From the filed FDD — automated extraction, check the source
2026 FDD
Potato Corner
Pretzels & mall snacks · parent company: not identified
Potato Corner is a quick-service snack brand selling flavored french fries in shakeable seasonings, typically from mall kiosks and small inline stores. A franchisee operates one or more compact units with a small staff, serving snack customers in high-foot-traffic venues.
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. Most numbers on this page come from that document; others come from federal SBA loan records and labor and census data, each labelled with its source:
- 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, transferred and left the system, the main basis for our verdict, which rates how strong the disclosed record is, or says when the system is too new, the filing too old, or the disclosure too thin to judge.
Our rating · opinion
Too little disclosed history
1 franchised unit over 1 disclosed year of Item 20 is too little history for a rating. Judge the disclosures, not a rating.
Exit rate · fiscal 2025
No franchised base
no franchised outlets at the start of the year
Cost to open
$400K–$815K
Item 7 total investment range
SBA loan losses
Too few to rate
2 seasoned resolved loans; 30 needed
Market density · Texas
Typical density
7% thinner than the national average
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Data as of 2026-10-29. Figures come from Potato Corner's public FDD filings (latest: MN 2026, extracted 2026-07-29) and SBA FOIA loan records (through FY2026), extracted by us and possibly containing errors. The rating is our opinion, not investment, legal, or tax advice. Franchisor or owner and see something wrong? Report a correction — we review every request.
What each source says
FDD record · SBA loans · model · auditor
The Item 20 record is too short or too small to rate; the loan record and model are context, not a verdict.
FDD record · Item 20
Too little history
SBA loans · vs same-year loans
Too few seasoned loans
2 resolved loans approved by FY2020; 30 needed.
Modeled risk
Not scored
Too little evidence for the model.
Auditor opinion · Item 21
Clean opinion
Unqualified audit, 2026 FDD. Says nothing about franchisee results.
Behind the verdict
the record, factor by factor · Item 20
latest consecutive years · 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 · shown, not counted in the verdict
Systemwide units
2025
Insufficient trend data.
Survival record
FDD Item 20 · outlet status by year
The franchisor reported no franchised outlets at the start of fiscal 2025, so there is no franchised exit rate to report; the outlet tables below show what it does operate.
Show the outlet tables ↓Hide the evidence ↑
| Status (FTC) | 2025 |
|---|---|
| Outlets at start | 0 |
| Opened | 1 |
| Transfers | 0 |
| Terminations | 0 |
| Non-renewals | 0 |
| Reacquired by franchisor | 0 |
| Ceased — other reasons | 0 |
| Outlets at end | 1 |
| Net change | +1 |
The franchisor's own finances
FDD ITEM 21 · AUDITED STATEMENTS · 2026 FDD
Wu Hoover & Co. LLP gave an unmodified (clean) opinion on the statements in the 2026 FDD; it reported a net loss in FY2025.
This is the company selling the franchise, not any franchisee. A clean opinion means the statements are fairly presented — not that the business is healthy.
Audit opinion
Unmodified (clean) opinion
Wu Hoover & Co. LLP
Revenue · FY2025
$476
extracted · not cross-checked
Net income · FY2025
−$193K
extracted · not cross-checked
Where FY2025 revenue came from
Royalty share not extracted
initial-fee share not extracted
Show the statement figures ↓Hide the evidence ↑
| Fiscal year | FY2025 |
|---|---|
| Total revenue | $476extracted · not cross-checked |
| Net income (loss) | −$193Kextracted · not cross-checked |
The lender's view
SBA 7(a)/504 loan outcomes · compared with franchise loans of the same years
Banks have made 7 SBA-backed loans to Potato Corner franchisees since 2014. Only 2 of its loans approved by FY2020 have resolved — fewer than the 30 we need to compare it fairly with other franchise loans, so we don't rate it.
All-time, 0 of 2 resolved loans charged off (0.0%). That raw figure mixes every approval year since 2014 — loans made in 2006–08 failed at several times the rate of loans made in 2010–13 across all franchises — so it is shown as evidence, not as the score. 71% of the brand's loans have not resolved yet.
—
2 seasoned resolved · 30 needed
0.0%
0 of 2 resolved, every approval year
—
charged-off $ ÷ approved $, defaulted loans
$247,500
what recent franchisees borrowed
—
shown with 10+ defaults
1 vs 2
distinct banks — fewer than FY16–20 (loan volume and SBA name coding affect this)
Charge-off rate by loan approval year (%) · dashed line = all franchise loans that year
Loan performance by state
SOURCE: SBA 7(a)/504 FOIA LOAN DATA (DATA.SBA.GOV), FY1991–PRESENT · MATCHED TO POTATO CORNER BY SBA FRANCHISE NAME/CODE · RESOLVED = CHARGED-OFF + PAID-IN-FULL · EXPECTED = SAME-YEAR RATE ACROSS ALL SBA FRANCHISE LOANS, LOANS ≥ ~6 YEARS OLD
What it costs — and what it drags
FDD Items 5–7 · fees, investment, royalty
Buying in means a $20,000 franchise fee (Item 5) and a total investment of $400K–$815K (Item 7). The franchisor publishes no earnings claim (Item 19) — ask current and former franchisees for real numbers.
To open (Item 7)
$400K–$815K
all-in investment range
Franchise fee (Item 5)
$20,000
upfront, one-time
Royalty (Item 6)
6%
of sales, ongoing
Starts at a placeholder of $900K — a round figure for the sector, not from Potato Corner’s filings. This brand's FDD makes no Item 19 earnings claim; set your own figure and check it with current and former owners.
Royalty you'd pay / yr
$54K
6% of sales, before profit
Over a 10-yr term
$540K
royalties alone, excl. ad fund
This estimate is computed by software from the brand's public filings and any inputs you enter. No CPA prepared it for you and no assurance is provided on it. Actual results will differ, and the differences may be material.
This is not profit. It covers what the FDD fixes: what you put in, and the royalty you owe on sales. Your take-home depends on food and packaging cost, labor, rent, and the months to breakeven, none of which the FDD fixes for your unit (some Item 19s include cost data — read it).
Build a real pro-forma for Potato Corner with a buyer-paid CPALabor record
US Dept. of Labor enforcement · franchisee-level · FY2005–present
Federal investigators have concluded 6 wage cases against operators of this system, recovering $447 in back wages for 1 worker, including 3 child-labor cases. 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
$447
Employees affected
1
Since 2020
2
3 of these cases involved child-labor violations, covering 4 minors across the system's franchised locations.
Read this carefully. The employers in these cases are individual Potato Corner franchisees — separately owned businesses operating under the brand name — not Potato Corner 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. Cases are matched to the brand by trade name and may include misattributed employers. Source: DOL Wage and Hour Division concluded compliance actions, FY2005–present, most recent finding 2024.
Public records
Bankruptcy, closure & federal court records · coverage is selective · dockets are not scored
We have no verified public-record signals published for Potato Corner. This is not evidence that no events exist. Check PACER, the FDD's Item 3 (litigation) and Item 4 (bankruptcy), and recent news yourself.
7 questions to ask a Potato Corner franchisee
Built from this brand's own disclosures · take it to your validation calls
The franchisor will give you a list of owners to call. Most buyers ask whether they like it. These questions come from what Potato Corner has disclosed. Each one carries the number it came from, so you can check the answer against the record.
- 01
You pay 6.0% royalty on gross sales, plus the ad fund, before any of your own costs. On your actual revenue last year, what did you take home as the owner — not revenue, take-home?
Royalty is charged on sales, not profit. This is the number the brochure never shows and the one your life actually runs on.
FDD Item 6
- 02
Potato Corner’s FDD makes no financial performance representation at all — legally, they've told buyers nothing about earnings. What did your first 24 months actually look like, month by month?
When a franchisor won't publish numbers, existing owners are the only source. Silence in Item 19 is a choice, not a requirement.
FDD Item 19 · 2026
- 03
How many months did it take to cover your own costs, and how much cash did you burn getting there?
Ramp-to-breakeven working capital is the most underestimated line in any franchise purchase, and the most common reason otherwise-good units fail.
Not disclosed in any FDD — ask an owner
- 04
Item 3 discloses 2 legal matters. Do you know what those were about, and were any brought by franchisees?
Franchisee-brought suits over territory, fees or support tell you how the franchisor behaves when there's a disagreement.
FDD Item 3 · 2026
- 05
What does the franchisor charge for that you didn't expect — required tech fees, mandatory remodels, approved-supplier pricing?
Required spending appears across Items 6, 8 and 11 rather than in one place, so buyers routinely miss the total.
FDD Items 6, 8, 11
- 06
If your agreement came up for renewal tomorrow at current terms, would you sign again?
The single most predictive question you can ask. A hesitation is the answer.
Ask every owner you speak to
- 07
Who else should I call — including someone who left?
The franchisor's list is curated by definition. Former franchisees are where the unflattering truth lives, and current owners usually know how to reach them.
Ask every owner you speak to
Want this as a checklist you can take to the calls?
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A broker is usually paid by the franchisor to place you. I'm paid only by you, never by a franchisor you're considering — and the job is pressure-testing Potato Corner’s numbers, including talking you out of a bad deal.
This page is what buyers see before they call you for validation. If the record above is wrong — or right in a way the numbers can't show — say so. Franchisors: send corrections with the page reference and we will review them against the filing and update or annotate the page. Corrections are checked against the filings; nothing you write is published with your name unless you agree to it.
Potato Corner franchise questions, answered from the filings
How much does a Potato Corner franchise cost?
Per Potato Corner's 2026 FDD, buying in requires an initial franchise fee of $20,000 (Item 5) and a total initial investment of $400K–$815K (Item 7).
What royalty does Potato Corner charge?
Potato Corner charges an ongoing royalty of 6.0% of gross sales, per Item 6 of its 2026 FDD.
Does Potato Corner disclose earnings (Item 19)?
No — Potato Corner's 2026 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.