Orion Food Systems Franchise Cost & 2025 FDD Data
51/100
Second tier
51 this brand51 Quick-Service Restaurants medianlikely 37–65: narrower with more SBA loans (low confidence)
Higher is better · an editorial assessment, not investment advice
#1,641 of 3,068 graded brands
Why a B: Helped by financial health, scale and legal record. Held back by unit growth and transparency. See all six factors
- Total investment
- $63K – $176K
- Avg gross sales
- not disclosed
- SBA charge-off
- 6 resolved of 6 loans: too few to judge
Data from the FDD filing + SBA 7(a) records. Analysis by FranchiseVerdict · Methodology · Website · Report an error · Franchisor? Claim this listing
FranchiseVerdict summary · 2025 FDD
Per the 2025 FDD, a Orion Food Systems franchise requires a total initial investment of $63K – $176K. This franchisor makes no financial performance representation in Item 19 of its FDD. Item 19 is voluntary under the FTC Franchise Rule, and this filing states that it makes none, so no revenue or earnings figures are disclosed. Declining to publish one is lawful and is not evidence of how the outlets perform. It does mean that less about this brand can be verified from its filing, and the verdict grade - an editorial assessment, not investment advice - reflects that. Verdict grade: B (Second tier), an editorial assessment, not investment advice.
Sources: 2025 FDD · What one unit could make and lose →
Sources, dates and evidence
FDD issued: 2025 filing · Data extracted: · Last cited check: · Staleness risk: medium (a newer filing may exist)
Evidence for the headline figures: partial✓ 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 scored2 of 2 headline figures on this page cite a page of the filing.
Overview
Quick verdict · vs Quick-Service Restaurants median
Top edge: green = better than the Quick-Service Restaurants median by more than 10%, red = worse by more than 10%, gray = within 10% or no benchmark. Source: FDD filings + SBA 7(a).
Data from public FDD filings and SBA records. Methodology
Bottom line
- RETURNSThe FDD makes no financial performance representation in Item 19, so it discloses no revenue or earnings figures; Item 19 is voluntary, and the Financial performance section explains what that does and does not mean.
- GROWTHIn the latest Item 20 year, the number of franchised outlets fell by 97 (7 opened, 104 closed).
- DECLINE-168 franchised outlets between the first and last year-ends Item 20 prints (823 to 655, -20.4% in total, -10.8% a year compounded). Ask whether closures are franchisor-driven (consolidation) or franchisee-driven (economics).
AT STAKEOne unit at the Item 7 midpoint: $15K a year in payments on assumed SBA 7(a)-style terms.You put in about $24K of your own cash and personally guarantee a $95K loan. Assumptions are labeled in Sales; not investment advice.See what one unit could make and lose
Things to check before you sign (4)
- Net -97 franchised outlets in the latest Item 20 year. Ask owners why outlets closed.
- The franchisor keeps the right to compete inside your territory (Item 12, territory).
- Item 15 (owner participation) requires the owner, or a principal the franchisor approves, to run the business day to day. Ask how much of the business that principal must own.
- Limited data: this page holds only part of the filing. Read the FDD itself before relying on any figure here.
Checked and clear: no auditor doubt that the franchisor can keep operating, no lawsuit naming the franchisor in Item 3 and no supplier rebates to the franchisor. Not on file here, so ask: SBA charge-off rate against the category median and jury-trial waiver.
What to do next
Step 1: Read the FDD itself.
Free: the franchisor must give it to you at least 14 days before you sign or pay. Or look it up in a state registry (Wisconsin, Minnesota, California). What to read first.
Step 2: Talk to current and former owners.
Free: Item 20 of the FDD lists every current owner and those who left last year, most with a phone number. Questions to ask.
Step 3: Talk to an SBA lender.
Free: the SBA's Lender Match. Ask what you would personally guarantee and what the monthly payment would be. If you plan to use retirement savings, ask a CPA about the rules for that first.
Step 4: Have a franchise attorney review the FDD and agreement.
Free: your state bar's lawyer referral service can name franchise lawyers, and many offer a short first consultation. Bring the checks listed above.
Research steps, not investment or legal advice.
Can you afford it, and what does the money buy?
Entry cost (the Item 7 midpoint) is 76% below the Quick-Service Restaurants median ($487K).
Source: FDD 2025 · Items 5–7 (fees and startup costs)
Do you qualify? The filing states no minimum net worth or liquid capital. Ask Orion Food Systems, LLC (Item 1: 2930 West Maple Street, Sioux Falls, South Dakota 57107) and your lender what they require, and keep living costs for the first year outside the deal.
Full Item 7 breakdown8 line items
Initial investment breakdown
| Line item | Low | High | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Training Expenses A | $5.5K | $11K | |
| Leasehold Installation B | $1.5K | $10K | |
| Equipment, Fixtures and Furnishings including OLM Installation Assistance C | $20K | $72K | |
| Opening Inventory D | $5K | $16K | |
| Insurance F | $1.5K | $5K | |
| Additional Funds (for the first three months' of operations)G | $26K | $51K | |
| Contractor Expenses H | $2.5K | $10K | |
| Grand Opening Kit I | $500 | $500 | |
| Total initial investment | $63K | $176K |
Line items extracted from FDD Item 7. Ranges reflect the franchisor's stated low and high per line. The total row is the total as printed in Item 7. Actual costs may fall outside this range depending on market and build-out scope.
Item 6 · what you pay once you are open
Ongoing fees
What do units actually make?
This FDD makes no Item 19 financial performance representation - a voluntary item - so unit sales aren't disclosed.
Source: FDD 2025 · Item 19 (sales and earnings)
Items 6 (other fees), 7 (startup costs) and 19 (sales and earnings) · assumptions labeled
What you could make and lose: one unit
What one Orion Food Systems unit would ask of you, from the filing's Item 7 total and labeled assumptions.
How these figures are worked out
- Loan (assumption): 80% of the $119K Item 7 midpoint is a $95K loan, paid over 10 years at 10.5%: $15K a year. SBA 7(a)-style terms on a long-term rate; your lender sets yours.
What you put at risk
Your own cash in: about $24K Assumption (the part the loan does not cover of the $119K Item 7 midpoint), plus whatever anything Item 7 leaves out (its notes say what). The loan is $95K.
Personal guarantee. SBA 7(a) loans require a personal guarantee from anyone who owns 20% or more of the business. If the unit cannot pay, the lender can collect from you personally, which can include your savings and your home. The worst case is losing the cash you put in and still owing the rest of the loan.
Gross sales are not profit, and none of these figures is take-home pay until tax and every operating cost are paid. The assumptions are ours, not the filing's. Not investment advice.
Returns modelOne unit · several units · editable
Orion Food Systems makes no financial performance representation in Item 19 of its FDD - a voluntary item under the FTC Franchise Rule - so no gross sales figures are disclosed. The return models need one gross sales figure to start from, plus the operating costs that turn gross sales into a profit. Enter your own and the calculator runs on your assumptions; nothing here is modelled until you do.
Returns model · one unit
What would one Orion Food Systems unit leave you each year after the loan payment?
Not disclosed in Item 19. Enter your own gross sales assumption
Gross sales, not profit: the costs below decide what is left.
No Item 19 figures are on file for this brand. Enter your own costs from a lease quote, a payroll plan and calls with current owners.
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.
Item 7 midpoint of $63K to $176K
Item 7's $26K to $51K additional funds are already in the total
Left after the loan payment · per year
The unit's EBITDA minus the assumed loan payment. Before tax, depreciation and any cost your inputs leave out (insurance, accounting and legal, licenses, technology fees): not take-home pay.
Gross sales are not profit. Neither the filing nor a stated assumption on this page supplies annual revenue, royalty rate, ad fund rate, COGS, labor, rent / occupancy and other operating costs. Enter your own (a lease quote, owner calls) and the model runs on it.
Loan of $95K at 10.5% over 10 years, an assumption, not a quote. Return and payback are before tax, depreciation and the costs above. The loan usually needs your personal guarantee.
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 · filed by Orion Food Systems, LLC
Financial performance
No financial performance representation
This franchisor makes no financial performance representation in Item 19 of its FDD. Item 19 is voluntary under the FTC Franchise Rule, and this filing states that it makes none, so no revenue or earnings figures are disclosed. Declining to publish one is lawful and is not evidence of how the outlets perform. It does mean that less about this brand can be verified from its filing, and the verdict grade - an editorial assessment, not investment advice - reflects that.
Item 20 of the FDD lists current and former franchisees; asking them directly is the standard way to fill this gap.
vs Quick-Service Restaurants medians
How Orion Food Systems 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.
Who are you contracting with?
Orion Food Systems, LLC, owned by Performance Manufacturing, LLC.
Same franchisor, other program: Hot Stuff Pizza / Hot Stuff Kitchen. Each is a separate offering with its own page.
Item 1 (the franchisor) · who you're contracting with
The franchisor
Corporate structure & franchisor financials
- Legal entity
- Orion Food Systems, LLC
- Parent company
- Performance Manufacturing, LLC
- FDD Item 1, page 6 of the 2025 FDD
- Ultimate parent
- Performance Food Group Company
- Predecessor
- Orion Food Systems, Inc. (formerly also known as Hot Stuff Foods, LLC)
- Prior franchisor entity
- CEO title
- President
- Brady Welu
- Incorporated in
- South Dakota
- HQ
- 2930 West Maple Street, Sioux Falls, South Dakota 57107
- Auditor
- Deloitte & Touche LLP
- Audited financials
- Franchisor revenue
- $63.3B
- latest fiscal year in the 2025 FDD; $58.3B the year before
Same owner · FDD Item 1
1 other brand on this site names Performance Food Group Company as parent or ultimate parent in its own FDD.
- Hot Stuff Pizza / Hot Stuff Kitchen (grade B)
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
Franchisee operates an OLM-brand food service unit selling pizza, submarine-style sandwiches, chicken, hamburgers, wraps and other proprietary OLM products, typically installed within an existing host business (convenience store, grocery store, or institution) rather than as a standalone location.
- CEO
- Brady Welu
Is the system healthy?
-168 franchised outlets between the first and last year-ends Item 20 prints (823 to 655, -20.4% in total, -10.8% a year compounded).
Source: FDD 2025 · Item 20 (outlets opened, closed and transferred)
Item 20 (outlet counts) · unit dynamics
The growth chart
- Company-owned
- 0
- Corporate units in the system
- % franchised
- 100%
- vs corporate-owned
Last fiscal year · Item 20 rates and pipeline
- Signed, not yet open
- 5
- 1 for every 131 open outlets · Item 20 Table 5
- Projected new
- 15
- Franchisor's next-year forecast
Item 20 · franchised units at year end
Franchised units fell from 823 in 2022 to 655 in 2024
Axis does not start at zero.
Source and method
A system that lost more than 10% of its franchised outlets across the Item 20 years is a red flag. Check whether closures are concentrated in specific regions.
Government records
SBA loan data
Aggregated from SBA loan disclosures. This brand has only 6 7(a) loans on file; statistical reliability is limited below 10 loans.
- Loans on file
- 6
- SBA 7(a) loans matched to this brand, incl. those still being repaid
- Loan volume
- $2.6M
- Average loan
- $440K
- loan volume divided by loans
- Charge-off rate
- 6 resolved of 6 loans: too few to judge
- Insufficient SBA coverage: 6 loans, rate hidden below 10
- Paid in full
- 6 resolved of 6 loans: too few to judge
- Recent-loan charge-off
- 6 resolved of 6 loans: too few to judge
- Lenders
- 6
Cumulative: every 7(a) loan matched to this brand in the SBA’s FOIA files, approved FY1991 onward. Historical lending data, not predictive of future performance. How SBA charge-off rates are calculated
Explore lender portfolios on Bank Reports or regional data on State Reports.
What are the risks?
Main risk: a shrinking system. Franchised outlets fell from 823 to 655 over the two Item 20 years.
Source: SBA 7(a) FOIA · FDD Items 3, 21
Verdict grade + FDD Items 3 (litigation), 4 (bankruptcy), 8 (required suppliers), 16 (what you may sell), 21 (audited financials)
Risk and legal
Grade B: Second tier, 51/100 (category median 51); the full grade is at the top of the page.
How the grade is built
Why a B, factor by factor
- Financial health HelpsAudited financials; no going-concern doubt; franchisor net income positive
- Unit economics NeutralNo Item 19 sales figure to set against the investment, so neutral
- Unit growth Weighs on it, weakest dimension-168 franchised outlets between the first and last year-ends Item 20 prints (823 to 655, -20.4% in total, -10.8% a year compounded); turnover 15.9%
- Scale Helps655 franchised units; franchising since 1994
- Legal HelpsNo litigation naming the franchisor in Item 3
- Transparency Weighs on itItem 19 declines to disclose financial performance; audited financials
- Adjustments after the six dimensions (-1 point)Rounding: the score is kept as a whole number, which moved it by 1 point.
From the six scored dimensions, an editorial assessment, not investment advice. How the score is built
Litigation (Item 3)
No litigation is required to be disclosed in Item 3.
Bankruptcy (Item 4)
None disclosed
Audited financials (Item 21)
Yes · Deloitte & Touche LLP
Supplier relationship · Items 8 & 16
Ask what the franchisor earns on the supplies it sells you or the rebates it takes (Item 8).
- Franchisor sells you products: Yes
- Franchisor takes supplier rebates: No
- Must buy proprietary products: Yes
- Restricted to system-approved products: Yes
- Can negotiate own supplier terms: No
What are you signing up for?
Source: FDD 2025 · Items 11, 12, 17
FDD Items 12 (territory), 15 (owner participation) and 17 (renewal, termination and disputes)
Contract and territory detail
| Allowed renewals | 1 |
|---|---|
| Protected territory | No |
| Exclusive territory | No |
| Franchisor can compete | Yes |
| Who runs it (Item 15) | The owner, or a principal the franchisor approves, must run it |
| Right of first refusal | No |
| Transfer requires consent | Yes |
| Termination notice | 30 days |
| Termination grounds | 14 |
| Mandatory arbitration | No |
| Governing law | South Dakota |
Items 10 (financing), 11 (training and support)
Training and operations
- Classroom training
- 8 hrs
- On-the-job training
- 34 hrs
- Training location
- At franchisee's Unit site
- Ongoing training
- Optional
- Site selection
- Franchisor (OLM conducts site survey of the proposed Host Facility); franchisee does not select the site independently
- Franchisor financing
- Offered
- Item 10
Items 5 (initial fees) & 11 (training and support)
Franchisor support
Franchisee contacts
We hold no owner list for this brand. Item 20 of the FDD lists the current and former owners; the free FDD is the source.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to open a Orion Food Systems franchise?
Per the 2025 FDD, the total investment to open a Orion Food Systems franchise ranges from $63K to $176K. This is the Item 7 total in the Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD): the startup costs the franchisor lists, such as build-out, equipment, inventory and working capital. It usually leaves out buying land or a building; Item 7's notes say what is excluded.
What do Orion Food Systems franchise owners earn?
Orion Food Systems makes no financial performance representation in Item 19 of its FDD - a voluntary item under the FTC Franchise Rule - so no gross sales figures are disclosed. Declining to publish one is lawful and is not evidence of how the outlets perform. It does mean that less about this brand can be verified from its filing, and the verdict grade - an editorial assessment, not investment advice - reflects that. Item 20 of the FDD lists current and former franchisees; asking them directly is the standard way to fill this gap.
Who owns Orion Food Systems?
Orion Food Systems is franchised by Orion Food Systems, LLC. Its parent company is Performance Manufacturing, LLC. The ultimate parent named in the FDD is Performance Food Group Company. Source: FDD Item 1, 2025 filing.
What is Item 19 in the Orion Food Systems 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. The Orion Food Systems FDD does not make an Item 19 financial performance representation, so this page shows no earnings figure.
What is Orion Food Systems' franchise failure rate?
There is no published franchise failure rate, and Orion Food Systems has too few resolved SBA 7(a) loans on file (fewer than 10) to show an SBA charge-off rate that would mean anything. The SBA charge-off rate is the share of a brand's resolved SBA 7(a) loans to its franchisees that the SBA wrote off, including purchased guarantees. Resolved means paid in full or charged off; active loans are excluded because their outcome is not yet known. It is a lending outcome, not a count of closed businesses. Review the turnover and closure figures in Item 20 of the FDD and speak with current and former franchisees.
How many Orion Food Systems franchise locations are there?
Per the 2025 FDD, Orion Food Systems has 655 franchised units and 0 company-owned (655 in all). In the latest year, the number of franchised outlets fell by 97 (7 opened, 104 closed).
Is Orion Food Systems a good franchise to buy?
FranchiseVerdict gives Orion Food Systems a B Verdict grade (Second tier) with a verdict score of 51 out of 100 (higher is better), an editorial assessment, not investment advice. Helped by financial health, scale and legal record. Held back by unit growth (-168 franchised outlets between the first and last year-ends Item 20 prints: 823 to 655, -20.4% in total, -10.8% a year compounded) and transparency. The “Why a B” section on this page lists all six dimensions and any adjustment. Speak with current franchisees before making any investment decision.
Other Quick-Service Restaurants franchises
Similar investment first, then by grade
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.