Food & Beverage
Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen Franchise
A Louisiana-style fried chicken quick-service franchise, now an indirect subsidiary of Restaurant Brands International. The first Popeyes Restaurant opened in New Orleans in 1972 and predecessors began franchising it in 1976; the franchisor itself has changed names twice, from America's Favorite Chicken Company (1992) to AFC Enterprises (1996) to its current name in 2014. Franchised unit growth slowed sharply across the three years shown here, from 130 net new Restaurants in 2023 to 44 in 2024 and 55 in 2025, while company-owned Restaurants more than doubled in 2024 (41 to 98) before dipping slightly in 2025.
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 Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen'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
$50,000
Total to open
$1,222,045–$3,923,245
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.
Defaulted to a rough food & beverage industry average, not a figure from Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen's own FDD -- change it to your own estimate.
Total cost of ownership over 5 years
$1,472,045 – $4,173,245
Startup investment
$1,222,045–$3,923,245
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. Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen'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 Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen'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
15.3–49.0 years
Weigh that payback period against what you already know: Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen 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 Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen 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 Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen's FDD, the section franchisors use to disclose real openings and closings.
| Year | Franchised units, start | Franchised units, end | Net change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2,905 | 3,035 | +130 |
| 2024 | 3,035 | 3,079 | +44 |
| 2025 | 3,079 | 3,134 | +55 |
Most recent year (2025): gained 55 franchised units, ending the year at 3,134 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)
Initial training is delivered at a Certified Training Restaurant and other designated locations, at the franchisee's cost: a $5,000 fee per participant, with at least 5 designated management employees required to complete it for a franchisee's first Restaurant.
Territory protection (Item 12)
Restaurants developed under a Target Reservation Agreement or Multiple Target Reservation Agreement are confined to an approved site or one or more "Target Areas," with no exclusivity -- Popeyes can authorize other Restaurants anywhere in the same Target Area. Development Agreements, granted occasionally to experienced franchisees, define a "Territory" Popeyes won't otherwise develop in during the term, but the Territory itself excludes Alternative Venues (transportation facilities, toll roads, schools, malls, hospitals/hotels, government buildings) and any existing Restaurant's individually granted "Protected Area."
Renewal & termination terms (Item 17)
The Franchise Agreement runs 20 years from the Restaurant's commencement of operations. Compliant franchisees get 1 renewal term of 10 years, with an option to purchase up to 1 additional 10-year "Supplemental Renewal Term," potentially extending the relationship to 40 years total.
How Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen 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
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
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
- Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen and Church's Texas Chicken are both food & beverage franchises; Church's Texas Chicken's total investment starts about $19,645 lower than Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen's. Church's Texas Chicken Franchise
- Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen and Slim Chickens are both food & beverage franchises; Slim Chickens's total investment starts about $33,145 lower than Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen's. Slim Chickens Franchise
Where this came from: Minnesota CARDS, FDD issued March 20, 2026 (MN File No. 4803, filed 3/20/2026, effective in Minnesota 4/3/2026) -- Popeyes only files an exemption notice, not a full FDD, with California DFPI, so this entry is sourced from Minnesota's franchise registry instead. Item 5: $50,000 initial franchise fee. Item 6: royalty is 5% of Gross Sales (a separate transfer-incentive program can reduce it to 2% for 6 months following a Restaurant's reopening after transfer, before reverting to 5% -- not a standard new-franchisee rate); Advertising Contribution is 4.6%-5.0% of Gross Sales. Item 7: Item 7 splits into Free Standing and In-Line columns; this entry uses the Free Standing Total Estimated Initial Investment of $1,222,045-$3,923,245 (In-Line runs $504,545-$1,968,245). Item 20 Table 1 franchised outlets; company-owned outlets held flat at 41 in 2023 before the 2024 jump. You can pull the same filing yourself from the California DFPI's public franchise search. Filed 2026-04-03. 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.