Capriotti's franchise
Capriotti's: $417,100–$748,500 total investment, $40,000 franchise fee, 9.5% total ongoing fee. Read out of the filings.
Compiled from public filings and operator sites
No protected territory, and a technology fee of 0.65% of gross sales on top of the royalty and the funds.
Fees
| Initial franchise fee | $40,000 |
|---|---|
| Royalty | 6–7% |
| Brand fund | 2%, rising to as much as 4% |
| Local advertising | 1.5% |
| Total ongoing | 9.5% of gross sales |
| Grand opening | $30,000 |
| Transfer fee | The greater of $10,000 or 5%, capped at $20,000 |
| Renewal fee | $10,000 |
Opening one
| Total investment | $417,100–$748,500 |
|---|---|
| Training | 55 hours classroom, 270 on the job |
| Territory | No protected area |
| Initial term | 10 years |
| Renewal | One ten-year option |
The system
| Format | Submarine sandwiches |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Las Vegas, NV |
| Founded | 1976 |
| Franchising since | 1991 |
| Item 20 | 145 as of 2024, of which 135 franchised and 10 company-owned. Filing snapshot, not tonight's locator. |
| Item 19 | Yes. A financial performance representation is made. |
The franchisor's own accounts
| Audited entity | Capriotti's Sandwich Shop, Inc. |
|---|---|
| Fiscal year end | 52/53 weeks ending in late December |
| Auditor's opinion | Unmodified |
| Accumulated deficit at 25 December 2022 | ($23,777,352) |
| FY2022 | ($4,368,938) — fiscal year ended 25 December 2022 |
|---|---|
| Total over 1 year | ($4,368,938) |
The largest loss and the largest deficit in the set by an order of magnitude — $4,368,938 for the year ended 25 December 2022, of which $4,022,495 is attributable to Capriotti's itself and the rest to a non-controlling interest, against an accumulated deficit of $23,777,352 and total equity of $(2,797,283). And the auditor's report is unmodified with no additional paragraph. That pairing is the most useful thing in this file: absolute loss size is not what triggers an auditor's concern, and a brand losing four million dollars can present a cleaner Item 21 than one losing ninety thousand. Only the most recent year is recorded here because the comparative columns in this filing are consolidated differently.
Figures from May 2024 comparative study of published FDDs · dataset year 2024.
An older sandwich benchmark
Capriotti’s is a submarine-sandwich system headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada. Its official company history traces the first Wilmington, Delaware, shop to 1976; the row records franchising from 1991. The May 2024 comparative study of published FDDs reports 145 outlets as of 2024: 135 franchised and ten company-owned. That makes it the second-largest system here, but scale is context rather than a quality score.
The menu model is also a useful adjacent comparison. Capriotti’s consumer site centers made-to-order subs and catering, a different production line from vertical-spit döner but one that can compete for a similar lunch occasion and retail site. Typical square footage is not in the source.
The stack does not capture every charge
The initial franchise fee is $40,000. The filing discloses a 6–7% royalty. The directory uses the low end for its ranking and prints the full band here. It adds a 2% brand fund and 1.5% local advertising to produce the comparable fee stack of 9.5%. The brand fund may rise to 4%. Grand opening is $30,000.
A separate technology fee of 0.65% of gross sales sits outside the three components used in that ranking. It is not hidden or converted into the stack: the metric is royalty plus advertising requirements, not every recurring payment. A buyer comparing the real cash burden must add technology and any other applicable Item 6 charges separately.
Item 7 is $417,100 to $748,500. The study records an Item 19; the source does not include a population note, so the profile does not invent the sample. Training is 55 classroom hours and 270 on the job. The agreement offers no protected territory. The initial term is ten years with one ten-year option. Renewal fee $10,000. Transfer fee is the greater of $10,000 or 5%, capped at $20,000.
Capriotti’s therefore provides a mature-system benchmark, while the rate band, escalatable fund, technology add-on and unprotected territory still require current-document review rather than reliance on brand age.
What 145 units with ten company stores hand a buyer
Of the 145 outlets in the 2024 study, 135 are franchised and ten are company-owned. In a system this old the ratio is more informative than the total: the franchisor’s principal business is franchising rather than restaurant operation, and the Item 20 tables should carry something no young system can offer — a multi-year record of openings, closures, transfers and terminations across a large base. That history is the reason to obtain the current document rather than lean on this row. A count of 145 says nothing about whether recent years added outlets or replaced them, and the transfer column is where a mature system reveals how often owners actually sell.
The fifteen years between the 1976 Wilmington opening and the 1991 start of franchising are operating history of a particular kind: the concept was run as a company business before it was sold as a franchise. Reading that sequence against the present ownership split is worthwhile, because a franchisor that once operated shops and now operates ten has moved a long way from where it began.
Three hundred and twenty-five hours
Item 11 discloses 55 classroom hours and 270 on the job, the second-longest store block in this directory. The ratio carries as much information as the total. Close to five hours in a restaurant for every hour in a classroom describes a system that transfers its standards by supervised repetition rather than by instruction, which is what a made-to-order line with a catering business attached tends to demand.
The questions follow from the size of the commitment rather than its content. Who must attend, and how long is the buyer out of their own business? Where does the 270-hour block happen, and at whose cost — travel and lodging are not itemised in this row, and where filings do itemise them they are rarely small. May a general manager attend in the owner’s place, and must a second trained manager be in post before opening?
The charges outside the ranked stack
The ranked 9.5% is the 6% low end of the royalty plus a 2% brand fund plus 1.5% local advertising. Three disclosed components sit outside that figure. The royalty band reaches 7%, the brand fund may be raised to as much as 4%, and the technology fee of 0.65% of gross sales is a continuing charge the metric excludes because the metric measures royalty and advertising requirements only. Read at their ceilings rather than their floors, those components describe a materially different burden, and nothing in the row indicates which end of each band a particular agreement sits at.
Neither a typical square footage nor an Item 7 line-item table appears here, so the $417,100 to $748,500 total cannot be broken into construction, equipment and working capital from this source. Grand opening is $30,000, the highest stated opening-marketing requirement among the rows that name one, and it is a one-time charge rather than a substitute for the recurring ones. The absence of a protected area belongs in the same reading: territory is where a franchisor’s growth meets an existing owner’s trade, and a 145-unit system with no protected area has kept the right to keep developing where it chooses.
Neighbours on the aisle
Capriotti’s is the 145-unit sandwich neighbor on system size and age. The stack is 9.5% using the 6% low end of a 6–7% royalty band plus advertising, not a 6% all-in figure. Wienerschnitzel’s 20-year no-sale contract is a different grant. Source: May 2024 comparative study of published FDDs; 2024 study.
The take
Capriotti’s is a mature sandwich benchmark for lunch traffic and inline sites. The founding year is 1976; the contract still has to be read. The ranked 9.5% stack uses the 6% low end plus 2% brand fund plus 1.5% local advertising, which is the low end of the band rather than a ceiling. The 0.65% technology fee, the 6–7% royalty band, and any increase of the brand fund toward 4% sit beside that stack. Item 19 is yes without a population note in the source. There is no protected territory. Item 7 is $417,100–$748,500; grand opening $30,000; training 55 classroom and 270 on the job. The 145-outlet 2024 study count is 135 franchised and 10 company. Grand opening is higher than most rows that state one, and it is opening marketing, not a substitute for the technology fee that continues after opening.
Franchising since 1991 is a fifteen-year gap after the 1976 Wilmington opening. That gap is operating history before the franchise program, not a reason to skip Item 6.