FranchiseVerdict
Trailer Birds Hot Chicken logo
FV-02779·AVOIDStandard76FDD 2021

Trailer Birds Hot Chicken

Food & Beverage - Quick ServiceFranchising since 2021Website
Investment
$39K – $464K
2nd pct Quick Service
Avg revenue
60th pct Quick Service
Royalty
6.0%
46th pct Quick Service
Units
0
0th pct Quick Service
SBA default

Bottom line

  • Total investment $39K – $464K including a $20K franchise fee, 6.0% ongoing royalty.
  • No Item 19 financial performance data disclosed — the franchisor chose not to publish revenue figures.
  • Rated AVOID with a risk score of 79/100.
  • No Item 19 financial performance representation. Without franchisor-disclosed revenue data, you'll need to gather unit economics directly from existing franchisees.

Item 1 · who you're contracting with

The Franchisor

Legal entity
Virtual Brands, Inc.
Parent company
Dickey’s Capital Group, Inc.
Incorporated in
Texas
HQ
18583 N. Dallas Parkway, Suite 120, Dallas, Texas 75287
Auditor
Carr, Riggs & Ingram, LLC
Audited financials
Franchisor revenue
$54.6M
vs $63.3M prior year

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 Trailer Birds Hot 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: $39K–$464K
Working capital
$
FDD reports $2K–$15K

Unlevered ROIC · per unit

37%

In Yale's "attractive" band (30–60%)

0%30–60% Yale band80%

Store EBITDA · annual
$98K
EBITDA margin
13.0%
Total invested
$260K
Payback
32 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

Trailer Birds Hot Chicken franchisees operate a quick-service restaurant focused on hot chicken sandwiches and related poultry products, likely in a limited or mobile format given the trailer-based branding. Daily operations include food preparation, inventory management, customer service, and compliance with franchisor standards, though no current operating units exist to validate actual operational requirements.

CEO
Laura Rea Dickey
Founded
2020
FDD year
2021
States available
0

Item 7 · what it costs

The Vitals

Total investment
$39K – $464K
All-in to open one unit
Liquid capital
$2K – $15K
Cash you must have on hand
Franchise fee
$20K
Royalty
6.0%
Percentage of Net Sales · typical 6–8%
Ad fund
3.0%
typical 3–5%
Total fee load
9.0%
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
0
Opened
0
Last reporting year
Closed
0
Company-owned
0
Corporate units in the system
Multi-unit owners
6.7%
2019
0±0
Franchised units
2020
0
Franchised units
2021
0
Franchised units

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

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

79
Risk · 0-100
AVOID79 / 100

This is a high-risk investment in a pre-revenue or collapsed franchise system with a financially distressed parent company facing active litigation over customer data breaches and zero operating units to validate business model viability.

Score breakdown · what drove the 79 / 100 rating

  1. 01MINORZero operating franchise units with unknown growth trajectory indicates either pre-revenue system or complete unit collapse
  2. 02HIGHParent company has going concern warning, suggesting financial instability and potential inability to support franchisee operations
  3. 03MINORThree active class action lawsuits involving data security breach (April 2019–October 2020) expose franchisor to material liability and reputational damage
  4. 04MEDNo disclosed average revenue or net income prevents validation of investment viability and ROI projections
  5. 05MINORWide investment range ($38,733–$464,124) with lack of transparency suggests inconsistent site development costs or hidden expenses
  6. 06MED6% royalty on undisclosed sales base creates uncertainty; franchisees cannot benchmark profitability expectations
  7. 07MINOR20-year term is lengthy commitment to unproven brand with zero operating reference units

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
Protected territory
Yes
Initial term
20 years
Renewal term
10 years
Online sales rights
Granted
Franchisor can compete
Yes
Hire a manager?
Allowed
Litigation count
3
Right of first refusal
Yes
Franchisor can buy back on resale
Mandatory arbitration
Yes
Jury trial waiver
Yes
Non-compete
2 yrs
Post-termination restriction
Owner-operator
Required
Governing law
Texas

Item 11

Training & Operations

Classroom training
50 hrs
On-the-job training
90 hrs
POS system
Spark Point-of-Sale system
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

3 numbers

Locked
(972) 248-••••
Virtual Brands, Inc.
TX
(972) 423-••••
Virtual Brands, Inc.
TX
(213) 576-••••
CA

One-time purchase · CSV download · Validation questions included

FDD download

Trailer Birds Hot Chicken · FDD (2021) PDF

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