Food & Beverage
Nekter Juice Bar Franchise
A fast-casual juice bar franchise offering cold-pressed juices, smoothies, cleanses, and acai bowls from small-format (700-1,450 sq ft) retail stores. Franchising since June 2012 under franchisor entity Nekter Franchise, Inc.; its parent, Nekter Juice Bar, Inc., was formed in 2010 and continues to own and operate a meaningful base of company stores (31, flat across the window) alongside a faster-growing franchised system.
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 Nekter Juice Bar'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
$35,000
Total to open
$243,155–$647,160
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 Nekter Juice Bar's own FDD -- change it to your own estimate.
Total cost of ownership over 5 years
$543,155 – $947,160
Startup investment
$243,155–$647,160
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. Nekter Juice Bar'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 Nekter Juice Bar'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
3.0–8.1 years
Weigh that payback period against what you already know: Nekter Juice Bar 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 Nekter Juice Bar 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 Nekter Juice Bar's FDD, the section franchisors use to disclose real openings and closings.
| Year | Franchised units, start | Franchised units, end | Net change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 127 | 145 | +18 |
| 2023 | 145 | 162 | +17 |
| 2024 | 162 | 171 | +9 |
Most recent year (2024): gained 9 franchised units, ending the year at 171 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: standard onboarding/training program for Owner and Manager attendees; ongoing fees are the 6% Royalty plus the 2% Marketing Fee and the separate quarterly 2% Local Marketing Expenditure requirement.
Territory protection (Item 12)
Item 12: no exclusive territory -- Nekter designates a "Designated Area" by ZIP code/street/county boundary within which it won't franchise or operate another standard store, but explicitly carves out "Closed Markets" (hotels, resorts, malls, airports, college campuses, military bases, and similar captive-audience venues) where it can place a Store regardless of a franchisee's Designated Area.
Renewal & termination terms (Item 17)
Item 17: 10-year term, with Nekter having sole discretion (not a franchisee right) to grant up to two 5-year renewals on then-current terms.
How Nekter Juice Bar compares to other Food & Beverage franchises
Across the 28 food & beverage franchises we've hand-verified so far, the typical range to open runs $837,269–$2,125,953, with royalties averaging around 5.7% of gross sales (based on the 25 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
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
Keep going
- Nekter Juice Bar and Domino's Pizza are both food & beverage franchises; Domino's Pizza's total investment starts about $11,705 lower than Nekter Juice Bar's. Domino's Pizza Franchise
- Nekter Juice Bar and Subway are both food & beverage franchises; Nekter Juice Bar's total investment starts about $19,845 lower than Subway's. Subway Franchise
Where this came from: California DFPI Registration (Initial/Late Renewal), App ID APP00002853, filed 6/20/2025, effective 9/8/2025. FDD issued June 13, 2025. Item 5: $35,000 Initial Franchise Fee for a first Store ($30,000 second, $25,000 third+). Item 6: 6% Royalty Fee plus a 2% Marketing Fee and a separate 2%-of-quarterly-sales Local Marketing Expenditure requirement. Item 7: two TOTAL rows -- "Franchise Agreement and Single Store" $243,155-$647,160 (used here, the correct single-unit pick) and a higher Development Agreement/3-store total ($288,155-$692,160). Item 20 Table 1 franchised outlets; company-owned held flat at 31 throughout. You can pull the same filing yourself from the California DFPI's public franchise search. Filed 2025-06-20. 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.