Qdoba Mexican Eats
Bottom line
- Total investment $546K – $1.3M including a $40K franchise fee, 5.0% ongoing royalty.
- Average unit revenue of $1.6M/year (median $1.5M). Estimated payback in 2.3 years.
- Rated STRONG with a risk score of 44/100. SBA loan default rate of 0.0% across 31 loans (below the industry average).
- System growing at 37.1% CAGR over 3 years with 777 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 Qdoba Mexican Eats 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 Qdoba Mexican Eats units return on equity?
Equity IRR · 5-yr
37.0%
4.82× MOIC
Year-1 DSCR
2.24×
EBITDA ÷ debt service
Equity required
$4.4M
on $13.4M purchase
Total debt
$9.0M
SBA $5.0M + senior + seller note
Overview
About
Franchisees operate counter-service Mexican fast-casual restaurants, managing daily P&L for food prep, customer service, inventory, and staffing (typically 8-15 FTE per location). Core revenue drivers are lunch/dinner dayparts, catering, and digital ordering; franchisees remit 5% of gross sales to Qdoba corporate while maintaining margins through labor and COGS discipline in a competitive QSR segment.
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.
FranchiseVerdict rating + FDD Items 3, 5, 6, 12, 17
Risk & Legal
Qdoba presents caution-level risk: moderate unit growth, active termination litigation, going concern flag, and high capex against uncertain performance data warrant thorough franchisee reference checks and legal review of dispute root causes.
Score breakdown · what drove the 44 / 100 rating
- 01HIGHActive litigation with Fiesta Ventures regarding franchise termination suggests systemic disputes over franchisor enforcement or performance
- 02MINORPrior $600,000 settlement with Q of Hasbrouck Heights plus royalty reduction indicates franchisor willingness to modify terms mid-agreement, creating precedent uncertainty
- 03HIGHGoing Concern status = False suggests potential balance sheet weakness or undisclosed financial stress at corporate level despite system-wide $1.25B+ revenue
- 04MINORModest unit growth of 7.4% YoY is below QSR category average, indicating maturation or contraction risk in competitive fast-casual segment
- 05MINORHigh investment range ($545K-$1.29M) against 31% net margin creates 1.3-3.2 year payback dependency on traffic consistency and labor cost stability
- 06MINORNo Item 19 (Avg Revenue disclosure) provided to franchisees — the $1.625M average may not reflect franchisee-specific location performance or seasonality
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
79 numbers
One-time purchase · CSV download · Validation questions included
FDD download
Qdoba Mexican Eats · FDD (2024) PDF