fee field of $30K and does not list every Item 7 component in this summary.
The brand charges 6.0% of gross sales in ongoing royalties, plus a 2.0% national ad-fund field; the listed percentages sum to 8.0%. Potbelly has no Item 19 financial-performance field in this registry. Item 19 disclosure is optional under the FTC Franchise Rule.
Potbelly's network is expanding: unit count grew at a 0.8% net rate over the past year (20 openings, 15 closures). The count describes the latest reported period only; the underlying Item 20 tables provide the fuller disclosure context.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does a Potbelly franchise cost?
How many Potbelly locations are there?
What are the ongoing fees for a Potbelly franchise?
Related reading for Potbelly: How to Evaluate a Franchise , Potbelly 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 Potbelly's Item 7 and Item 19 fields are labeled (expand)
Nationwide brands with similar investment or network size
Two data-derived peer sets for Potbelly , both outside HQ state IL : nearest Item 7 lows and nearest total-location counts, not the same-sector roster below.
Similar listed investment
Nearest Item 7 lows ($476K here).
Similar network size
Nearest total location counts (630 here).
What to do with this
Potbelly at a glance, drawn from the same figures above.
- Potbelly scores 15/100 (F) on our composite opportunity read, combining net unit growth and Item 19 financial-disclosure transparency.
- Its $476K – $1.0M entry cost runs below the typical food & beverage franchise.
- Ranks #60 of 223 listed franchises by initial investment. See rankings
- The Habit Burger Grill sits at a comparable investment level ($500K) 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 |