---
title: "⛫ Culver's & Chick-Fil-A 👀"
url: https://burnaze.com/article/cced5fb8-93df-4ed3-b87f-281777173b91
source: "Empires Weekly"
original_url: https://empirespod.substack.com/p/culvers-and-chick-fil-a
author: "Patrick Buckley"
category: "Chicken"
industry: "Restaurants"
segment: "Chicken"
published: 2026-04-05T13:18:45.000Z
modified: 2026-10-31T13:18:35.271Z
image: https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!j3bl!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1d1e7116-269d-4222-88ee-9d4c453cc463_1500x1000.png
---

# ⛫ Culver's & Chick-Fil-A 👀

**TL;DR:** Culver's reported a 7.5% increase in average unit volume for 2025, with $4,145,665 in average revenue and 1,041 locations. The brand shared various data points, including average unit volume by state and location demographics.

*By Patrick Buckley, originally published in Empires Weekly on 2026-04-05. [Read the original](https://empirespod.substack.com/p/culvers-and-chick-fil-a).*

## Story

The midwest burger giant had another big year:

- **Average revenue**: $4,145,665 (+7.5% YoY)

- **Average EBITDA**: ~13% *

- **Locations:** finished the year at 1,041 units (+44 locations for the year)

**EBITDA is representative of the corporate locations only*

With only 4 failed franchises in 37 years, this is one of the steadiest brands out there. That said, 13% EBITDA is surprising given their high average unit volume!

Culver’s shares *a ton* of data in their Item 19. Here are a few other random stats from 2025 that were interesting:

- Wisconsin average unit volume came in at $4,517,210 - this is the home state of Culver’s and still has the highest volume of stores, with 138

- North Carolina had the best performance of any state, with an average unit volume of $4,796,415 across their 17 stores

- Locations with a 3-mile population of less than 10,000 are still cranking over $3.6M in revenue….gonna assume those locations are the only game in town

- Over 50% of Culver’s are in areas with a 3-mile population below 50,000…showing this brand does well being a destination in smaller towns

- The initial investment is listed at $3,406,350 - $10,294,100 🤯. We all know construction costs are ultra high these days…but even for a top brand like Culver’s, I just don’t know how the ROI makes sense on a build-out that high!

My podcast with 2-location Chick-Fil-A owner, Brandon Hurst, was released earlier this week.

The 2 hour interview is already the most downloaded/viewed episode of the show (not surprising given the massive interest in the Chick-Fil-A brand)!

I treated it as an opportunity to "demystify” the Chick-Fil-A operating agreement, where there seems to always be debate about certain aspects of it.

In the episode, Brandon transparently shares:

- How much it costs to become a Chick-Fil-A owner

- What % of revenue and profits Chick-Fil-A takes

- How long & difficult the application process is

- How often you have to be inside your store

- Whether you have to be a Christian or not

And so much more.

We also discussed his journey, from growing up in East Atlanta, to now owning 2 Chick-Fil-A’s that I can conservatively say do at least ~$19 million in revenue, collectively.

Brandon clearly has a leadership mentality, so we also spent a good chunk of time on how he builds the culture that results in the high level of customer service we all expect at a Chick-Fil-A.

**KFC Mimicking Taco Bell** So far, Yum! Brand is making good on it’s promise to roll out the Taco Bell playbook to their struggling fried chicken brand

**Sysco Acquires Restaurant Depot** The nation’s largest food distributor, will acquire supplier Restaurant Depot in a deal worth more than $29 billion. Though some think the acquistion will ultimately be blocked as it would cause restaurants to rely too much on Sysco for day-to-day needs.

**Jubilant Waves the White Flag on Dunkin’** The massive multi-unit operator in India (master franchisee of Domino’s), will be exiting it’s Dunkin’ agreement by the end of this year, after failing to gain traction with the brand

**Papa John’s Launches Sandwich Lineup** Under pressure from Domino’s growing market share, Papa Johns has launched a new menu category that could help it expand its reach across consumer categories.

**Rave Restaurant Group, Uber Eats Break Up** Pizza Inn’s owner said the chain is focusing on dine-in traffic through value offerings instead of increasing volume through unprofitable orders.

**OrangeTheory Still Hasn’t Recovered** The fitness brand peaked in 2019 and has never recovered to their average unit volume, active members, etc.

**Tracking Buc-ee’s** Known for its mega-stores, Buc-ee’s is eyeing a second site in Ohio and scheduled a groundbreaking for its Monroe County, Georgia, location. **C-Stores are IPOing** 7-Eleven, among others, are planning for public offerings later this year.**Trader Joe’s is Growing** So far this year, the specialty grocer has announced plans for 17 new stores and opened two.

## Entities

- unit expansion (topic)
- QSR (sector)
- Taco Bell (company)
- Dunkin' Brands (company)
- Domino's (company)
- KFC (company)
- Papa Johns (company)
- Chick-fil-A (company)
- Yum Brands (company)
- Uber Eats (company)
- qsr industry (topic)
- initial investment (topic)

---
Originally reported by Patrick Buckley, Empires Weekly (https://empirespod.substack.com/p/culvers-and-chick-fil-a). Summarized by Burnaze (https://burnaze.com/article/cced5fb8-93df-4ed3-b87f-281777173b91).