375° Chicken 'n Fries vs Mad for Chicken

Two chicken brands, two footprints, three investment ranges. 375° Chicken ‘n Fries discloses 800–1,500 square feet at $324,100–$521,500 in an FDD issued 30 April 2024. Mad for Chicken discloses a full restaurant of 2,000–4,000 square feet at $321,125–$691,700 in an FDD issued 12 March 2025, and separately an express format at $243,500–$470,700. Comparing “the chicken brand” without naming the format is not comparing the same project, and these two documents are ten and a half months apart, so the counts either side of this page are measured on different dates.

The line items describe two different kitchens

Both filings publish their Item 7 tables, so the buckets can be read against each other rather than the totals. 375° puts $100,000–$120,000 into furniture, fixtures and equipment and $100,000–$200,000 into leasehold improvements, construction or remodelling, inside a box of 800–1,500 square feet. Mad for Chicken puts $85,000–$110,000 into furniture, fixtures and equipment and $75,000–$235,000 into construction, inside a box that can be more than twice as large. The smaller format carries the larger equipment line at both ends. That is what a production-led counter looks like beside a restaurant with a dining room: one is buying fryers, hoods and holding, the other is buying square footage.

The rest of the tables mostly track that logic. Signage runs $10,000–$12,000 at 375° against $5,500–$9,500 at Mad for Chicken. Lease and utility deposits run $10,000–$30,000 against $15,500–$37,500. Opening inventory runs $5,000–$10,000 against $14,250–$28,200. Point-of-sale is $4,000–$6,000 at 375°, with a separate computer systems line of $500–$1,500, against $3,000–$15,000 at Mad for Chicken, and a spread that wide on a POS line is worth asking about, because it usually means the package is not yet specified.

The largest divergence is the additional funds line. Both cover three months. 375° discloses $30,000–$60,000; Mad for Chicken discloses $51,375–$162,000. Much of the gap between the two totals lives in that one row, which means it is not a construction difference at all — it is a difference in how much cash each document expects the owner to hold after opening.

Both systems are mostly the franchisor’s own

375° reports five outlets in the 2023 count, three company and two franchised, with no founding year disclosed and franchising since 2023. Mad for Chicken reports 12 outlets as of 2024, ten company and two franchised, founded 2017 and franchising since 2019, where its previous filing reported 19 at year-end 2023. Two franchisees on each side are the entire franchised populations a buyer can call. Call all of them, and read the openings, closures and transfers table with more care than the headline count.

Company-heavy systems produce company-heavy Item 19s, and both filings make a representation. 375° uses an unaudited income statement for the affiliate that operates the restaurants, covering 2020 to 2023, with the 2023 figures drawn from two corporate shops. Mad for Chicken uses unaudited 2023 and 2024 gross revenue for affiliate and franchised outlets — revenue only, with no costs and no profit, and with four affiliate and two franchised outlets excluded from the table because they closed before completing the year. Neither is a franchisee P&L. A representation built on the franchisor’s own restaurants describes a business with different rent, different management cost and often a different opening date; unaudited revenue with no cost lines beneath it does not become a margin because a broker adds one.

Fees that match, and grants that do not

Ranked, both stacks land on 8%. 375° reaches it as a 6% royalty, a 1% brand fund and 1% local advertising. Mad for Chicken reaches it as 5% royalty, 1% brand fund, 1% media marketing and 1% local. The composition matters more than the total, because Mad for Chicken’s filing discloses that the brand fund and the media fee can each rise to 2%, which takes that column to ten points at its disclosed ceiling. One further wrinkle sits on the 375° side: the royalty footnote in the filing reads “five percent (6%)”, and the rate carried here is the 6% of its own Item 6 table. That is a discrepancy inside a disclosure document, and it is the kind of thing a lawyer resolves before signature rather than after.

Territory is where the two grants genuinely differ. Mad for Chicken is expressly non-exclusive, with a minimum five-mile radius in the suburbs or a quarter-mile in a city, sized after the site is approved. 375° grants a specific location rather than an area, sized case by case, and also not exclusive. A grant with no area at all is a different instrument from a small area, and a buyer whose plan assumes delivery or catering reach beyond the four walls should establish what, if anything, stops a second outlet nearby.

Both terms run ten years, 375° with two additional ten-year terms and Mad for Chicken with two successor terms of ten years each. Transfers cost 50% of the then-current franchise fee at 375° against a flat $10,000. Initial fees are $40,000 and $35,000; grand opening spend is a flat $10,000 against a flat $15,000. Training is 23 classroom and 67 on-the-job hours against 25 and 196, the Mad for Chicken on-the-job figure having risen from 106 in its previous filing.

What to settle before either range goes in a memo

Which format is actually on offer, and whether the express Item 7 or the full-restaurant Item 7 applies to the site being considered. How much of each Item 19 is affiliate revenue and what costs are missing from it. Whether the site can live with a grant of a location rather than an area. And what each brand’s current document says now, since one row here is read from a 2024 filing and the other from a 2025 one, and what successive filings reveal shows how much both of these brands change when the previous document is read alongside.

The chicken and fries essay is the category reading. Small samples stay small even when both rows say Yes under Item 19.