Food & Beverage
Firehouse Subs Franchise
A submarine-sandwich quick-service franchise founded by two brothers who are former firefighters, built around a firehouse-themed decor and a public-safety giving program funded by round-up donations and other proceeds. Established in Jacksonville, Florida in 1994 and franchising since 1995; net franchised locations grew in both years shown in this older FDD's three-year window.
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 Firehouse Subs'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
$20,000
Total to open
$166,671–$950,351
Ongoing royalty
6% 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 Firehouse Subs's own FDD -- change it to your own estimate.
Total cost of ownership over 5 years
$466,671 – $1,250,351
Startup investment
$166,671–$950,351
Royalty per year (6%)
$60,000
Total royalty, 5yr
$300,000
When would you break even?
Revenue alone doesn't tell you this -- it depends on what's left after rent, labor, and everything else. Firehouse Subs'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 Firehouse Subs'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
2.1–11.9 years
Weigh that payback period against what you already know: Firehouse Subs is opening more locations. A long payback period on a shrinking brand is a very different bet than the same payback period on a growing one.
Is Firehouse Subs 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
GrowingFrom Item 20 of Firehouse Subs's FDD, the section franchisors use to disclose real openings and closings.
| Year | Franchised units, start | Franchised units, end | Net change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 1,093 | 1,117 | +24 |
| 2020 | 1,117 | 1,115 | -2 |
| 2021 | 1,115 | 1,125 | +10 |
Most recent year (2021): gained 10 franchised units, ending the year at 1,125 total.
How Firehouse Subs 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
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
Blaze Pizza$757,000–$1,297,100 · 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
- Firehouse Subs and Playa Bowls are both food & beverage franchises; Firehouse Subs's total investment starts about $22,004 lower than Playa Bowls's. Playa Bowls Franchise
- Firehouse Subs and Kona Ice are both food & beverage franchises; Kona Ice's total investment starts about $51,941 lower than Firehouse Subs's. Kona Ice Franchise
Where this came from: California DFPI Registration Renewal, App ID app-23592, filed 4/1/2022, effective 4/20/2022. FDD issued March 25, 2022 -- an older filing; Item 20's three-year window here covers 2019-2021, not 2023-2025 like most other entries in this dataset. Item 5: $20,000 initial franchise fee (less a non-refundable $2,500 application deposit applied to it). Item 6: 6% royalty on Gross Sales (reduced to 3% for the first 2 years at designated Incentive Restaurants), plus a separate 1% System Fund contribution and a 4% local advertising requirement. Item 7: $166,671-$950,351 total initial investment for the Traditional New Restaurant Development format (Unit Franchise Program, excluding real estate purchase costs) -- Item 7 also discloses narrower ranges for an End-Cap Strip Mall w/ Drive Thru format ($475,133-$629,672) and a Free Standing w/ Drive Thru format ($462,823-$770,070); this entry uses the traditional-format figure. Item 20 Table 1 franchised outlets for 2019-2021. You can pull the same filing yourself from the California DFPI's public franchise search. Filed 2022-04-01. 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.