Food & Beverage

Five Guys Franchise

A fast-casual burger chain known for made-to-order burgers and fries cooked in peanut oil, an all-you-can-eat peanut bar, and a no-freezer, no-microwave kitchen policy. The Murrell family opened the first Five Guys restaurant in Arlington, Virginia in 1986 and began franchising in 2002; the current franchisor entity, Five Guys Franchisor, LLC, remains majority-owned by the Murrell family. Franchised unit count fell by 80 restaurants in 2022 before returning to growth, adding a net 25 in 2023 and 21 in 2024.

Opening more locationsFounded 1986HQ: Alexandria, VA

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 Five Guys'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

$25,000

Total to open

$977,850–$1,375,750

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.

Your estimated annual revenue

Defaulted to a rough food & beverage industry average, not a figure from Five Guys's own FDD -- change it to your own estimate.

Years of ownership

Total cost of ownership over 5 years

$1,277,850 – $1,675,750

Startup investment

$977,850–$1,375,750

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. Five Guys'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.

Estimated profit margin (% of revenue)

%≈ $80,000/year

Defaulted to a general food & beverage industry benchmark, not a figure from Five Guys'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

12.2–17.2 years

Weigh that payback period against what you already know: Five Guys 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 Five Guys 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

Growing

From Item 20 of Five Guys's FDD, the section franchisors use to disclose real openings and closings.

-80

+25

+21

202220232024

Year	Franchised units, start	Franchised units, end	Net change
2022	979	899	-80
2023	899	924	+25
2024	924	945	+21

Most recent year (2024): gained 21 franchised units, ending the year at 945 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)

Item 11: initial training for the Operating Principal, general manager and one assistant manager at no charge (additional trainees cost $1,500 each), plus required initial inventory of proprietary hamburger and hotdog buns from affiliate Five Guys Bakery.

Territory protection (Item 12)

Item 12: no exclusive territory under either a Development Agreement or Franchise Agreement -- Five Guys explicitly states franchisees may face competition from other franchisees, company-owned restaurants, or other channels of distribution.

Renewal & termination terms (Item 17)

Item 17: 10-year term from the Franchise Agreement's date, renewable at the franchisee's option for additional consecutive 10-year terms; a renewal contract may carry different terms but must preserve the original fees, protected territory and renewal rights.

How Five Guys compares to other Food & Beverage franchises

Across the 50 food & beverage franchises we've hand-verified so far, the typical range to open runs $882,585–$2,162,912, with royalties averaging around 5.6% of gross sales (based on the 46 of them that charge a flat %-of-revenue royalty).

Dave's Hot Chicken

$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

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

McDonald's

$1,470,500–$2,642,000 · 5% royalty

Subway

$263,000–$630,000 · 8% royalty

Taco Bell

$1,859,750–$4,312,200 · 5.5% royalty

Domino's Pizza

$231,450–$743,500 · 5.5% royalty

KFC

$2,107,575–$4,155,000 · 5% royalty

Burger King

$2,039,200–$4,730,600 · 4.5% royalty

Chick-fil-A

$317,521–$3,463,155 · non-%-of-revenue royalty

Penn Station

$507,500–$858,750 · non-%-of-revenue royalty

Nekter Juice Bar

$243,155–$647,160 · 6% royalty

Jimmy John's

$366,200–$733,500 · 6% royalty

Sonic Drive-In

$1,485,200–$2,522,900 · 5% royalty

Papa John's

$281,485–$890,267 · 5% royalty

Hungry Howie's Pizza & Subs

$238,982–$697,322 · 5.5% royalty

Jack in the Box

$1,909,500–$4,041,500 · 5% royalty

Wendy's

$1,523,957–$2,992,000 · 4% royalty

Marco's Pizza

$286,477–$811,186 · 5.5% royalty

Pizza Hut

$846,000–$2,130,000 · 6% royalty

Chicken Salad Chick

$777,000–$998,500 · 5% royalty

Teriyaki Madness

$392,667–$1,121,405 · 6% royalty

Cold Stone Creamery

$390,675–$680,775 · 6% royalty

Scooter's Coffee

$1,163,650–$1,345,750 · 6% royalty

Nothing Bundt Cakes

$475,200–$994,100 · 6% royalty

Tim Hortons

$427,500–$3,312,500 · 6% royalty

7 Brew

$940,500–$2,283,500 · non-%-of-revenue royalty

Swig

$608,400–$1,718,000 · 7% royalty

Culver's

$3,406,350–$10,294,100 · 4% royalty

Dairy Queen

$1,516,200–$2,543,050 · 4% royalty

Paris Baguette

$727,515–$1,860,550 · 5% royalty

Jollibee

$1,614,568–$4,589,057 · 5% royalty

Smoothie King

$329,850–$683,215 · 6% royalty

Keep going

Five Guys and 7 Brew are both food & beverage franchises; 7 Brew's total investment starts about $37,350 lower than Five Guys's. 7 Brew Franchise
Five Guys and MOD Pizza are both food & beverage franchises; MOD Pizza's total investment starts about $53,118 lower than Five Guys's. MOD Pizza Franchise

Where this came from: California DFPI Registration, dfpi id 413625, App ID APP00003326, filed 8/27/2025, effective 6/19/2026 -- FDD issue date is December 31, 2024, so this entry's unit-history window (2022-2024) runs a year behind several other entries in this dataset; it is the newest obtainable filing (a separate, inactive DFPI entity, dfpi id 654438, Five Guys Enterprises, LLC, has filed nothing since 2016). Item 5: $25,000 initial franchise fee under a single-restaurant Franchise Agreement (a separate $50,000-per-restaurant Development Fee applies under a Development Agreement, not used here). Item 6: royalty is 6% of Gross Sales (8% in Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico); Creative Fund contribution is up to 4% of Gross Sales, currently charged at 2%. Item 7 Total (single Franchise Agreement, no development rights): $977,850-$1,375,750. Item 20 Table No. 1 confirmed. You can pull the same filing yourself from the California DFPI's public franchise search. Filed 2026-06-19. 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.