Franchises · 2026 FDD · Wisconsin DFI filing 641825
Hardee's franchise cost, unit revenue and closures
Opening a Hardee's cost $1,385,000 to $2,637,395 in the 2026 FDD; the median unit sold $1,294,442 in the franchisor's 2025-01-28 to 2026-01-26 figures; 15.4% of franchised units closed over three years.
Franchisor: Hardee's Restaurants LLC. FDD issued 2026-05-24, amended 2026-06-15. Fiscal year end 2026-01-26. Figures re-found on the cited page 2026-11-03.
What a unit costs to open
freestanding Restaurant: fees to HR $57,000 to $97,000, build-out $1,130,000 to $2,207,395, preliminary operating expenses $198,000 to $333,000.
What a unit pays the franchisor
| Initial franchise fee | $25,000 | Item 5, p. 20 |
|---|---|---|
| Royalty | Royalty 3.5% of Gross Sales for the first 5 years of a newly developed Restaurant and 4% thereafter; 4% for all other Restaurants | Item 6, p. 21 |
| Advertising fund | Hardee's National Advertising Fund currently 4.25% of Gross Sales, 4.50% from 2026-06-30, within an advertising and promotional obligation split between HNAF, a Regional Co-op (minimum 0.5%) and local marketing | Item 6, p. 23 |
reduced to $15,000 for a Restaurant developed under a Development Agreement, less the $10,000 Development Fee already paid.
What a unit sells
Item 19 is optional and is the franchisor's own representation. It is shown here as filed, with the franchisor's measure, sample and period, and nothing is estimated where it is missing.
| Measure | Revenue, fiscal 2026 (53 weeks, 2025-01-28 to 2026-01-26), franchised freestanding Restaurants (first table) | |
|---|---|---|
| Sample | 1,071 units: 1,071 franchised freestanding US Restaurants (plus 194 company-operated, average $1,370,338, median $1,299,224) open the whole FY26 period; a second table narrows to 975 franchised Restaurants; excludes 131 non-freestanding sites, 97 Dual Concept restaurants and 88 without complete revenue data | |
| Period | 2025-01-28 to 2026-01-26 | |
| High / low | $3,599,953 / $413,015 | |
Revenue to investment
Formula: Item 19 franchised median / Item 7 total (midpoint, low, high). A ratio of 1.00 means one year of median unit revenue equals the investment; it says nothing about profit.
How many units open and close
| Franchised units | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Start of year | 1,512 | 1,393 | 1,369 |
| Opened | 13 | 8 | 7 |
| Terminated | 4 | 7 | 12 |
| Not renewed | 6 | 9 | 3 |
| Reacquired by franchisor | 19 | 0 | 2 |
| Ceased, other reasons | 103 | 17 | 72 |
| End of year | 1,393 | 1,369 | 1,287 |
| Company-owned, end of year | 204 | 202 | 198 |
Item 20, Table 1 p. 69; Table 3 totals p. 76.
Closures are the franchisor's Item 20 counts of units terminated, not renewed, or ceased for other reasons, summed over 2024–2026 and divided by franchised units at the start of 2024. Units the franchisor reacquired are not closures. This is an Item 20 count, not a failure rate.
fiscal years; the printed fiscal 2024 net change is -119 where 1,394 - 1,512 is -118, and Table 3 prints the 2024 year end as 1,393.
As filed: the fiscal 2025 row sums to 1,368, not the 1,369 printed; the 2024 and 2026 rows sum; the 2024 year end (1,393) is one less than Table 1's 1,394.
Source and method
Every figure above comes from the Hardee's Franchise Disclosure Document issued 2026-05-24 and amended 2026-06-15, as filed with the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions (filing 641825, registry record). The PDF is the franchisor's and is not hosted here; the item and page beside each figure is where to check it. Item 7 and Item 20 tables were read cell by cell; Item 19 was read by hand; each Item 20 year was checked to sum (start + opened − exits = end) before it was recorded.
Wisconsin holds two Hardee's registrations; this is the single-location (SLA) filing. The fiscal year ends in late January, so the Item 20 tables run fiscal 2024 to 2026 and fiscal 2026 was a 53-week year..
Informational only, not professional, legal or investment advice. Unitnomics computes from the filing and does not advise on, rank, or refer to any franchise. Last reviewed: November 2026.