Chicken Salad Chick
Formerly known as Simply Southern Restaurant Group
Bottom line
- Total investment $777K – $1.0M including a $50K franchise fee, 5.0% ongoing royalty.
- Average unit revenue of $1.5M/year (median $1.5M). Estimated payback in 4.8 years.
- Rated STRONG with a risk score of 22/100. SBA loan default rate of 0.0% across 96 loans (below the industry average).
- System growing at 2960% CAGR over 3 years with 288 total units — strong expansion trajectory.
Item 1 · who you're contracting with
The Franchisor
Yale framework · single-unit ROIC
Returns Analysis
Pulls Item 7 (investment) and Item 19 (revenue) from this brand's FDD into the Yale unlevered-ROIC formula. Override any input to stress-test it against your own assumptions.
The model · Yale framework
What would one Chicken Salad Chick unit return on the cash you put in?
Unlevered ROIC · per unit
25%
Below typical band (30–60%)
Levered LBO scenario · Yale Crease Capital framing
What would 25 Chicken Salad Chick units return on equity?
Equity IRR · 5-yr
37.1%
4.85× MOIC
Year-1 DSCR
2.23×
EBITDA ÷ debt service
Equity required
$4.3M
on $13.3M purchase
Total debt
$9.0M
SBA $5.0M + senior + seller note
Overview
About
Franchisees operate fast-casual chicken salad restaurants featuring a limited, customizable menu focused on fresh chicken salad bowls, sandwiches, and salads. Day-to-day operations include food preparation, inventory management, customer service, marketing to their protected territory, and staff management in a 1,500–2,500 sq ft footprint.
Item 7 · what it costs
The Vitals
Item 19
Financial Performance
Item 20 · unit dynamics
The Growth Chart
Year-over-year franchised unit counts and net change. Source: FDD Item 20.
Item 20 · 10 states with active franchisees
The Territory Map
Derived from franchisee contact records. Shows states with at least one current operator — not where the franchisor is registered to sell new units (that data is re-extracting in a future refresh).
States derived from franchisee phone area codes (Item 20). Approximate — ported numbers may show the original state, not the franchisee's current location.
Government records
SBA Loan Data
Aggregated from SBA 7(a) loan disclosures, public data unique to FranchiseVerdict.
FranchiseVerdict rating + FDD Items 3, 5, 6, 12, 17
Risk & Legal
Chicken Salad Chick presents moderate risk: strong unit growth and no litigation are positives, but absence of Item 19 financial disclosure and tight margin structure warrant thorough franchisee validation before committing $777K+.
Score breakdown · what drove the 22 / 100 rating
- 01MEDNo Item 19 (Financial Performance Representation) disclosed — cannot independently verify the $188,381 average net income claim
- 02MINORRoyalty floor of $600/month ($7,200 annually) means low-volume locations pay 8.6%+ effective rate, creating unprofitable unit risk
- 03MINORMinimum initial investment of $777,000 is substantial with only 12.7% average net margin ($188k on $1.48M revenue)
Severity inferred from the FDD text · not a regulatory classification
FDD Items 5, 6, 12, 17 · continued from Risk & Legal
Contract & Territory Detail
Item 11
Training & Operations
Item 20
Franchisee Contacts
Phone numbers extracted directly from this brand's FDD Item 20. After purchase, you'll also receive a list of validation questions tailored to this brand.
Franchisee contacts
100 numbers
One-time purchase · CSV download · Validation questions included
FDD download
Chicken Salad Chick · FDD (2025) PDF