Franchises · 2026 FDD · Wisconsin DFI filing 640460
Wendy's franchise cost, unit revenue and closures
Opening a Wendy's cost $1,580,457 to $3,105,000 in the 2026 FDD; the franchisor's revenue disclosure has no single unit figure; 5.5% of franchised units closed over three years.
Franchisor: Quality Is Our Recipe, LLC. FDD issued 2026-03-27, amended 2026-05-29. Fiscal year end 2025-12-28. Figures re-found on the cited page 2026-11-04.
What a unit costs to open
paying cash for all expenditures; $409,691 to $785,000 if the fee, building and equipment are financed.
What a unit pays the franchisor
| Initial franchise fee | $50,000 | Item 5, p. 11 |
|---|---|---|
| Royalty | Royalty 4% of Gross Sales for traditional and Groundbreaker Restaurants (5% to 6% under some older development programs), monthly | Item 6, p. 13 |
| Advertising fund | National Advertising 1.50% to 4.00% of Gross Sales, plus 0.50% local and regional advertising | Item 6, p. 13 |
Technical Assistance Fee per Restaurant; plus a $5,000 Training Fee for new franchisees.
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.
Item 19 present, no single unit figure. Table 1: fiscal 2025 average Gross Sales of Company and Franchise Restaurants with 52 consecutive weeks of sales (an image in the filed PDF; figures not extracted); Table 2: non-traditional franchise restaurants by site type, with transportation sites averaging $3,781,004 (21), fuel $1,989,963 (235), food court $1,526,443 (15) and military $1,742,291 (9) (Item 19, p. 52, 53, 54, 55, 56).
Sample: Restaurants with at least 52 consecutive weeks of sales in fiscal 2025 (2024-12-30 to 2025-12-28); 63 Company and 305 Franchise Restaurants excluded for shorter histories; 423 company and 5,546 franchised domestic restaurants at year end. Period: fiscal 2025, 2024-12-30 to 2025-12-28.
The figures in these tables are embedded as images in the filed PDF and have not yet been transcribed; they will be read by hand before this page shows them.
Revenue to investment
Undefined: the traditional-restaurant table did not extract.
How many units open and close
| Franchised units | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Start of year | 5,591 | 5,627 | 5,552 |
| Opened | 94 | 102 | 100 |
| Terminated | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| Not renewed | 0 | 0 | 15 |
| Reacquired by franchisor | 0 | 0 | 35 |
| Ceased, other reasons | 56 | 174 | 53 |
| End of year | 5,627 | 5,552 | 5,546 |
| Company-owned, end of year | 403 | 381 | 423 |
Item 20, Table 1 p. 57; Table 3 totals p. 62.
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.
Source and method
Every figure above comes from the Wendy's Franchise Disclosure Document issued 2026-03-27 and amended 2026-05-29, as filed with the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions (filing 640460, 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.
The initial fee is called a Technical Assistance Fee. Item 19 Table 1 (traditional restaurants) is an image in the filed PDF; only Table 2 (non-traditional sites) extracted as text..
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.