Sample data — illustrative, not for citation
Noodles & Company
casual-dining · Noodles & Company · est. 1995
Noodles & Company is a fast-casual restaurant chain serving globally inspired noodle and pasta dishes, soups, and salads. A franchisee builds and operates a counter-service restaurant, managing a kitchen and service team for lunch and dinner customers dining in or taking out.
Noodles & Company net unit count declined -3.8% from 2023–2025 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
Not enough disclosure
Distress
No verified FDD extraction to judge from. Any figures shown are labelled sample data or independent federal records.
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
2023–2025
Survival record
FDD Item 20 · outlet status by year
Show the outlet tables ↓Hide the evidence ↑
| Status (FTC) | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Outlets at start | 736 | 720 | 706 |
| Opened | 9 | 9 | 8 |
| Transfers | 20 | 19 | 18 |
| Terminations | 14 | 13 | 12 |
| Non-renewals | 5 | 4 | 4 |
| Reacquired by franchisor | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| Ceased — other reasons | 12 | 12 | 11 |
| Outlets at end | 720 | 706 | 693 |
| Net change | -16 | -14 | -13 |
The lender's view
SBA 7(a)/504 loan performance · FY1991–present
Banks have made 6 SBA-backed loans to Noodles & Company franchisees since 2015. Most are still open, so there is not yet a resolved cohort large enough to rate.
—
4 resolved · too thin to rate
—
avg. charged-off $ ÷ approved $
—
default rate × loss severity
$821,850
what recent franchisees borrowed
—
approval → charge-off, defaulted loans
1 vs 2
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 NOODLES & COMPANY BY FRANCHISE NAME · RESOLVED = CHARGED-OFF + PAID-IN-FULL
What it costs — and what it drags
FDD Items 5–7 · fees, investment, royalty
To open (Item 7)
$1.1M–$1.9M
all-in investment range
Franchise fee (Item 5)
$35K
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 Noodles & Company with an independent CPALabor record
US Dept. of Labor enforcement · franchisee-level · FY2005–present
Federal investigators have concluded 3 wage cases against operators of this system, recovering $41 in back wages for 1 worker. These cases name franchisee-owned locations, not the franchisor itself.
Concluded cases
3
Back wages owed
$41
Employees affected
1
Since 2020
0
Read this carefully. The employers in these cases are individual Noodles & Company franchisees — separately owned businesses operating under the brand name — not Noodles & Company 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 2018.
Distress signals
news-sourced · bankruptcies, closures, lawsuits
Noodles & Company is closing 30 more restaurants: List of doomed locations grows in 2026
news:Fast Company · 6mo ago
Noodles & Company to double its planned restaurant closures in 2026
news:Restaurant Business · 6mo ago
Noodles & Company closing more locations than expected this year
news:KDVR · 11mo ago
A broker is paid by the franchisor to place you. An independent CPA is paid by you — and the job is pressure-testing Noodles & Company's numbers, including talking you out of a bad deal.
Talk to an independent CPA before you buy →