Church’s Texas Chicken Franchise Cost, Revenue & Review 2026
- Investment
- $1.3M – $1.8M
- Disclosed sales
- $1.1M
- gross sales, not profit
- SBA charge-off
- Not SBA-matched
Data from FDD filing
Analysis by FranchiseVerdict Research · Methodology
Church's Texas Chicken is a quick-service chain serving Southern-style fried chicken, tenders, biscuits, and sides. Franchisees run restaurants managing food prep, drive-thru and counter service, staffing, and costs.
FranchiseVerdict summary · 2026
A Church’s Texas Chicken franchise requires a total initial investment of $1.3M – $1.8M, including a $20K franchise fee and an ongoing 5.0% royalty[2]. Per the 2025 FDD, average unit revenue was $1.1M[2]. FranchiseVerdict grade: B (Above average), an editorial assessment, not investment advice. Run a live ROI scan →
Sources, dates and evidence
FDD issued: · Data extracted: · Last cited check: · Staleness risk: medium - issued 12 to 24 months ago; a newer filing is likely on file
Evidence: strong✓ Investment (Item 7)✓ Item 19 status✓ Units and owners (Item 20)✗ SBA loan coverage✓ Litigation (Item 3)✓ Financial statements (Item 21)✓ Franchisor identityhow this is scored8 of 8 headline figures on this page cite a page of the filing.
Overview
- Investment
- $1.3M – $1.8M
- 95th pct Service Resta…
- Avg gross sales
- $1.1M
- 21st pct Service Resta…
- Royalty
- 5.0%
- 12th pct Service Resta…
- Units
- 873
- 92nd pct Service Resta…
- SBA charge-off
- N/A
Quick verdict · Quick-Service Restaurants · color = vs category peers
Green = favorable by >10% vs Quick-Service Restaurants median · No shading = within ±10% · Red = unfavorable by >10% · Source: FDD filings + SBA 7(a)
Data from public FDD filings and SBA records. Not financial advice. Methodology
Bottom line
- COSTTotal investment $1.3M – $1.8M including a $20K franchise fee, 5.0% ongoing royalty.
- RETURNSAverage unit revenue of $1.1M/year (median $936K).
- RISKVerdict B (Above average), verdict score 68/100 (higher is better).
- GROWTHNegative: net -30 franchised outlets in the latest year (7 opened, 37 closed) (Item 20).
- FLAGBankruptcy history disclosed in the FDD. Review Item 4 for details before proceeding.
Item 1 · who you're contracting with
The Franchisor
Corporate structure & franchisor financials
- Legal entity
- Cajun Global LLC
- Parent company
- Cajun Operating Company
- FDD Item 1, page 9 of the 2025 FDD
- Ultimate parent
- High Bluff Capital Partners LLC
- FDD Item 1, page 9 of the 2025 FDD
- Predecessor
- Cajun Operating Company
- Prior franchisor entity
- CEO title
- Chief Executive Officer and Director
- Roland Gonzalez
- Incorporated in
- Delaware
- HQ
- 980 Hammond Drive, Suite 1100, Atlanta, Georgia 30328-6161
- Auditor
- Ernst & Young LLP
- Audited financials
- Franchisor revenue
- $247.0M
- vs $223.3M prior year
Independent franchisee associations
- Independent Franchisee Association
Franchisee-led councils or alliances disclosed in Item 20. Indicates operator voice.
Same owner · FDD Item 1, page 9
2 other brands on this site name High Bluff Capital Partners LLC as parent or ultimate parent in their own FDD.
Grouped by the owner's name as each filing prints it (this page: the 2025 FDD). Spelling variants of the same group may be listed apart; a brand is never grouped with an owner its filing does not name.
Overview
About
- CEO
- Roland Gonzalez
- Headquarters
- GA
- Founded
- 1952
- FDD year
- 2025
- States available
- 25
Can you afford it, and what does the money buy?
Entry cost runs 220% above the typical quick-service restaurants franchise.
Source: FDD 2025 · Items 5–7
Full Item 7 breakdown14 line items
Initial investment breakdown
| Line item | Low | High | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Development Fee | $10K | $10K | |
| Initial Franchise Fee | $20K | $20K | |
| Grand Opening Marketing Funds | $16K | $25K | |
| Real Estate (purchase or lease) | — | — | |
| Site Work | $220K | $450K | |
| Building and Improvements | $605K | $693K | |
| Equipment and Signs | $352K | $380K | |
| Fees, Misc., Architectural and Engineering Services, Deposits | $50K | $150K | |
| Initial Training | $0 | $23K | |
| Opening Supplies | $6K | $13K | |
| Insurance | $8K | $10K | |
| Utility Deposits | $5K | $15K | |
| Business Licenses | $300 | $600 | |
| Additional Funds – 3 Months | $10K | $20K | |
| Total initial investment | $1.3M | $1.8M |
Line items extracted from FDD Item 7. Ranges reflect the franchisor's stated low and high per line. Total is the sum of line-item lows / highs — actual costs may fall outside this range depending on market and build-out scope.
Item 7 · what it costs to open + operate
The Vitals
- Total investment
- $1.3M – $1.8M
- Bottom third — review vs category
- Liquid capital req'd
- $10K – $20K
- Top 40% of category vs category
- Franchise fee
- $20K – $20K
- Top 40% of category vs category
- Royalty
- 5.0%
- typical 6–8%
- Ad fund
- 5.0%
- typical 3–5%
- Total fee load
- 10.0%
- vs 9–13% typical
Ongoing fees · Item 6
| Fee | Amount |
|---|---|
| Royalty | 5.0% of gross sales |
| Marketing / ad fund | 5.0% of gross sales |
| Technology fee | $3K |
| Training fee | $1K |
| Transfer fee | $10K |
| Renewal fee | $10K |
| Inventory (initial) | $6K – $13K |
| Total fee load | 10.0% of rev |
What do units actually make?
Average unit sales run 12% above the quick-service restaurants norm.
Source: FDD 2025 · Item 19
Single-unit · not modelled
Returns at a glance
An FDD discloses gross sales, not profit, and the operating costs that turn one into the other are in no filing. We publish no modelled return for Church’s Texas Chicken until someone supplies them — yours, in the models below.
—
Not modelled yet
An FDD discloses gross sales, not profit. We hold no sourced figure for COGS, labour, rent / occupancy and other operating costs, and will not substitute an assumed one. Enter your own and the model runs on your assumptions.
Total invested capital · disclosed
$1.6M
Item 7 initial investment plus working capital, as filed — the one figure here that needs no assumption.
ROI & LBO modelsSingle-unit · 25-unit portfolio · editable
What one unit earns on your invested capital
Model A · Single-Unit Return
Computes unlevered return on invested capital (ROIC) for a single franchise unit, read against the 30–60% reference band · Yale SOM, Post-MBA Path Exhibit 2 (2023). Below that band a passive index fund likely outperforms; above it the franchisor has pricing power you're subsidizing.
Note: Item 19 revenue is what the franchisor discloses, and it is the top line only — gross sales are not profit. No FDD discloses the operating costs that turn one into the other, so those fields start empty and nothing is modelled until you supply them from your own lease quote, labor market and build-out budget.
Returns model · single-unit ROIC
What would one Church’s Texas Chicken unit return on the cash you put in?
Illustrative category typicals — not sourced to any filing, survey or sample. Replace them with figures from franchisee validation calls before you rely on the output.
Unlevered ROIC · per unit
Your modelled return on total invested capital, before any debt financing.
—
An FDD discloses gross sales, not profit. We hold no sourced figure for COGS, labour, rent / occupancy and other operating costs, and will not substitute an assumed one. Enter your own and the model runs on your assumptions.
What 25 units return when you use SBA financing
Model B · Return on Equity: Debt-Financed Acquisition
Models a 25-unit portfolio acquisition financed with an SBA 7(a) loan. Shows equity IRR (your return on cash invested), DSCR (how safely the cash flow covers debt service), and the capital stack (SBA + seller + equity breakdown).
This is the “search fund” or “entrepreneurship through acquisition” scenario: you buy an existing multi-unit operator, use leverage to amplify returns, and either operate or hire management. The 25-unit size is the typical minimum for an SBA-backed franchise portfolio acquisition to pencil as a full-time income.
What “return on equity” means here: if you put in $500K of your own cash and the business generates enough EBITDA to pay down debt and grow, your equity IRR is the annual return on that $500K, including the value created when you eventually sell. Target IRR for a search fund is typically 25–35%.
Not modelled yet
An FDD discloses gross sales, not profit. We hold no sourced figure for COGS, labour, rent / occupancy and other operating costs, and will not substitute an assumed one. Enter your own and the model runs on your assumptions.
A 25-unit return is built on a per-unit EBITDA. Fill in the operating costs in Model A above and this model runs on that figure, or take the whole scenario to the full ROI workbench, where the portfolio and LBO models accept your own per-unit economics directly.
These models are for research and scenario planning only. Not investment advice. Actual results depend on your specific location, management, and market conditions. Consult a franchise attorney and accountant before signing any franchise agreement.
Item 19 · Source: 2025 FDD
Financial Performance
- Avg gross sales
- $1.1M
- Per unit, per year
- Median gross sales
- $936K
Gross sales are revenue before expenses — not profit. Actual owner earnings depend on rent, labor, royalties, marketing fees, and debt service.
- Item 19 type
- gross sales
- Sample size
- 596 outlets
- vs category median 19 · large
- Range (low → high)
- $347K→$2.4MCited, not corroborated — printed on page 49 of the 2025 FDD. Nothing else in our record independently restates or re-derives it.
- Cohort dispersion (min → max)
- Reporting year
- 2024
- Fiscal year the figures cover
- Source filing
- FDD 2025
- Disclosed in the 2025 filing, covering 2024
- Transparency
- 7 / 10
- vs category median 4 / 10 · above
Compared against 781 Quick-Service Restaurants brands
Revenue is only 0.7x the investment. This means each unit may take 5+ years to recoup the initial outlay at typical margins.
Operator outlook
What the numbers say
Data-driven interpretation of this brand's financial disclosures, fee structure, and system trajectory.
Unit economics
Average unit generates $1.1M/year in gross sales. Revenue-to-investment ratio: 0.7x.
Fee burden
Total ongoing fee load of 10.0% — above the Quick-Service Restaurants median of 7.5%.
Disclosure
Transparency score 7/10 — this franchisor discloses detailed breakdowns (quartiles, segments, or cohort data). Buyers can model unit economics with higher confidence.
Operator retention
System contracting at -6.9% CAGR over 3 years. Investigate whether closures are franchisor-driven consolidation or franchisee exits.
Source: FDD Item 19 financial performance representations and publicly filed FDD data. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Verify all figures with the franchisor and current franchisees before making any investment decision.
vs Quick-Service Restaurants medians
How Church’s Texas Chicken Compares
Category median of published Quick-Service Restaurants brands that report the figure; the middle half spans the 25th to 75th percentile and n counts the brands behind it. Medians are used because a few very large systems pull an average far from the typical brand. Revenue is disclosed gross sales, not profit.
Is the system healthy?
Source: FDD 2025 · Item 20
Unit growth
Item 20 · unit dynamics
The Growth Chart
- Total units
- 873
- Opened
- 7
- Last reporting year
- Closed
- 37
- Terminated
- 7
- Franchisor ended the franchise (per Item 20)
- Non-renewed
- 9
- Term expired, not renewed (per Item 20)
- Turnover rate
- 4.2%
- Company-owned
- 159
- Corporate units in the system
- % franchised
- 82%
- vs corporate-owned
- Net growth (3-yr)
- -6.9%
- Net unit change over 3 years
- 3-yr CAGR
- -6.9%
- Compounded over last 3 years
Last fiscal year · Item 20 exits and transfers
- Terminated
- 7
- Not renewed
- 9
- Reacquired
- 1
- Franchisor bought back
- Ceased ops
- 47.4%
- Units that stopped operating
Year-over-year franchised unit counts and net change. Source: FDD Item 20.
Item 20 · 18 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 contact records (FDD Item 20). Shows states with at least one current operator on file. Full state registration data (Item 12) will appear on a future FDD refresh.
Where the owners are · Item 20 owner list
29 current owners across 17 states; 9 former (terminated, transferred or not renewed) listed separately.
- TX 6
- GA 4
- OK 3
- FL 2
- IL 2
- AL 1
- AZ 1
- CA 1
- KS 1
- LA 1
- MD 1
- MI 1
- +5 more states
Counts only, from the list the franchisor prints in Item 20. Names and phone numbers are for your own due diligence and are not shown here.
SBA loan performance
Government records
SBA Loan Data
Aggregated from SBA 7(a) and 504 loan disclosures, public data unique to FranchiseVerdict.
No SBA loan data available for this brand.
What could kill this investment?
Source: SBA 7(a) FOIA · FDD Items 3, 21
Risk analysis
FranchiseVerdict rating + FDD Items 3, 4, 8, 16, 21
Risk & Legal
Declining unit base, undisclosed profitability, active litigation history, and unfavorable revenue-to-investment ratio present material risks for new franchisees entering a contracting system.
Litigation (Item 3)
Subject: the franchisor is a named party (defendant).
1 concluded enforcement case (Cajun v. Carolina Café 2024); 2 UK concluded cases (Chaudhry/Nawaz 2014, settled); 1 concluded GA/MS case (Thomas & Irons 2018-2019); 1 concluded CA case (Pacific Premier Bank / Royal California 2025); 2 pending cases (Royal Texas TX State/Federal Actions and Second Texas Federal Action involving Triangle)
Bankruptcy (Item 4)
Subject: the company or an affiliate. Disclosed (Item 4 covers the last 10 years)
In re QCE Finance LLC, et al., Case No. 14-10543-LSS (U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware). On March 14, 2014, QFA Royalties LLC filed a “Debtor’s Joint Prepackaged Chapter 11 Plan of Reorganization” (the “Plan”) in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.
Audited financials (Item 21)
Yes · Ernst & Young LLP
Franchisor revenue (Item 21)
Franchisor entity revenue (not unit-level)
Supplier relationship · Items 8 & 16
- Franchisor sells you products: No
- Must buy proprietary products: Yes
- Restricted to system-approved products: Yes
Score breakdown · what drove the 68 / 100 verdict
- 01MINORUnit count declining 4.0% YoY with 873 locations indicates shrinking system momentum and potential market saturation or operational challenges
- 02HIGHMultiple active litigations including franchisor-initiated enforcement cases (Carolina Café Services, Royal Texas LLC) and fraud settlements signal adversarial franchisor-franchisee relationships
- 03MINORRoyal Texas LLC ongoing dispute involving breach of contract, trademark infringement, and tortious interference suggests governance instability and potential brand/operational conflicts
Severity inferred from the FDD text · not a regulatory classification
What are you signing up for?
Ongoing fees run about 10.0% of sales (royalty + ad fund), before rent and labor.
Source: FDD 2025 · Items 11, 12, 17
FDD Items 12, 15, 17 · continued from Risk & Legal
Contract & Territory Detail
| Initial term | 20 years |
|---|---|
| Renewal term | 10 years |
| Allowed renewalsℹ | 1 |
| Territory type | Protected territory |
| Protected territory | Yes |
| Exclusive territoryℹ | No |
| Territory radius | 2 mi |
| Territory population | 50,000 |
| Online sales rightsℹ | Restricted |
| Franchisor can compete | Yes |
| Hire a manager? | Not allowed |
| Owner-operator | Required |
| Non-compete (years)ℹ | 2 years |
| Non-compete (miles)ℹ | 5 mi |
| Right of first refusalℹ | Yes |
| Transfer requires consent | Yes |
| Termination notice | 30 days |
| Curable defaultsℹ | 2 |
| Mandatory arbitration | No |
| Arbitration location | Atlanta, Georgia |
| Jury trial waiver | Yes |
| Governing law | GA |
| Litigation count | 8 |
View Item 3 litigation summary
1 concluded enforcement case (Cajun v. Carolina Café 2024); 2 UK concluded cases (Chaudhry/Nawaz 2014, settled); 1 concluded GA/MS case (Thomas & Irons 2018-2019); 1 concluded CA case (Pacific Premier Bank / Royal California 2025); 2 pending cases (Royal Texas TX State/Federal Actions and Second Texas Federal Action involving Triangle)
Items 10, 11
Training & Operations
- Classroom training
- 15 hrs
- On-the-job training
- 135 hrs
- Training location
- Certified Training Restaurant
- Ongoing training
- Required
- Time to open
- 3 mo
- From signing to launch
- Site selection
- franchisee with franchisor approval
- Franchisor financing
- Not offered
- Item 10
- POS system
- SynergySuite / QuBeyond (installed by HonorBuilt)
- Operating tech stack
Items 5 & 11
Franchisor Support
Technology: SynergySuite / QuBeyond (installed by HonorBuilt)
Item 20 · call current owners
Franchisee Contacts
38 owners to call
Name · phone · city · state. Extracted from FDD Item 20
Frequently asked questions
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does it cost to open a Church’s Texas Chicken franchise?
The total investment to open a Church’s Texas Chicken franchise ranges from $1.3M – $1.8M, with an initial franchise fee of $20K. This includes real estate, equipment, inventory, and working capital as disclosed in their Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD).
What do Church’s Texas Chicken franchise owners earn?
According to Item 19 of the Church’s Texas Chicken FDD, the average gross sales per unit is $1.1M. The median is $936K. Note: this is gross revenue, not profit. Actual owner earnings vary based on location, operating costs, and management.
Who owns Church’s Texas Chicken?
Church’s Texas Chicken is franchised by Cajun Global LLC. Its parent company is Cajun Operating Company. The ultimate parent named in the FDD is High Bluff Capital Partners LLC. Source: FDD Item 1, 2025 filing.
What is Item 19 in the Church’s Texas Chicken FDD?
The FDD section where a franchisor may disclose financial performance of its outlets. Disclosure is optional and formats vary; figures are typically gross sales, which is revenue before expenses, not profit. FranchiseVerdict extracts these figures directly from the Church’s Texas Chicken FDD and qualifies whose outlets they describe.
What is Church’s Texas Chicken's franchise failure rate?
SBA 7(a) loan charge-off data is not available for Church’s Texas Chicken (fewer than 10 loans on file). Charge-off rates are one way to gauge franchise risk, but not all franchise loans go through the SBA program. We recommend reviewing turnover and closure data in the FDD and speaking with current franchisees.
How many Church’s Texas Chicken franchise locations are there?
As of their most recent FDD filing, Church’s Texas Chicken has 873 total units in the United States, including 714 franchised units and 159 company-owned units. 7 new units were opened in the latest reporting year.
Is Church’s Texas Chicken a good franchise to buy?
FranchiseVerdict rates Church’s Texas Chicken as a B-grade franchise with a verdict score of 68 out of 100 (higher is better). The grade is a deterministic score built from six weighted dimensions — financial health, unit economics, unit growth, scale, legal, and transparency — then calibrated against SBA loan charge-off rates and FDD age. Transparency is one of the six, so a filing that discloses less scores lower on that dimension than one that discloses more. Our rating is based solely on publicly available FDD and government data; we recommend speaking with current franchisees before making any investment decision. This is not investment advice.
Data sourced from public FDD filings and SBA 7(a) FOIA records. Not financial advice.
For franchisors
Are you the franchisor?
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Data extracted from public FDD filings and SBA 7(a) loan disclosures (FOIA). This information is provided for research purposes only and does not constitute financial, legal, or investment advice. Verify all figures with the franchisor's current Franchise Disclosure Document before making any investment decision.