Food & Beverage
Blaze Pizza Franchise
A fast-casual, build-your-own artisan pizza chain where customers choose toppings for a pizza cooked to order in an open kitchen. Organized in California in October 2011 (originally as PYR Pizza, LLC) and franchising since May 2012, with private-equity funds managed by Brentwood Associates as its ultimate parent. Franchised unit count fell in every year of the FDD's three-year window, and the system's company-owned locations dropped to zero by the end of 2025.
Every franchisor has to file a document called an FDD before they can legally sell you a franchise. Buried in it are the two things a sales rep won't volunteer: what you'll actually spend to open, and whether existing locations are opening or closing. That's what's below, pulled straight from Blaze Pizza's own filing.
What it costs to open
From the filing's investment breakdown -- not a "starting at" number a sales rep quoted you.
Franchise fee
$30,000
Total to open
$757,000–$1,297,100
Ongoing royalty
5% of gross sales
What you'd actually spend, over time
The upfront cost is only part of it. Plug in what you expect a location to bring in, and see the real total once royalties over a few years are added on top.
Defaulted to a rough food & beverage industry average, not a figure from Blaze Pizza's own FDD -- change it to your own estimate.
Total cost of ownership over 5 years
$1,007,000 – $1,547,100
Startup investment
$757,000–$1,297,100
Royalty per year (5%)
$50,000
Total royalty, 5yr
$250,000
When would you break even?
Revenue alone doesn't tell you this -- it depends on what's left after rent, labor, and everything else. Blaze Pizza's FDD doesn't disclose a reliable profit figure (most franchisors don't), so this starts from a typical food & beverage profit margin (~8%) and applies it to the revenue you entered above -- adjust the percentage to your own realistic estimate.
Defaulted to a general food & beverage industry benchmark, not a figure from Blaze Pizza's own filing -- this is a starting point to adjust, not a promise about what franchisees actually make.
At that profit, you'd break even in about
9.5–16.2 years
Weigh that payback period against what you already know: Blaze Pizza is currently losing locations. A long payback period on a shrinking brand is a very different bet than the same payback period on a growing one.
Is Blaze Pizza actually growing?
Franchisors have to report, every year, how many locations opened, closed, or changed hands. Most franchise sites never show you this. Here it is:
Locations opened vs. closed, by year
ShrinkingFrom Item 20 of Blaze Pizza's FDD, the section franchisors use to disclose real openings and closings.
| Year | Franchised units, start | Franchised units, end | Net change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 296 | 283 | -13 |
| 2024 | 283 | 255 | -28 |
| 2025 | 255 | 230 | -25 |
Most recent year (2025): lost 25 franchised units, ending the year at 230 total.
What you're actually signing up for
The cost and growth numbers above are only part of the picture. These three FDD items are the ones a prospective franchisee tends to weigh most heavily once they're past the sticker price.
Training & ongoing support (Item 11)
Pre-opening training is the Blaze Standards Training Program (BSTP), up to four weeks and up to 50 hours/week, provided free for up to three management trainees per restaurant (additional trainees cost $500-$1,500/week); travel, lodging, and food during training are on the franchisee. Ongoing support is funded in part by the Creative Fund Contribution, which pays for system-wide brand development and marketing rather than being returned dollar-for-dollar to any one franchisee's local market.
Territory protection (Item 12)
Blaze Pizza does not guarantee a territory by default -- absent a defined Territory, your rights are limited to your Restaurant's specific accepted street address. Where a Territory is granted, it's defined by radius, zip codes, or another written description at Blaze's discretion, and Blaze won't open or license another Restaurant inside it during your term; Non-Traditional Restaurants additionally can't be relocated at all.
Renewal & termination terms (Item 17)
10-year initial term with two available 10-year successor terms -- a real two-renewal structure, more generous than several peers' single-renewal cap -- though each successor agreement can carry materially different terms and requires a remodel and no more than two material defaults in the prior 36 months. In-term, franchisees are barred from any competing pizza business; post-termination, Blaze can buy back restaurant equipment at depreciated book value (minimum 10% of cost) rather than letting a franchisee sell it independently.
How Blaze Pizza compares to other Food & Beverage franchises
Across the 19 food & beverage franchises we've hand-verified so far, the typical range to open runs $758,099–$1,965,490, with royalties averaging around 5.7% of gross sales (based on the 18 of them that charge a flat %-of-revenue royalty).
$617,800–$2,170,000 · 6% royalty
Slim Chickens$1,188,900–$4,944,000 · 5% royalty
Ziggi's Coffee$315,830–$2,093,361 · 6% royalty
Crumbl$848,566–$1,472,533 · 8% royalty
Little Caesars$376,500–$1,769,200 · 6% royalty
Jamba$480,850–$941,300 · 6% royalty
Tropical Smoothie Cafe$300,000–$720,500 · 6% royalty
Playa Bowls$188,675–$636,458 · 6% royalty
Kona Ice$114,730–$228,601 · non-%-of-revenue royalty
Firehouse Subs$166,671–$950,351 · 6% royalty
Wingstop$310,400–$1,048,500 · 6% royalty
Jersey Mike's Subs$436,176–$1,162,228 · 6.5% royalty
Dunkin'$532,400–$1,832,500 · 5.9% royalty
Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen$1,222,045–$3,923,245 · 5% royalty
Del Taco$1,461,200–$3,313,500 · 5% royalty
Church's Texas Chicken$1,202,400–$1,886,300 · 5% royalty
MOD Pizza$924,732–$1,220,633 · 5% royalty
Twin Peaks$2,959,000–$5,734,000 · 5% royalty
Keep going
- Blaze Pizza and Crumbl are both food & beverage franchises; Blaze Pizza's total investment starts about $91,566 lower than Crumbl's. Crumbl Franchise
- Blaze Pizza and Dave's Hot Chicken are both food & beverage franchises; Dave's Hot Chicken's total investment starts about $139,200 lower than Blaze Pizza's. Dave's Hot Chicken Franchise
Where this came from: California DFPI Registration Application (Initial/Late Renewal), App ID APP00005473, filed 4/30/2026, effective 7/27/2026. FDD issued April 30, 2026. Item 5: $30,000 initial franchise fee. Item 6: 5% Continuing Royalty; Creative Fund Contribution currently 2% of gross sales, increasable up to 4% on 60 days' notice (0%-2% for Non-Traditional Venues), plus a separate 2% Local Advertising Requirement. Item 7: $757,000-$1,297,100 total initial investment for a standard Restaurant; Item 7 also discloses a $10,000-$90,000 range for Non-Traditional Venue and food-court formats, which this entry excludes. Item 20 Table 1 franchised outlets; company-owned outlets fell from 13 to 0 in 2025. You can pull the same filing yourself from the California DFPI's public franchise search. Filed 2026-04-30. None of this is investment advice -- get the franchisor's current FDD and talk to a real attorney or accountant before you sign anything.
If you see a different unit count elsewhere: franchisors only have to refile their FDD annually, so the numbers here can run 6–18 months behind a franchisor's own real-time marketing claims -- which often aren't independently verified, and sometimes count signed-but-not-yet-open locations. A gap isn't necessarily an error on either side; it's two different snapshots in time from two different sources.