Franchises · 2026 FDD · Wisconsin DFI filing 641046
Smashburger franchise cost, unit revenue and closures
Opening a Smashburger cost $1,239,500 to $2,255,500 in the 2026 FDD; the franchisor gives no unit revenue figure; 37.8% of franchised units closed over three years.
Franchisor: Smashburger Franchising LLC. FDD issued 2026-04-17, amended 2026-05-28. Fiscal year end 2025-12-28. Figures re-found on the cited page 2026-11-03.
What a unit costs to open
single Restaurant.
What a unit pays the franchisor
| Initial franchise fee | $40,000 | Item 5, p. 6 |
|---|---|---|
| Royalty | Royalty 5.5% of Gross Sales, weekly | Item 6, p. 7 |
| Advertising fund | Marketing Fund 2.25% of Gross Sales, weekly, subject to change up to 4% within a 5% cap on all required marketing; a local cooperative of up to 3% may be added | Item 6, p. 7 |
single Restaurant; discounted fees of $10,000 to $20,000 were offered in fiscal 2025; a $20,000-per-Restaurant Development Fee under a Multi-Unit Development Agreement.
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.
No Item 19. Smashburger's 2026 FDD makes no financial performance representation (Item 19, p. 42). The revenue-to-investment ratio is undefined for this brand.
Revenue to investment
Undefined: no Item 19 representation.
How many units open and close
| Franchised units | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Start of year | 82 | 78 | 65 |
| Opened | 2 | 6 | 2 |
| Terminated | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Not renewed | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Reacquired by franchisor | 0 | 5 | 3 |
| Ceased, other reasons | 6 | 14 | 11 |
| End of year | 78 | 65 | 53 |
| Company-owned, end of year | 133 | 129 | 119 |
Item 20, Table 1 p. 42; Table 3 totals p. 46.
Closures are the franchisor's Item 20 counts of units terminated, not renewed, or ceased for other reasons, summed over 2023–2025 and divided by franchised units at the start of 2023. Units the franchisor reacquired are not closures. This is an Item 20 count, not a failure rate.
company-owned includes managed restaurants; fiscal years ending late December.
Source and method
Every figure above comes from the Smashburger Franchise Disclosure Document issued 2026-04-17 and amended 2026-05-28, as filed with the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions (filing 641046, 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.
Most of the system is company-owned or managed (119 of 172 restaurants at the end of fiscal 2025), and the franchised count fell from 82 to 53 over the three years in the filing..
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.