Lee’s Famous Recipe® Chicken
Bottom line
- Total investment $517K – $2.4M including a $35K franchise fee, 5.0% ongoing royalty.
- Average unit revenue of $2.2M/year (median $2.0M). Estimated payback in 3.5 years.
- Rated MODERATE with a risk score of 62/100.
- System contracting at -18.4% CAGR over 3 years. Investigate whether closures are franchisor-driven (consolidation) or franchisee-driven (economics).
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 Lee’s Famous Recipe® Chicken unit return on the cash you put in?
Unlevered ROIC · per unit
21%
Below typical band (30–60%)
Levered LBO scenario · Yale Crease Capital framing
What would 25 Lee’s Famous Recipe® Chicken units return on equity?
Equity IRR · 5-yr
33.9%
4.31× MOIC
Year-1 DSCR
2.39×
EBITDA ÷ debt service
Equity required
$5.6M
on $15.2M purchase
Total debt
$9.6M
SBA $5.0M + senior + seller note
Overview
About
Lee's Famous Recipe franchisees operate quick-service chicken restaurants, managing daily food preparation, customer service, inventory control, and staff scheduling. Franchisees handle P&L responsibility for their location while adhering to Lee's proprietary recipes, operational standards, and marketing requirements set by the franchisor.
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 · 13 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.
No SBA loan data available for this brand.
FranchiseVerdict rating + FDD Items 3, 5, 6, 12, 17
Risk & Legal
Declining franchise system with unvalidated financial claims and high variance in startup costs presents meaningful execution risk despite stable royalty terms and protected territories.
Score breakdown · what drove the 62 / 100 rating
- 01MINORUnit count declining 12.3% year-over-year indicates system contraction and franchisee attrition
- 02MINORNo Item 19 financial performance representations limits ability to validate average revenue/net income claims independently
- 03MINORWide investment range ($517K-$2.35M) suggests inconsistent unit economics or hidden variable costs
- 04MINOR19% net profit margin appears optimistic for QSR chicken segment with typical labor/COGS pressures
- 05MED126 total units is small system size with limited brand recognition, reducing marketing economies of scale
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
59 numbers
One-time purchase · CSV download · Validation questions included
FDD download
Lee’s Famous Recipe® Chicken · FDD (2025) PDF