Jack in the Box

The franchise fee is $50,000 — double Hardee's, double Dairy Queen, and matching Comfort Inn (a hotel). Non-traditional locations (airports, stadiums) are $25,000. The development fee for multi-unit agreements is also $50,000 for the first restaurant, plus $10,000 per additional restaurant — meaning a 5-unit development agreement costs $90,000 in development fees before a single site is identified.

IT equipment purchase and installation is a separately billed $45,000 upfront fee, plus a $1,000 POS software license (transitioning to a $280/month subscription, according to FDD notes). The total technology bill at opening is $46,000 before ongoing monthly fees.

The total investment range of $1.91M to $4.03M is driven by building improvements ($626K–$1.25M), on-site improvements ($337K–$825K), and furniture/fixtures/equipment ($499K–$967K). Three-month working capital of $165K to $459K is at the high end of the QSR category. Veterans get a $12,500 discount on the first franchise fee — the only concession in the fee structure.

Ongoing: 5% royalty plus 5% advertising fund — 10% total. Plus monthly technology fees (unspecified amount), OLO ecommerce platform fee ($106.70/month), labor management system fee ($72+/restaurant/month), digital checklist ($17.99/month billed quarterly), gift card program ($13/month), and stored value card services (up to $34/month). Monthly tech stack alone exceeds $240/restaurant before the main technology fee. Effectively 10.5–11% of gross sales goes to the franchisor and franchisor-mandated services.

Jack in the Box provides no Item 19 financial performance representations in its 2025 FDD. This is the most significant disclosure gap in the comparison set given the investment size. McDonald's ($45K franchise fee, $1.47M–$2.73M investment) provides detailed financial data from 11,332 restaurants. Jack in the Box ($50K fee, $1.91M–$4.03M investment) provides nothing.

This isn't a new position for Jack in the Box — the brand has historically declined to make Item 19 disclosures. The reasons may include: a wide distribution of performance across its Western U.S.-heavy system, significant company-owned vs. franchised performance gaps, or a strategic decision to avoid benchmarks. Whatever the rationale, buyers have no FDD-sourced data to validate a $4M investment decision.

Third-party AUV estimates (not from Jack in the Box) suggest typical locations generate $1.5M–$2M annually. At the midpoint $1.75M and 10% fee burden, you're paying $175K/year to the franchisor. At a 15% operating margin on $1.75M, operating income before debt is $262K — and you're servicing debt on $2.5M+ in construction. The math requires above-average performance to work. Without Item 19 data, you can't know if above-average performance is achievable or how often it occurs.

The extraction was unable to capture unit count data for Jack in the Box — Items 19 and 20 were not available in this FDD filing. This is confirmed by the health score of 24 in the derived metrics and confidence of 0.1 on unit data.

Based on public filings and industry reporting: Jack in the Box operates approximately 2,200 restaurants in 21 states, concentrated heavily in California and the Western U.S. The brand was taken private by Dine Brands/private equity and has been gradually refranchising company-owned locations — selling corporate stores to franchisees, which reduces the unit count of company-owned restaurants while maintaining total system count.

The brand competes directly with McDonald's, Wendy's, and Taco Bell in its core West Coast markets — the highest-competition, highest-cost QSR environment in the U.S. New unit development has been limited, and the refranchising program means many available locations are previously corporate-operated restaurants rather than greenfield builds.

The real estate lease structure creates a dual-dependency risk. Jack in the Box frequently owns or leases the property and subleases to franchisees. The FDD discloses percentage rent of 9.5% of gross sales for these subleased locations, on top of fixed minimum rent. When you stack 10% franchisor fees + 9.5% percentage rent + fixed minimum rent, your occupancy and fee costs can exceed 20% of gross revenue before labor and food. For a restaurant generating $1.5M–$2M, that's $300K–$400K before any other operating expenses.

The hold-over rent provision is punishing: if your lease expires or terminates and you continue operating, rent increases to 200% of the last month's fixed minimum rent. This is a clause that creates enormous pressure to either renew or close immediately — the negotiating leverage sits entirely with Jack in the Box in that scenario.

The 8% broker fee on purchase requisitions is unusual. When you buy supplies, equipment, or services through Jack in the Box's approved channels, the franchisor earns an 8% fee on the transaction value. This creates a structural incentive for the franchisor to prefer higher-cost approved suppliers — the more you spend through approved channels, the more the franchisor earns. Buyers should ask for a breakdown of mandatory vs. approved supplier categories.