Wendy's franchise cost 2026
From the 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document of Quality Is Our Recipe, LLC, registered in Wisconsin (filing 640460, effective 3/27/2026). Every number links to the page it was read from.
| Total initial investment | $1,580,457 to $3,105,000 | p.24 |
| Initial franchise fee | $50,000 | p.16 |
| Royalty | Varies between 4-6% of Gross Sales | p.18 |
| Advertising fund | 1.50-4.00% of Gross Sales | p.18 |
| Item 19 financial performance | held for review | |
| Units, end of 2025 | 5,969 | p.62 |
Units by year (Item 20, Table 1)
| Type | Year | Start | End | Net change | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| franchised | 2023 | 5,591 | 5,627 | 36 | p.62 |
| company owned | 2023 | 403 | 403 | 0 | p.62 |
| total | 2023 | 5,994 | 6,030 | 36 | p.62 |
| franchised | 2024 | 5,627 | 5,552 | -75 | p.62 |
| company owned | 2024 | 403 | 381 | -22 | p.62 |
| total | 2024 | 6,030 | 5,933 | -97 | p.62 |
| franchised | 2025 | 5,552 | 5,546 | -6 | p.62 |
| company owned | 2025 | 381 | 423 | 42 | p.62 |
| total | 2025 | 5,933 | 5,969 | 36 | p.62 |
Openings and closures, system totals (Item 20, Table 3)
| Year | Start | Opened | Terminated | Non-renewed | Reacquired | Ceased, other | End | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 5,591 | 94 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 56 | 5,627 | p.67 |
| 2024 | 5,627 | 102 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 174 | 5,552 | p.67 |
| 2025 | 5,552 | 100 | 3 | 15 | 35 | 53 | 5,546 | p.67 |
Estimated initial investment (Item 7)
| Expenditure | Low | High | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Initial Technical Assistance Fee | $50,000 | $50,000 | p.24 |
| Real Property | None | None | p.24 |
| Equipment | $380,165 | $650,000 | p.24 |
| Pre-Opening Expenses, Training Expenses, and Additional Operating Funds | $117,000 | $205,000 | p.24 |
| Total | $1,580,457 | $3,105,000 | p.24 |
Item 19: what the filing says about revenue
Item 19 is unresolved for this filing: the two extraction passes disagreed and the field is held back until checked by hand. See the run log.
Scorecard
Rank among the brands on this site that report the figure, on each list's own direction. No blended grade. How the lists work.
| Cost to open | $1,580,457 | rank 9 of 10 |
| Royalty plus ad fund | 10.0% | rank 7 of 10 |
| Three-year unit growth | -0.4% | rank 9 of 12 |
| Closure rate, 2025 | 1.9% | rank 5 of 11 (1 = most) |
| Discloses unit revenue | held | |
| Litigation disclosed | held | held |
Litigation (Item 3)
Item 3 has not been read for this filing yet, or the two readers disagreed and it is held for review.
The full Wendy's report, $49
Every recurring fee, the Item 19 method and what it leaves out, three years of openings, closures and transfers, litigation and bankruptcy items, territory and renewal terms, and the questions to ask existing Wendy's franchisees based on this filing. What's in the report.
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This is a summary of a public filing, not legal advice. Take the filing to a franchise attorney before signing.
Provenance
Source: Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions franchise filing 640460, effective 3/27/2026, expires 3/27/2027. Extracted 2026-09-03 by two independent passes; only figures both passes agreed on and that appear verbatim on the cited page are shown. 5 field(s) held back as unresolved. Arithmetic checks flagged: item7: low lines sum to 547165, total says 1580457; item7: high lines sum to 905000, total says 3105000. How this works.