Verified — real FDD extraction
Not found in the SBA Franchise Directory under this name — though SBA loans to its franchisees exist; verify eligibility with your lender
FUZZY'S TACO SHOP
Food & Dining · independent · est. —
Fuzzy's Taco Shop is a fast-casual Mexican restaurant and bar serving Baja-style tacos, burritos, nachos, breakfast items, and margaritas. A franchisee operates a restaurant with a casual bar atmosphere, managing kitchen, counter, and bar staff.
FUZZY'S TACO SHOP net unit count declined -3.6% from 2021–2023 per its FDD Item 20.
New to franchising? Start here
A franchise is a business where you (the franchisee) pay a company (the franchisor) for the right to open and run a location using their brand and system — think a local Anytime Fitness or Taco John's owned by a small-business owner, not the corporation.
Before you can buy in, U.S. law requires the franchisor to give you a Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) — a long legal filing covering its fees, finances, and history. The numbers on this page come straight from that document:
- Franchise fee — the one-time cost to buy in.
- Royalty — the ongoing cut of your sales you pay the franchisor.
- Item 20 — how many locations opened and closed, the basis for our verdict (from Proven & strong down to Distressed — or Too new to judge).
The verdict
Proven & steady
Distress
A real track record with an unremarkable region of the ledger: neither the growth nor the exits stand out, for better or worse. The main concern in the record: too many owners are failing outright rather than selling.
Exit rate · latest year
6.7%
vs 8.6% across 137 food & dining systems
Cost to open
$642K–$1.5M
Item 7 total investment range
SBA loan defaults
15.2%
vs 14.8% avg across rated brands
Behind the verdict
the record, factor by factor · Item 20
3-yr trend · Item 20 Table 1
terminations + ceased-ops vs. all exits · Table 3
transfers vs. base · Table 3
actual vs. projected openings · Table 5
Item 19 disclosure + completeness
Systemwide units
2021–2023
Survival record
FDD Item 20 · outlet status by year
In fiscal 2023, 9 of 134 franchised outlets left the system — a 6.7% annualized exit rate, vs 8.6% across 137 food & dining systems. Not every exit is a failure — but this is the measurable floor.
Show the outlet tables ↓Hide the evidence ↑
| Status (FTC) | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Outlets at start | 140 | 137 | 137 |
| Opened | 5 | 7 | 4 |
| Transfers | 4 | 7 | 3 |
| Terminations | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Non-renewals | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Reacquired by franchisor | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Ceased — other reasons | 6 | 6 | 9 |
| Outlets at end | 137 | 137 | 132 |
| Net change | -3 | 0 | -5 |
The lender's view
SBA 7(a)/504 loan performance · FY1991–present
Banks have made 46 SBA-backed loans to FUZZY'S TACO SHOP franchisees since 2010. Of the 33 that have resolved, 15.2% were charged off (defaulted) rather than paid in full, versus 14.8% across 576 rated brands.
15.2%
5 of 33 resolved defaulted
75.5%
avg. charged-off $ ÷ approved $
11.4%
default rate × loss severity
$783,830
what recent franchisees borrowed
67 mo
approval → charge-off, defaulted loans
7 vs 14
distinct banks — pulling back
Charge-off rate by loan approval year (%)
Loan performance by state
SOURCE: SBA 7(a)/504 FOIA LOAN DATA (DATA.SBA.GOV), FY1991–PRESENT · MATCHED TO FUZZY'S TACO SHOP BY FRANCHISE NAME · RESOLVED = CHARGED-OFF + PAID-IN-FULL
The owner's side of the deal
FDD × federal loan record
Who finances it
Celtic Bank Corporation
9.1% of this brand's loans
That lender charges off 26.7% of its loans to other franchise brands, vs 14.8% nationally.
Who buys it
81.8%
first-time franchise owners
The rest already owned at least one other franchise. Across the corpus, brands bought mostly by repeat operators charge off at roughly 10% versus 17% for brands sold mostly to newcomers.
Does experience help here?
Not enough resolved loans to split
Computed from 46 SBA 7(a)/504 loans to FUZZY'S TACO SHOP franchisees joined to the brand's own FDD. Debt service assumes level amortization at the average disclosed term and rate. A lender's rate excludes its loans to this brand, so it reads the lender, not the brand.
What it costs — and what it drags
FDD Items 5–7 · fees, investment, royalty
Buying in means a $40K franchise fee (Item 5) and a total investment of $642K–$1.5M (Item 7). The franchisor publishes an earnings claim (Item 19) — read its methodology closely.
To open (Item 7)
$642K–$1.5M
all-in investment range
Franchise fee (Item 5)
$40K
upfront, one-time
Royalty (Item 6)
5%
of sales, ongoing
Your figure — cross-check against this brand's Item 19 and current-owner validation.
Royalty you'd pay / yr
$50K
5% of sales, before profit
Over a 10-yr term
$500K
royalties alone, excl. ad fund
This is not profit. It's the only money the FDD actually pins down — what you put in, and the royalty you owe on every dollar of sales. Your real take-home depends on labor, rent, food cost, and ramp-to-breakeven, none of which any FDD discloses.
Build a real pro-forma for FUZZY'S TACO SHOP with an independent CPALabor record
US Dept. of Labor enforcement · franchisee-level · FY2005–present
Federal investigators have concluded 14 wage cases against operators of this system, recovering $117K in back wages for 138 workers, including 1 child-labor case. Some of these cases are recent, not ancient history. These cases name franchisee-owned locations, not the franchisor itself.
Concluded cases
14
Back wages owed
$117K
Employees affected
138
Since 2020
4
1 of these cases involved child-labor violations, covering 1 minors across the system's franchised locations.
Read this carefully. The employers in these cases are individual FUZZY'S TACO SHOP franchisees — separately owned businesses operating under the brand name — not FUZZY'S TACO SHOP itself. The franchisor is not the respondent and in most cases is not a party. What the record shows is how this system's operators run their payrolls, which is worth knowing before you become one of them. Counts rise with system size and with age: a 20-year-old, 10,000-unit system will out-count a young one regardless of conduct. Source: DOL Wage and Hour Division concluded compliance actions, FY2005–present, most recent finding 2023.
Modeled risk
FDD Risk Score · modeled from the public record
Modeled from the public record, this brand sits mid-pack: riskier than 53% of systems we score.
Risk percentile
53 / 100
Loan-corroborated
Modeled SBA charge-off
13.0%
Observed SBA charge-off
15.2%
Top drivers: Investment ceiling (log) (lowers) · Single-lender dependence (raises) · Share financed by high-loss lenders (lowers) · System size (log units) (raises). 15+ resolved loans stand behind this estimate. A linear scorecard built from this brand's own disclosure figures plus the federal loan record behind its franchisees; full spec and cross-validated accuracy on the methodology page. A score is context, not a verdict.
Distress signals
news-sourced · bankruptcies, closures, lawsuits
No recent closures, bankruptcies, or major lawsuits found in the news for FUZZY'S TACO SHOP. That's a good sign — but it reflects news coverage, not a guarantee.
A broker is paid by the franchisor to place you. An independent CPA is paid by you — and the job is pressure-testing FUZZY'S TACO SHOP's numbers, including talking you out of a bad deal.
Talk to an independent CPA before you buy →FUZZY'S TACO SHOP franchise questions, answered from the filings
What percentage of FUZZY'S TACO SHOP franchises closed last year?
In FUZZY'S TACO SHOP's latest FDD Item 20 (fiscal 2023), 9 of 134 franchised outlets left the system — an annualized exit rate of 6.7% — compared with 8.6% across 137 food & dining systems tracked here. That counts terminations, non-renewals, and "ceased operations — other reasons." There is no official failure rate, and not every exit is a failure, but this is the measurable floor.
How much does a FUZZY'S TACO SHOP franchise cost?
Per FUZZY'S TACO SHOP's 2024 FDD, buying in requires an initial franchise fee of $40K (Item 5) and a total initial investment of $642K–$1.5M (Item 7).
What royalty does FUZZY'S TACO SHOP charge?
FUZZY'S TACO SHOP charges an ongoing royalty of 5.0% of gross sales, per Item 6 of its 2024 FDD.
Does FUZZY'S TACO SHOP disclose earnings (Item 19)?
Yes — FUZZY'S TACO SHOP makes a financial performance representation in Item 19 of its 2024 FDD. Read it closely: franchisors choose which units and which metrics to include.
How often do SBA loans for FUZZY'S TACO SHOP franchises default?
Across 46 SBA-backed loans to FUZZY'S TACO SHOP franchisees since 2010, 5 of the 33 that have resolved were charged off — a 15.2% default rate, versus about 14.8% across all rated franchise brands. This is the lender's-eye view of franchisee failure, drawn from public SBA 7(a)/504 FOIA data and independent of the franchisor's own disclosures.