Voodoo Brewing Co. Franchise Cost, Revenue & Review 2026
- Investment
- $482K – $1.6M
- Disclosed sales
- $852K
- gross sales, not profit
- SBA charge-off
- Limited · 38 loans
Data from FDD filing + SBA 7(a) records
Analysis by FranchiseVerdict Research · Methodology
Voodoo Brewing Co. is a craft brewery franchise operating taprooms that serve house and guest beers with pub food. Franchisees run the taprooms, managing beer service, kitchen, and staffing.
FranchiseVerdict summary · 2026
A Voodoo Brewing Co. franchise requires a total initial investment of $482K – $1.6M, including a $75K franchise fee and an ongoing 6.0% royalty[2]. Per the 2025 FDD, average unit revenue was $852K[2]. FranchiseVerdict grade: B (Above average), an editorial assessment, not investment advice. Run a live ROI scan →
Sources, dates and evidence
FDD issued: · Data extracted: · Last cited check: · Staleness risk: medium - issued 12 to 24 months ago; a newer filing is likely on file
Evidence: strong✓ 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 scored6 of 8 headline figures on this page cite a page of the filing; the rest are marked “Not cited” beside the figure.
Overview
- Investment
- $482K – $1.6M
- 22nd pct Service Resta…
- Avg gross sales
- $852K
- 3rd pct Service Resta…
- Royalty
- 6.0%
- 25th pct Service Resta…
- Units
- 27
- 22nd pct Service Resta…
- SBA charge-off
- N/A
Quick verdict · Full-Service Restaurants · color = vs category peers
Green = favorable by >10% vs Full-Service Restaurants median · No shading = within ±10% · Red = unfavorable by >10% · Source: FDD filings + SBA 7(a)
Data from public FDD filings and SBA records. Not financial advice. Methodology
Bottom line
- COSTTotal investment $482K – $1.6M including a $75K franchise fee, 6.0% ongoing royalty.
- RETURNSAverage unit revenue of $852K/year (median $869K).
- RISKVerdict B (Above average), verdict score 55/100 (higher is better).
- GROWTHPositive: net +10 franchised outlets in the latest year (14 opened, 4 closed); 22 signed but not yet open (Item 20).
- FLAG4 units terminated last reporting year (14.8% of the system). Ask existing franchisees why.
Item 1 · who you're contracting with
The Franchisor
Corporate structure & franchisor financials
- Legal entity
- Voodoo Licensing LLC
- Parent company
- Voodoo Brewing Co., Inc.
- FDD Item 1, page 10 of the 2025 FDD
- CEO title
- President
- Mike Edwards
- CEO experience
- 25 yrs
- Years in role or industry
- Incorporated in
- Pennsylvania
- HQ
- 24414 State Highway 8, Union City, Pennsylvania 16438
- Auditor
- Kezos & Dunlavy, LLC
- Audited financials
- Franchisor revenue
- $1.3M
- vs $2.5M prior year
- Management churn noted
- Frequent turnover
- Item 2 disclosed frequent executive changes
Affiliated brands
- Voodoo Licensing Southern
Other brands the franchisor or its parent operates (Item 1).
Overview
About
- CEO
- Mike Edwards
- Headquarters
- PA
- Founded
- 2018
- FDD year
- 2025
- States available
- 11
Can you afford it, and what does the money buy?
Entry cost runs 55% above the typical full-service restaurants franchise.
Source: FDD 2025 · Items 5–7
FDD Item 7 · 2025 filing
Initial investment breakdown
| Cost component | Low | High |
|---|---|---|
| Initial franchise fee | $75K | $75K |
| Working capital (3–6 mo) | $50K | $200K |
| Equipment, build-out, other | $357K | $1.4M |
| Total initial investment | $482K | $1.6M |
Source: Voodoo Brewing Co. 2025 FDD, Items 5 and 7[2]. “Equipment, build-out, other” is computed as total minus disclosed line items above.
Item 7 · what it costs to open + operate
The Vitals
- Total investment
- $482K – $1.6M
- Top 40% of category vs category
- Liquid capital req'd
- $50K – $200K
- Top 40% of category vs category
- Franchise fee
- $75K – $75K
- Top 40% of category vs category
- Royalty
- 6.0%
- typical 6–8%
- Ad fund
- 0.5%
- typical 3–5%
- Total fee load
- 6.5%
- vs 9–13% typical
Ongoing fees · Item 6
| Fee | Amount |
|---|---|
| Royalty | 6.0% of gross sales |
| Marketing / ad fund | 0.5% |
| Technology fee | $500 |
| Training fee | $500 |
| Transfer fee | $38K |
| Renewal fee | $23K |
| Inventory (initial) | $20K – $40K |
| Total fee load | 6.5% of rev |
A 6.5% total fee load is unusually lean. More of each revenue dollar stays with the franchisee.
What do units actually make?
Average unit sales run 47% below the full-service restaurants norm.
Source: FDD 2025 · Item 19
Single-unit · not modelled
Returns at a glance
An FDD discloses gross sales, not profit, and the operating costs that turn one into the other are in no filing. We publish no modelled return for Voodoo Brewing Co. until someone supplies them — yours, in the models below.
—
Not modelled yet
An FDD discloses gross sales, not profit. We hold no sourced figure for COGS, labour, rent / occupancy and other operating costs, and will not substitute an assumed one. Enter your own and the model runs on your assumptions.
Total invested capital · disclosed
$1.2M
Item 7 initial investment plus working capital, as filed — the one figure here that needs no assumption.
ROI & LBO modelsSingle-unit · 25-unit portfolio · editable
What one unit earns on your invested capital
Model A · Single-Unit Return
Computes unlevered return on invested capital (ROIC) for a single franchise unit, read against the 30–60% reference band · Yale SOM, Post-MBA Path Exhibit 2 (2023). Below that band a passive index fund likely outperforms; above it the franchisor has pricing power you're subsidizing.
Note: Item 19 revenue is what the franchisor discloses, and it is the top line only — gross sales are not profit. No FDD discloses the operating costs that turn one into the other, so those fields start empty and nothing is modelled until you supply them from your own lease quote, labor market and build-out budget.
Returns model · single-unit ROIC
What would one Voodoo Brewing Co. unit return on the cash you put in?
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.
Unlevered ROIC · per unit
Your modelled return on total invested capital, before any debt financing.
—
An FDD discloses gross sales, not profit. We hold no sourced figure for COGS, labour, rent / occupancy and other operating costs, and will not substitute an assumed one. Enter your own and the model runs on your assumptions.
What 25 units return when you use SBA financing
Model B · Return on Equity: Debt-Financed Acquisition
Models a 25-unit portfolio acquisition financed with an SBA 7(a) loan. Shows equity IRR (your return on cash invested), DSCR (how safely the cash flow covers debt service), and the capital stack (SBA + seller + equity breakdown).
This is the “search fund” or “entrepreneurship through acquisition” scenario: you buy an existing multi-unit operator, use leverage to amplify returns, and either operate or hire management. The 25-unit size is the typical minimum for an SBA-backed franchise portfolio acquisition to pencil as a full-time income.
What “return on equity” means here: if you put in $500K of your own cash and the business generates enough EBITDA to pay down debt and grow, your equity IRR is the annual return on that $500K, including the value created when you eventually sell. Target IRR for a search fund is typically 25–35%.
Not modelled yet
An FDD discloses gross sales, not profit. We hold no sourced figure for COGS, labour, rent / occupancy and other operating costs, and will not substitute an assumed one. Enter your own and the model runs on your assumptions.
A 25-unit return is built on a per-unit EBITDA. Fill in the operating costs in Model A above and this model runs on that figure, or take the whole scenario to the full ROI workbench, where the portfolio and LBO models accept your own per-unit economics directly.
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
Financial Performance
- Avg gross sales
- $852K
- Per unit/yr · from the Item 19 franchised-cohort breakdown (no single system-wide average disclosed)
- Median gross sales
- $869K
Gross sales are revenue before expenses — not profit. Actual owner earnings depend on rent, labor, royalties, marketing fees, and debt service.
- Item 19 type
- Historical Actual Sales
- Sample size
- 12 outlets
- vs category median 18
- Range (low → high)
- $254K→$1.7MCited, not corroborated — printed on page 62 of the 2025 FDD. Nothing else in our record independently restates or re-derives it.
- Cohort dispersion (min → max)
- Reporting year
- 2024
- Fiscal year the figures cover
- Source filing
- FDD 2025
- Disclosed in the 2025 filing, covering 2024
Compared against 801 Full-Service Restaurants brands
Revenue is only 0.8x the investment. This means each unit may take 5+ years to recoup the initial outlay at typical margins.
Operator outlook
What the numbers say
Data-driven interpretation of this brand's financial disclosures, fee structure, and system trajectory.
Unit economics
Average unit generates $852K/year in gross sales. Revenue-to-investment ratio: 0.8x.
Fee burden
Total ongoing fee load of 6.5% (near the Full-Service Restaurants median).
Disclosure
Transparency score 0/10 — minimal disclosure beyond the required average. Hard to judge the distribution of outcomes across units.
Operator retention
System expanding at 228.6% CAGR over 3 years across 27 units — operators are staying and new ones are joining.
Source: FDD Item 19 financial performance representations and publicly filed FDD data. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Verify all figures with the franchisor and current franchisees before making any investment decision.
vs Full-Service Restaurants medians
How Voodoo Brewing Co. Compares
Category median of published Full-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.
Is the system healthy?
Source: FDD 2025 · Item 20
Unit growth
Item 20 · unit dynamics
The Growth Chart
- Total units
- 27
- Opened
- 14
- Last reporting year
- Closed
- 4
- Terminated
- 4
- Franchisor ended the franchise (per Item 20)
- Non-renewed
- 0
- Term expired, not renewed (per Item 20)
- Turnover rate
- 14.8%
- Company-owned
- 4
- Corporate units in the system
- % franchised
- 85%
- vs corporate-owned
- Net growth (3-yr)
- Outlier (see FDD)
- Likely small-sample artifact
- 3-yr CAGR
- Outlier (see FDD)
- Likely small-sample artifact
Last fiscal year · Item 20 exits and transfers
- Terminated
- 4
- Not renewed
- 0
- Transferred
- 0
- Reacquired
- 0
- Franchisor bought back
- Signed, not yet open
- 22
- 0.81 per open outlet · Item 20 Table 5
- Projected new
- 15
- Franchisor's next-year forecast
- Termination rate
- 14.8%
- Franchisor-initiated terminations
- Ceased ops
- 18.5%
- Units that stopped operating
Year-over-year franchised unit counts and net change. Source: FDD Item 20.
Item 12 · 11 states reported
The Territory Map
FDD Item 12 reports the state count, but the specific list isn't in our current data. The map will appear once we re-extract from the FDD or enough franchisee contacts are available.
11
states with franchisees (per FDD Item 12)
Fast growth in a small system. Newer franchisors expanding quickly may not yet have the support infrastructure of larger systems.
SBA loan performance
Government records
SBA Loan Data
Aggregated from SBA 7(a) and 504 loan disclosures, public data unique to FranchiseVerdict.
- Total loans
- 38
- Loan volume
- $20.7M
- Median loan
- $544K
- average
- Charge-off rate
- Limited · 38 loans
- Limited SBA coverage: 38 loans, rate hidden until 10 have resolved and loans reach 2% of franchised units
Historical SBA 7(a) lending data, not predictive of future performance. How SBA charge-off rates are calculated
- Repayment rate (PIF)
- Limited · 38 loans
- 5-yr charge-off
- 0.0%
- Loans approved 2021+
- Active lenders
- 7
- Defaults
- 0
Explore lender portfolios on Bank Reports or regional data on State Reports.
What could kill this investment?
Source: SBA 7(a) FOIA · FDD Items 3, 21
Risk analysis
FranchiseVerdict rating + FDD Items 3, 4, 8, 16, 21
Risk & Legal
Litigation (Item 3)
Subject: the franchisor is a named party (defendant).
Three litigation matters disclosed: (1) Rios Investment Group LLC v. Voodoo Licensing LLC (AAA arbitration settled March 11, 2025); (2) Shannon M. Shelton v. Voodoo Licensing LLC and Voodoo Licensing Southern LLC (AAA arbitration hearing scheduled May 3, 2025); (3) NERco LLC et al v. Voodoo Licensing Southern LLC et al (federal court, settlement conference scheduled April 29, 2025). Two franchisees currently in mediation.
Bankruptcy (Item 4)
None disclosed
Audited financials (Item 21)
Yes · Kezos & Dunlavy, LLC
Franchisor revenue (Item 21)
Franchisor entity revenue (not unit-level)
Supplier relationship · Items 8 & 16
- Franchisor sells you products: Yes
- Kickbacks from required suppliers: No
- Must buy proprietary products: Yes
- Restricted to system-approved products: Yes
- Can negotiate own supplier terms: No
Score breakdown · what drove the 55 / 100 verdict
- 01MINORNegative net worth -$1.56M
- 02MINOR3 arbitrations, one active (hearing scheduled 5/3/2025)
Severity inferred from the FDD text · not a regulatory classification
What are you signing up for?
Ongoing fees run about 6.5% of sales (royalty + ad fund), before rent and labor.
Source: FDD 2025 · Items 11, 12, 17
FDD Items 12, 15, 17 · continued from Risk & Legal
Contract & Territory Detail
| Initial term | 10 years |
|---|---|
| Renewal term | 5 years |
| Allowed renewalsℹ | 2 |
| Territory type | Exclusive territory |
| Protected territory | Yes |
| Exclusive territoryℹ | Yes |
| Territory radius | 2 mi |
| Online sales rightsℹ | Restricted |
| Franchisor can compete | Yes |
| Hire a manager? | Allowed |
| Owner-operator | Required |
| Non-compete (years)ℹ | 2 years |
| Non-compete (miles)ℹ | 25 mi |
| Right of first refusalℹ | Yes |
| Transfer requires consent | Yes |
| Termination notice | 30 days |
| Termination groundsℹ | 1 |
| Curable defaultsℹ | 2 |
| Mandatory arbitration | Yes |
| Arbitration location | Crawford County, Pennsylvania |
| Jury trial waiver | Yes |
| Governing law | Pennsylvania |
| Litigation count | 3 |
View Item 3 litigation summary
Three litigation matters disclosed: (1) Rios Investment Group LLC v. Voodoo Licensing LLC (AAA arbitration settled March 11, 2025); (2) Shannon M. Shelton v. Voodoo Licensing LLC and Voodoo Licensing Southern LLC (AAA arbitration hearing scheduled May 3, 2025); (3) NERco LLC et al v. Voodoo Licensing Southern LLC et al (federal court, settlement conference scheduled April 29, 2025). Two franchisees currently in mediation.
Items 10, 11
Training & Operations
- Classroom training
- 7 hrs
- On-the-job training
- 61 hrs
- Training location
- certified training Restaurant location that we designate, at the grand opening of another franchisee's Voodoo Brewing Co. franchise location, and/or at your Restaurant Location
- Ongoing training
- Required
- Site selection
- franchisor
- Franchisor financing
- Not offered
- Item 10
- POS system
- Toast
- Operating tech stack
Items 5 & 11
Franchisor Support
Technology: Toast
Item 20 · call current owners
Franchisee Contacts
56 owners to call
Name · phone · city · state. Extracted from FDD Item 20
Frequently asked questions
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does it cost to open a Voodoo Brewing Co. franchise?
The total investment to open a Voodoo Brewing Co. franchise ranges from $482K – $1.6M, with an initial franchise fee of $75K. This includes real estate, equipment, inventory, and working capital as disclosed in their Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD).
What do Voodoo Brewing Co. franchise owners earn?
According to Item 19 of the Voodoo Brewing Co. FDD, the average gross sales per unit is $852K. The median is $869K. Note: this is gross revenue, not profit. Actual owner earnings vary based on location, operating costs, and management.
Who owns Voodoo Brewing Co.?
Voodoo Brewing Co. is franchised by Voodoo Licensing LLC. Its parent company is Voodoo Brewing Co., Inc.. Source: FDD Item 1, 2025 filing.
What is Item 19 in the Voodoo Brewing Co. 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. FranchiseVerdict extracts these figures directly from the Voodoo Brewing Co. FDD and qualifies whose outlets they describe.
What is Voodoo Brewing Co.'s franchise failure rate?
SBA 7(a) loan charge-off data is not available for Voodoo Brewing Co. (fewer than 10 loans on file). Charge-off rates are one way to gauge franchise risk, but not all franchise loans go through the SBA program. We recommend reviewing turnover and closure data in the FDD and speaking with current franchisees.
How many Voodoo Brewing Co. franchise locations are there?
As of their most recent FDD filing, Voodoo Brewing Co. has 27 total units in the United States, including 23 franchised units and 4 company-owned units. 14 new units were opened in the latest reporting year.
Is Voodoo Brewing Co. a good franchise to buy?
FranchiseVerdict rates Voodoo Brewing Co. as a B-grade franchise with a verdict score of 55 out of 100 (higher is better). The grade is a deterministic score built from six weighted dimensions — financial health, unit economics, unit growth, scale, legal, and transparency — then calibrated against SBA loan charge-off rates and FDD age. Transparency is one of the six, so a filing that discloses less scores lower on that dimension than one that discloses more. Our rating is based solely on publicly available FDD and government data; we recommend speaking with current franchisees before making any investment decision. This is not investment advice.
Data sourced from public FDD filings and SBA 7(a) FOIA records. Not financial advice.
For franchisors
Are you the franchisor?
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Data extracted from public FDD filings and SBA 7(a) loan disclosures (FOIA). 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.