FranchiseVerdict
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FV-02517·CAUTIONStandard76FDD 2022

Surfin' Chicken

Food & Beverage - Quick ServiceFranchising since 2021Website
Investment
$58K – $522K
3rd pct Quick Service
Avg revenue
60th pct Quick Service
Royalty
5.0%
14th pct Quick Service
Units
5
17th pct Quick Service
SBA default

Bottom line

  • Total investment $58K – $522K including a $30K franchise fee, 5.0% ongoing royalty.
  • No Item 19 financial performance data disclosed — the franchisor chose not to publish revenue figures.
  • Rated CAUTION with a risk score of 69/100.
  • Auditor disclosed a going-concern note — flagged doubt about the franchisor's ability to continue operations. Verify against the latest FDD.

Item 1 · who you're contracting with

The Franchisor

Legal entity
Surf'n'Fries USA, LLC
Incorporated in
Texas
HQ
5550 Granite Parkway, Suite 195, Plano, Texas 75024
Auditor
Ram Sriram CPA, LLC
Audited financials
⚠ Going-concern note
Disclosed in FDD 2022
Status as of 2022; may have been resolved in a later filing we don't yet have.

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 Surfin' Chicken unit return on the cash you put in?

Revenue · per unit, per year
$
Item 19 not disclosed — typing your own estimate
Franchisor take · royalty + ad fund
Royaltytyp 68%
%
Ad fundtyp 35%
%
Operating costs · category default: qsr
COGS
%
Labor
%
Rent / occupancy
%
Other operating
%
Total invested capital · what you actually put in
Initial investment
$
FDD Item 7: $58K–$522K
Working capital
$
FDD reports $20K–$45K

Unlevered ROIC · per unit

35%

In Yale's "attractive" band (30–60%)

0%30–60% Yale band80%

Store EBITDA · annual
$113K
EBITDA margin
15.0%
Total invested
$322K
Payback
34 mo
Unit-level only. A multi-unit portfolio gives up roughly 5–15% of this to shared services (corporate G&A) before reaching the ~10-unit break-even Yale describes.

Overview

About

Franchisees operate casual quick-service restaurant locations serving chicken-focused menu items (likely seafood/coastal themed based on brand). Day-to-day operations include food preparation, staff management, inventory control, customer service, and marketing within their local market.

CEO
Carrie Sams
Founded
2020
FDD year
2022
States available
2

Item 7 · what it costs

The Vitals

Total investment
$58K – $522K
All-in to open one unit
Liquid capital
$20K – $45K
Cash you must have on hand
Franchise fee
$30K
Royalty
5.0%
Gross Sales · typical 6–8%
Ad fund
2.0%
typical 3–5%
Total fee load
7.0%
vs 9–13% typical

Item 19

Financial Performance

This franchisor did not disclose financial performance representations in Item 19, or our extractor could not parse them.

Item 20 · unit dynamics

The Growth Chart

Total units
5
Opened
5
Last reporting year
Closed
0
Turnover rate
0.0%
Company-owned
0
Corporate units in the system
% franchised
100%
vs corporate-owned
2020
5+5
Franchised units
2021
0
Franchised units
2022
0
Franchised units

Year-over-year franchised unit counts and net change. Source: FDD Item 20.

Item 20 · 5 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).

AK
ME
VT
NH
MA
RI
CT
NY
NJ
PA
DE
MD
DC
WA
OR
CA
NV
ID
MT
WY
UT
CO
AZ
NM
ND
SD
NE
KS
OK
TX
MN
IA
MO
AR
LA
WI
IL
MS
TN
MI
IN
KY
AL
OH
WV
GA
VA
NC
SC
FL
HI
Registered · 5 states
Not registered

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

69
Risk · 0-100
CAUTION69 / 100

Surfin' Chicken presents caution-level risk due to micro-scale operations (5 units), absent financial disclosure, unprotected territories, and unclear growth trajectory—typical of early-stage concepts with unproven unit economics.

Score breakdown · what drove the 69 / 100 rating

  1. 01MEDOnly 5 units system-wide indicates extremely limited scale and unproven model replicability
  2. 02MEDNo average revenue or net income disclosure (missing Item 19) prevents ROI assessment and suggests weak performance data
  3. 03MINORZero territory protection creates direct competition risk from other franchisees and company-owned locations
  4. 04MINORWide investment range ($57.6K–$522.3K) suggests inconsistent unit economics or poorly defined requirements
  5. 05MED5–8% royalty range is high-end for QSR without disclosed profitability benchmarks to justify it
  6. 06MINORUnknown unit growth trajectory over franchise term raises sustainability questions for such a small system

Severity inferred from the FDD text · not a regulatory classification

FDD Items 5, 6, 12, 17 · continued from Risk & Legal

Contract & Territory Detail

Territory
Radius or Population
Protected territory
No
Initial term
10 years
Renewal term
5 years
Online sales rights
Restricted
Franchisor can compete
Yes
Hire a manager?
Allowed
Litigation count
0
Right of first refusal
Yes
Franchisor can buy back on resale
Mandatory arbitration
No
Jury trial waiver
Yes
Non-compete
2 yrs
Post-termination restriction
Owner-operator
Required
Governing law
Texas

Item 11

Training & Operations

Classroom training
14 hrs
On-the-job training
26 hrs
POS system
iPad/laptop
Operating tech stack

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

5 numbers

Locked
(214) 773-••••
TX
(310) 406-••••
CA
(517) 373-••••
MI

One-time purchase · CSV download · Validation questions included

FDD download

Surfin' Chicken · FDD (2022) PDF

Single-page checkout · instant download · CSV export of contacts available separately above