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
MOD Pizza
Food & Dining · independent · est. —
MOD Pizza is a fast-casual restaurant serving individual-size, build-your-own pizzas and salads. Customers choose unlimited toppings at one set price, and pizzas bake quickly in a high-heat oven. A franchisee operates a quick-service pizza restaurant with an assembly-line ordering format.
MOD Pizza net unit count grew +9.1% from 2014–2023 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
1.2%
vs 8.6% across 137 food & dining systems
Cost to open
$1.0M–$1.3M
Item 7 total investment range
SBA loan defaults
Too few resolved
1 loans exist; too few resolved to rate
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, 1 of 86 franchised outlets left the system — a 1.2% 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) | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Outlets at start | 14 | 31 | 92 | 489 | 506 | 531 |
| Opened | 1 | 11 | 20 | 6 | 4 | 2 |
| Transfers | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Terminations | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Non-renewals | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Reacquired by franchisor | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Ceased — other reasons | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 1 |
| Outlets at end | 31 | 92 | 187 | 506 | 531 | 552 |
| Net change | +17 | +61 | +95 | +17 | +25 | +21 |
The lender's view
SBA 7(a)/504 loan performance · FY1991–present
Banks have made 1 SBA-backed loans to MOD Pizza franchisees since 2025. Most are still open, so there is not yet a resolved cohort large enough to rate.
—
0 resolved · too thin to rate
—
avg. charged-off $ ÷ approved $
—
default rate × loss severity
$2,055,300
what recent franchisees borrowed
—
approval → charge-off, defaulted loans
—
distinct banks lending
Charge-off rate by loan approval year (%)
SOURCE: SBA 7(a)/504 FOIA LOAN DATA (DATA.SBA.GOV), FY1991–PRESENT · MATCHED TO MOD PIZZA BY FRANCHISE NAME · RESOLVED = CHARGED-OFF + PAID-IN-FULL
What it costs — and what it drags
FDD Items 5–7 · fees, investment, royalty
Buying in means a $30K franchise fee (Item 5) and a total investment of $1.0M–$1.3M (Item 7). The franchisor publishes no earnings claim (Item 19) — ask current and former franchisees for real numbers.
To open (Item 7)
$1.0M–$1.3M
all-in investment range
Franchise fee (Item 5)
$30K
upfront, one-time
Royalty (Item 6)
5%
of sales, ongoing
Your figure — this brand discloses no Item 19 earnings; validate with current & former owners.
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 MOD Pizza with an independent CPALabor record
US Dept. of Labor enforcement · franchisee-level · FY2005–present
Federal investigators have concluded 6 wage cases against operators of this system, recovering $21K in back wages for 76 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
6
Back wages owed
$21K
Employees affected
76
Since 2020
2
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 MOD Pizza franchisees — separately owned businesses operating under the brand name — not MOD Pizza 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.
Distress signals
news-sourced · bankruptcies, closures, lawsuits
No recent closures, bankruptcies, or major lawsuits found in the news for MOD Pizza. 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 MOD Pizza's numbers, including talking you out of a bad deal.
Talk to an independent CPA before you buy →MOD Pizza franchise questions, answered from the filings
What percentage of MOD Pizza franchises closed last year?
In MOD Pizza's latest FDD Item 20 (fiscal 2023), 1 of 86 franchised outlets left the system — an annualized exit rate of 1.2% — 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 MOD Pizza franchise cost?
Per MOD Pizza's 2024 FDD, buying in requires an initial franchise fee of $30K (Item 5) and a total initial investment of $1.0M–$1.3M (Item 7).
What royalty does MOD Pizza charge?
MOD Pizza charges an ongoing royalty of 5.0% of gross sales, per Item 6 of its 2024 FDD.
Does MOD Pizza disclose earnings (Item 19)?
No — MOD Pizza's 2024 FDD makes no financial performance representation in Item 19. That is legal and common, but it means the franchisor publishes no earnings claim; ask current franchisees for real numbers.