Food & Beverage

Jollibee Franchise

A Filipino fast-food chain known for fried chicken, spaghetti, and burgers, franchised in the U.S. under JBM LLC after decades of Jollibee Foods Corporation operating U.S. restaurants directly. Jollibee Foods Corporation has franchised in the Philippines since 1979; in the U.S., predecessor affiliate Honeybee Foods Corporation briefly franchised from 2018-2022 before JBM LLC (formed in Delaware in June 2022) took over as sole U.S. franchisor and began offering franchises in April 2024. U.S. franchising is still almost nonexistent relative to the affiliate-operated base -- only 3 of the roughly 81 U.S. Jollibee restaurants were franchised as of the end of 2025.

Opening more locationsFounded 1979HQ: Denver, CO

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 Jollibee'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

$40,000

Total to open

$1,614,568–$4,589,057

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.

Your estimated annual revenue

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

Years of ownership

Total cost of ownership over 5 years

$1,864,568 – $4,839,057

Startup investment

$1,614,568–$4,589,057

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. Jollibee'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 Jollibee'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

20.2–57.4 years

Weigh that payback period against what you already know: Jollibee 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 Jollibee 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 Jollibee's FDD, the section franchisors use to disclose real openings and closings.

202320242025

Year	Franchised units, start	Franchised units, end	Net change
2023	1	1	+0
2024	1	2	+1
2025	2	3	+1

Most recent year (2025): gained 1 franchised units, ending the year at 3 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: Jollibee's US financial performance representation in Item 19 breaks out Free-Standing vs. In-Line locations separately, with average annual labor costs of roughly $1.29M-$1.33M per location across a system of only 78 affiliate-managed comparison units.

Territory protection (Item 12)

Item 12: no exclusive territory under the Franchise Agreement -- franchisees may receive a discretionary Protected Territory but otherwise face competition from other franchisees, affiliate-owned restaurants, or other channels the franchisor controls, including worldwide use of the marks outside the Protected Territory.

Renewal & termination terms (Item 17)

Item 17: 20-year term, with the right to one additional successive 20-year renewal term if the franchisee satisfies then-current conditions.

How Jollibee 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

Five Guys

$977,850–$1,375,750 · 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

Smoothie King

$329,850–$683,215 · 6% royalty

Keep going

Jollibee and Wendy's are both food & beverage franchises; Wendy's's total investment starts about $90,611 lower than Jollibee's. Wendy's Franchise
Jollibee and Dairy Queen are both food & beverage franchises; Dairy Queen's total investment starts about $98,368 lower than Jollibee's. Dairy Queen Franchise

Where this came from: MN CARDS file 11404, Clean FDD issued April 17, 2026, filed 5/26/2026, effective 5/27/2026. JBM LLC (California DFPI entity id 601835, legal name used here) also has a current CA registration renewal (App ID APP00005113, effective 8/4/2026) not used for this draft. Item 5: $40,000 initial franchise fee. Item 6: royalty is 5% of Gross Sales; Marketing Fund Contribution is 4% of Gross Sales (may be adjusted, but combined with required local marketing spend will not exceed 5% of Gross Sales). Item 7 discloses two separate investment tables by building format rather than one combined total -- Free-Standing ($2,107,902-$4,589,057) and In-Line ($1,614,568-$2,964,092) -- so investmentLow/High here spans the full range across both formats ($1,614,568-$4,589,057) rather than picking one format. Item 20 Table No. 1 confirmed: the U.S. franchise system is tiny and brand-new (1->1->2->3 franchised units 2023-2025) because almost all ~81 U.S. Jollibee restaurants remain affiliate-owned/managed rather than franchised; this is a genuinely unusual structure worth flagging clearly rather than a data error. You can pull the same filing yourself from the California DFPI's public franchise search. Filed 2026-05-27. 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.