Content:
- 1 Key Takeaways
- 2 What Is Item 19, and Why Do We Include It?
- 3 How We Organize the Item 19 Numbers
- 4 What Our 2024 Numbers Show
- 5 A Trend We’re Proud Of
- 6 What Separates Our Top and Bottom Performers?
- 7 What We Want You to Understand Before You Assume Anything
- 8 Making the Most of Item 19
- 9 Frequently Asked Questions
Every prospective franchise owner eventually asks the same question: how much can I actually expect to earn? For many brands, the honest answer lives somewhere between guesswork and a sales pitch.
Perkins® takes a different approach. Item 19 of the Perkins Restaurant & Bakery® Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) lays out real, historical Net Sales figures for the entire system, broken into performance tiers so candidates can see where restaurants actually land today, not just where marketing materials suggest they might. Understanding what these numbers mean, and just as importantly, what they don’t mean, is one of the most useful exercises a serious candidate can complete before signing a franchise agreement.
Key Takeaways
- The FTC’s Franchise Rule doesn’t require us to disclose financial performance, but we do, because we’d rather hand you real numbers than a sales pitch.
- The FTC’s Franchise Rule doesn’t require us to disclose financial performance, but we do, because we’d rather hand you real numbers than a sales pitch.
- Our Item 19 tables sort 2024, 2023, and 2022 Net Sales into four tiers, top 10%, upper-middle (50% to 90%), lower-middle (10% to 50%), and bottom 10%, across the Total System, Franchised Restaurants, and Company-Owned Restaurants.
- In 2024, our Franchised Restaurants averaged $1,933,346 in Net Sales, and 49% of them sold above that average.
- Average Franchised Net Sales climbed every year we reported it: $1,865,178 in 2022, $1,930,190 in 2023, and $1,933,346 in 2024.
- These are historical results, not a promise. We encourage every candidate to read the full FDD, bring in an advisor, and talk with our franchise owners before investing.
What Is Item 19, and Why Do We Include It?
The FTC’s Franchise Rule lets a franchisor share information about the actual financial performance of its restaurants, but only if there’s a reasonable basis for the numbers and they’re written into the Franchise Disclosure Document. It’s optional. Plenty of brands skip it, which leaves candidates piecing together expectations from word of mouth or a competitor’s marketing.
We don’t skip it. Our FDD lays out three years of historical Net Sales, covering 2023, 2022, and 2021, broken out for the Total System, Franchised Restaurants, and Company-Owned Restaurants. That’s the same instinct behind everything else we do for guests and franchise owners alike, care baked into the details rather than left to chance. You can read more about where that comes from, but the short version is we’d rather show you the real picture than sell you one.
How We Organize the Item 19 Numbers
Each table in Item 19 splits our restaurants into four tiers based on that year’s Net Sales: the top 10%, an upper-middle group between the 50th and 90th percentile, a lower-middle group between the 10th and 50th percentile, and the bottom 10%. For every tier, we report the highest, average, median, and lowest Net Sales, how many restaurants fall into that range, and what share of them sold above their own tier’s average.
Net Sales, the way our FDD defines it, leaves out promotions, discounts, employee meals, voids, and sales tax. It does include catering, delivery, and revenue from Virtual Product Offerings like our VDC and Papa Corazón’s virtual brands. Figures for our Company-Owned Restaurants come from our internal operating records. Figures for our Franchised Restaurants come from what franchisees report to us, which isn’t independently audited.
Here’s what the 2024 numbers look like for our Franchised Restaurants specifically, since that’s the group most relevant if you’re weighing ownership.
| Tier | 2024 Net Sales Range | Average | High | Median | Low | Units |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Top 10% | Above $2,643,781 | $3,115,734 | $4,240,320 | $2,977,248 | $2,652,300 | 18 |
| Upper-Middle (50%-90%) | $1,931,407-$2,643,781 | $2,204,808 | $2,643,781 | $2,152,110 | $1,931,407 | 76 |
| Lower-Middle (10%-50%) | $1,197,950-$1,928,443 | $1,599,678 | $1,928,443 | $1,620,302 | $1,197,950 | 76 |
| Bottom 10% | Below $1,197,950 | $996,123 | $1,169,532 | $1,048,879 | $589,679 | 17 |
| Total Franchised | — | $1,933,346 | $4,240,320 | $1,929,925 | $589,679 | 168 |
Source: Perkins Franchise Disclosure Document, Item 19, Table 2 (Franchised Restaurants, Calendar Year 2024 Net Sales), dated September 30, 2025, as amended October 23, 2025, January 12, 2026, and May 27, 2026.
What Our 2024 Numbers Show
Our top 10% of franchised restaurants averaged just over $3.1 million in Net Sales in 2024, and our highest-performing restaurant topped $4.24 million. Our bottom 10% averaged $996,123, which tells you that even inside an established system like ours, location, market, and day-to-day execution still matter.
Most of our restaurants land somewhere in between. The upper-middle and lower-middle tiers together make up 80% of the 168 franchised restaurants in the table, and they averaged between roughly $1.6 million and $2.2 million. Across every franchised restaurant, average Net Sales came to $1,933,346, and the median was $1,929,925, close enough to the average that we’re not seeing a small handful of restaurants skew the picture. Just under half our restaurants, 49%, sold above that average in 2024.
A Trend We’re Proud Of
Item 19 isn’t a single snapshot. We report three years running so you can see the direction things are heading. Average Net Sales for our Franchised Restaurants held steady and inched up each year we reported: $1,865,178 in 2022, $1,930,190 in 2023, and $1,933,346 in 2024, a gain of roughly 4% over two years. That momentum tracks with what’s happening across the breakfast and bakery segment we’ve called home since 1958.
What Separates Our Top and Bottom Performers?
A gap of nearly $2 million between our top and bottom tiers is worth asking about. Our FDD doesn’t point to one single cause, but a few things consistently move the needle, both across the franchise industry and inside our own system.
Real estate format is one of them. Our franchise owners run a mix of traditional freestanding restaurants and non-traditional formats, end caps, restaurant conversions, and travel centers, each with its own investment level and sales ceiling. If you’re looking at Perkins® Griddle & Go, our smaller-footprint concept, expect a different sales and cost profile than a full-size traditional restaurant, since our Item 19 tables reflect standard Perkins® Restaurants rather than Griddle & Go specifically.
Location matters just as much. That’s why our real estate team works alongside new owners on site selection, because trade-area strength, visibility, and traffic have an outsized effect on Net Sales. And participation in Virtual Product Offerings, our delivery-only virtual brands like VDC and Papa Corazón’s, gave a lot of our restaurants an added layer of revenue in 2024. Restaurants that lean into those off-premise channels often see a real lift, sometimes enough to move them into the next tier up.
What We Want You to Understand Before You Assume Anything
We frame Item 19 exactly the way the FTC intends: as history, not a promise. Our FDD says plainly that some Perkins® restaurants have earned the amounts shown, that your results may differ, and that there’s no guarantee a new restaurant performs the same way. We also don’t authorize anyone on our team, in conversation or in writing, to make financial performance claims beyond what’s in Item 19.
If you want more detail than the tables give you, we’ll provide written substantiation for the Item 19 figures on reasonable request. And if you’re looking at buying an existing Perkins® restaurant, we may be able to share that specific location’s actual records as part of your due diligence, separate from the system-wide numbers in Item 19.
Making the Most of Item 19
The best way to read Item 19 is to look past the headline average. Focus on our Franchised Restaurant tables specifically, not the blended Total System figures. That’s the group most like what a new owner can expect. Look across all three years we report, not just the most recent one.Finally, spend some time with Item 20 of our FDD. This section lists our current and former franchise owners. Ask them directly: which tier is your restaurant in, and what do you think got you there?
None of that replaces the support our franchise development team provides from site selection through training and your Grand Opening. But owners who understand their own Item 19 numbers walk into that process with better questions. What’s more, a little healthy skepticism up front tends to make for a more confident franchise owner down the road.
Ready to explore franchise ownership with Perkins? Contact us to request the full FDD today.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Item 19 in a Franchise Disclosure Document?
Item 19 is the part of a Franchise Disclosure Document where a franchisor can choose to share information about the actual or potential financial performance of its restaurants. The FTC’s Franchise Rule allows this as long as the franchisor has a reasonable basis for the numbers and includes them in the FDD itself.
Is every franchise brand required to include Item 19?
No. Item 19 is optional under the FTC Franchise Rule, which is why some brands leave it out or state they don’t make financial performance representations at all. We choose to include detailed Net Sales data across three years and four performance tiers.
What’s the difference between average and median Net Sales?
Average Net Sales adds up every restaurant’s sales in a group and divides by the number of restaurants, so a handful of very strong or very weak performers can pull it higher or lower. Median Net Sales is the midpoint, the restaurant that lands exactly in the middle once every location is ranked highest to lowest. When our average and median are close, like they were for our Franchised Restaurants in 2023, it tells you the results aren’t being skewed by outliers.
Can I see the actual financial records of a specific Perkins restaurant before I invest?
If you’re considering the purchase of an existing Perkins® restaurant, we may be able to share that location’s actual records as part of the process. Written substantiation for the Item 19 figures themselves is also available on reasonable request.
Item 19 is one piece of a much bigger picture. If these numbers have you thinking seriously about what ownership could look like for you, explore the Perkins® franchise opportunity and talk with our franchise development team about what comes next.