Food & Beverage

Hungry Howie's Pizza & Subs Franchise

Name: Hungry Howie's Pizza & Subs Franchise
Brand: Hungry Howie's Pizza & Subs

A carry-out, delivery and sit-down pizza chain known for its trademarked Flavored Crust pizza, plus subs, calzone-style subs and salads, concentrated in the Midwest and South. Incorporated in Michigan in 1981 and franchising since 1982; still privately held, with a licensed (not franchised) affiliate operating independently under the brand throughout Florida since 1984. Franchised unit count declined in each year of the FDD's three-year window (497 to 460), while roughly three dozen company- and affiliate-owned restaurants stayed flat.

Losing locationsFounded 1981HQ: Madison Heights, MI

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 Hungry Howie's Pizza & 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

$25,000

Total to open

$238,982–$697,322

Ongoing royalty

5.5% 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.

Your estimated annual revenue

Defaulted to a rough food & beverage industry average, not a figure from Hungry Howie's Pizza & Subs's own FDD -- change it to your own estimate.

Years of ownership

Total cost of ownership over 5 years

$513,982 – $972,322

Startup investment

$238,982–$697,322

Royalty per year (5.5%)

$55,000

Total royalty, 5yr

$275,000

When would you break even?

Revenue alone doesn't tell you this -- it depends on what's left after rent, labor, and everything else. Hungry Howie's Pizza & 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.

Estimated profit margin (% of revenue)

%≈ $80,000/year

Defaulted to a general food & beverage industry benchmark, not a figure from Hungry Howie's Pizza & 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

3.0–8.7 years

Weigh that payback period against what you already know: Hungry Howie's Pizza & Subs 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 Hungry Howie's Pizza & 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

Shrinking

From Item 20 of Hungry Howie's Pizza & Subs's FDD, the section franchisors use to disclose real openings and closings.

-12

-9

-16

202320242025

Year	Franchised units, start	Franchised units, end	Net change
2023	497	485	-12
2024	485	476	-9
2025	476	460	-16

Most recent year (2025): lost 16 franchised units, ending the year at 460 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: before opening, Hungry Howie's designates the Restaurant's general geographic area, advises on site selection and lease negotiation, and reviews construction drawings; franchisees separately pay a $15,000 Franchise Grand Opening Fee (due when the lease is signed, spent on grand-opening marketing) and must buy a designated-supplier conveyor oven/hood system ($23,100-$46,300) plus opening inventory ($10,000-$20,834).

Territory protection (Item 12)

Item 12: the Territory is generally a 1-mile radius around the Restaurant, shrinking on a negotiated basis in areas with 25,000+ population/commuter density. It is explicitly non-exclusive -- Hungry Howie's reserves the right to open Non-Traditional Restaurants (airports, stadiums, convenience stores, etc.) inside a franchisee's Territory without compensation, and other franchisees may deliver into it freely.

Renewal & termination terms (Item 17)

Item 17: 10-year initial term, with the right to renew once for one additional 10-year term (on the then-current franchise agreement, which may differ materially) if in good standing, not in default 3+ times, and any required Upgrades are completed. Item 3: no litigation is required to be disclosed.

How Hungry Howie's Pizza & Subs compares to other Food & Beverage franchises

Across the 35 food & beverage franchises we've hand-verified so far, the typical range to open runs $843,866–$2,063,296, with royalties averaging around 5.6% of gross sales (based on the 32 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

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

Keep going

Hungry Howie's Pizza & Subs and Nekter Juice Bar are both food & beverage franchises; Hungry Howie's Pizza & Subs's total investment starts about $4,173 lower than Nekter Juice Bar's. Nekter Juice Bar Franchise
Hungry Howie's Pizza & Subs and Domino's Pizza are both food & beverage franchises; Domino's Pizza's total investment starts about $7,532 lower than Hungry Howie's Pizza & Subs's. Domino's Pizza Franchise

Where this came from: California DFPI Registration, App ID APP00004991, filed 4/17/2026, effective 7/23/2026. FDD issued December 31, 2025. Item 5: Franchise Fee is $25,000 (a Veteran's rate of $12,500 is available; Area Developer deposits ran $50,000-$75,000 in 2025). Item 6: Royalty Fee is 5.5% of Gross Sales; separately a Marketing Fee of 7% of Gross Sales, split 1% national / 6% local. Item 7 TOTAL (the only single-unit total in the FDD): $238,982-$697,322. Item 20 Table 1 franchised outlets; ~33-34 company-owned outlets (all in Michigan) held essentially flat, plus a separately licensed, non-franchised affiliate operating independently across Florida since 1984. You can pull the same filing yourself from the California DFPI's public franchise search. Filed 2026-04-17. 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.