BurgerFi Franchise Cost: A Chapter 11 You Should Know About

BurgerFi is actively recruiting franchisees, and there is recent corporate history a prospective one should know about before reading anything else on its site. Its parent filed for Chapter 11 in September 2024 and the brand was sold out of bankruptcy that December.

The detail that matters most is reassuring rather than alarming, and it comes from the company’s own announcement: franchised locations were excluded from the filing. This page states the facts with sources so you can weigh them, rather than either burying them or implying a risk the record does not support.

What happened, precisely

On September 11, 2024, BurgerFi International Inc. and 114 affiliated debtors filed voluntary Chapter 11 petitions in the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, jointly administered as Case No. 24-12017 (CTG).

The company’s own press release included the sentence that matters most to anyone considering a franchise: “Franchisee-owned locations of BurgerFi and Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza and Wings are excluded from the bankruptcy proceedings.” At the time of filing the BurgerFi brand itself operated 93 restaurants, 76 of them franchised and 17 corporate-owned. It was the corporate-owned side that went into the process.

The brand was then sold out of bankruptcy, with court approval entered on December 13, 2024, to the owner of Savvy Sliders, Happy’s Pizza and Fat Boy’s Pizza, reported in trade press as Happy Group. The bankruptcy case was formally closed by final decree in June 2025.

Why it still belongs in your diligence

A concluded bankruptcy is disclosable and checkable, and it is exactly what FDD Item 3 exists to surface. Our Item 3 guide covers what a franchisor must disclose about litigation and bankruptcy history and how to read it.

Three questions this history should prompt, none of which we can answer for you:

• The system changed owners in December 2024. What has changed since for franchisees, in support, supply terms, or the agreement itself?
• A post-sale dispute involving the liquidating trust appears on the Delaware court’s docket dated October 2025. We could not read it and are not characterising it. Ask your attorney to check whether anything in it touches franchisees.
• Item 20’s transfer, closure and termination tables for the last three years will show what actually happened to operators through this period, which is more informative than any narrative.

The unit count does not add up

BurgerFi’s own franchise page advertises “125 Restaurants Open and 25 under development.” Franchise Times, reporting in June 2026 on the brand’s post-acquisition plans, put it at 76 locations with four in development near Detroit.

Those cannot both describe the same brand in the same year, and the gap is about 49 restaurants. The higher figure is close to BurgerFi’s pre-bankruptcy scale, which makes stale marketing copy the likeliest explanation, though we cannot confirm that.

We are showing both rather than picking. A recruiting page overstating system size by roughly two thirds would matter to a buyer assessing brand momentum, and it is a fair thing to raise on a first call. Ask for the current Item 20 outlet tables, which are dated and auditable in a way a website banner is not.

The published costs

The franchise fee is $45,000 and the total initial investment is $629,900 to $1,011,750, both from its own site.

It does not split that range by format, though it states a site preference for end-cap or free-standing units with some premium in-line locations acceptable. A roughly $380,000 spread almost certainly reflects those different builds, so ask for the Item 7 table by format rather than budgeting from either end.

Its financial requirements are stated per store to be developed: $500,000 in liquid assets and $1,000,000 net worth. That per-store structure is unusual and clearer than most, because it tells a two-unit candidate what they need without a separate tier. Its FAQ also states that candidates may qualify as a single or multi-unit operator, so unlike Charleys with its three-licence minimum, one restaurant is genuinely available.

On ongoing fees it publishes a 5.5 percent royalty and a 2 percent national brand fund plus 1.5 percent local marketing. The royalty’s basis is not stated on its own pages, and third-party sources disagree about whether it is gross or net, so treat the percentage as incomplete until Item 6 tells you what it multiplies.

Questions to ask before you rely on any figure

• How many restaurants are open today, given that your site says 125 and trade press reported 76?
• Is the 5.5 percent royalty calculated on gross sales or on a net figure?
• What is the Item 7 investment range split by end-cap, free-standing and in-line format?
• What changed for existing franchisees after the December 2024 sale, in support, supply or agreement terms?
• What does Item 3 disclose about the bankruptcy and any subsequent litigation, and does the October 2025 liquidating-trust matter affect franchisees?
• What do the Item 20 tables show for openings, closures, transfers and terminations across 2024 to 2026?
• Will a franchise attorney and an accountant review the full FDD with me before I commit?