FDD Item 19 Explained: How to Read Coffee Franchise Earnings (2026)

Item 19 is the financial performance section of a Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD). A franchisor can use it to report past results or forecast potential performance, but it can also choose not to make financial performance representations. That choice matters when you are trying to estimate what a coffee franchise might earn.

For what coffee shop owners actually earn, see our coffee shop owner income guide.

This is not a ranking of coffee brands and it is not going to tell you what you’d earn owning one. A franchisor or its salespeople can’t give you earnings figures outside Item 19 under the FTC Franchise Rule; if one does, raise it with a franchise attorney. What this piece does is teach you to read the disclosure that’s actually there: what format it’s in, what it can support, and what it quietly leaves out. You bring your own math after that.

The coffee examples below come from the franchisors’ FDD filings, with issuance dates noted. The rule also permits actual records for an existing outlet being considered for purchase and qualifying supplemental representations, as explained below.

Item 19 in any FDD

For any franchise brand, Item 19 is the FDD section for financial performance representations (FPRs). These may describe historical results or forecast future performance. A franchisor may choose not to make an FPR, but it must still include the required statements in Item 19. Under 16 CFR 436.5(s)(1), Item 19 must begin with this statement:

The FTC’s Franchise Rule permits a franchisor to provide information about the actual or potential financial performance of its franchised and/or franchisor-owned outlets, if there is a reasonable basis for the information, and if the information is included in the disclosure document. Financial performance information that differs from that included in Item 19 may be given only if: (1) a franchisor provides the actual records of an existing outlet you are considering buying; or (2) a franchisor supplements the information provided in this Item 19, for example, by providing information about possible performance at a particular location or under particular circumstances.

Source: 16 CFR 436.5(s)(1), Item 19.

What the rule requires of franchise sellers

It is an unfair or deceptive act or practice in violation of Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act for any franchise seller covered by part 436 to:

(c) Disseminate any financial performance representations to prospective franchisees unless the franchisor has a reasonable basis and written substantiation for the representation at the time the representation is made, and the representation is included in Item 19 (§ 436.5(s)) of the franchisor’s disclosure document. In conjunction with any such financial performance representation, the franchise seller shall also:

(1) Disclose the information required by § 436.5(s)(3)(ii)(B) and (E) of this part if the representation relates to the past performance of the franchisor’s outlets.

(2) Include a clear and conspicuous admonition that a new franchisee’s individual financial results may differ from the result stated in the financial performance representation.

Source: 16 CFR 436.9, opening statement and paragraph (c).

Under 16 CFR 436.5(s)(3), a franchisor making an FPR must have a reasonable basis and written substantiation at the time it makes the representation. Written substantiation must be available to prospective franchisees upon reasonable request.

Historical representations. The franchisor must disclose the material bases, including the measured group, reporting period, outlet counts, the number and percentage that attained or surpassed the stated results, and relevant differences from the outlet being offered.

Forecasts. The franchisor must state the material bases and assumptions underlying the projection, including significant factors on which future results are expected to depend.

Specific-outlet records and supplements. Section 436.5(s)(4) permits actual operating results for a specific outlet offered for sale to be given only to potential purchasers of that outlet without complying with that section. Under section 436.5(s)(5), a supplemental FPR about a particular location or variation may be delivered apart from the FDD. It must be in writing, explain the departure from the FDD representation, meet the specified disclosure requirements, and be furnished to the prospective franchisee. Record any sales claim outside Item 19 and ask a franchise attorney whether it meets the rule.

Why some coffee brands disclose and others don’t

Whether a brand provides financial performance figures in Item 19 is the franchisor’s call, and the brands covered here show both choices. The current FDDs from Scooter’s Coffee, 7 Brew, Caribou Coffee, and Dunkin’ each include an Item 19 with real numbers in it. Subway is the clearest non-coffee example of a large, mature chain that does not: Item 19 of its FDD issued April 30, 2026 states that the company makes no representations about the past or future financial performance of company-owned or franchised outlets. The FTC Rule permits a franchisor to provide no FPR if Item 19 contains the required statements. This disclosure provides no financial performance figures to use in a projection.

Non-disclosure alone does not explain why a franchisor chose not to provide an FPR. Ask the franchisor about that choice rather than assuming a reason.

What non-disclosure does mean is that you’re on your own for the number. You’ll be relying on franchisee interviews (Item 20 of the FDD lists current and former franchisees), your own market research, and an accountant’s read of the rest of the document. Keep those estimates separate from any FPR the franchisor provides under Item 19.

What the disclosure formats actually look like

There’s no single template. Three coffee brands with recent FDD filings show three different approaches, and comparing them side by side is a decent way to see how much the format itself shapes what you can and can’t conclude.

Scooter’s Coffee (FDD issued April 3, 2026). The disclosure covers franchised drive-thru Kiosk and End Cap stores. For fiscal 2025 it reports average gross sales of $999,869 and a median of $966,739 across 761 participating Kiosk stores, then a sales, expenses, and earnings table for 621 reporting Kiosk stores split into quartiles. The top quarter of those stores averaged $1,433,875 in gross sales and a 20.7% net profit margin; the bottom quarter averaged $615,746 and 0.8%. That’s a quartile-based format: instead of one average, you see how the top and bottom of the system differ, which is more useful than a blended average because a handful of very strong stores can otherwise drag the overall number up. Note that the FDD imputes the royalty and marketing fee and estimates card processing and overhead expenses rather than reporting them from each store’s books.

7 Brew (FDD issued May 11, 2026). The current reporting is built around Total Sales and nothing else. For the 320 stores open all of fiscal 2025 (297 franchised, 23 company-owned), average Total Sales were $2,658,575 and the median was $2,569,134. For the 297 franchised stores alone the average was $2,646,063, with individual stores ranging from $836,418 to $6,366,527, and the document states that these figures do not reflect costs or expenses. The prior year’s FDD (issued May 28, 2025) went further: for 162 franchised stores in fiscal 2024 it showed average gross sales of $1,989,229 and an average store-level EBITDAR margin of 28.99%. EBITDAR is earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization, and rent, so it excludes what is often a franchisee’s largest fixed cost. The margin line does not appear in the 2026 filing, which is a useful reminder that a brand’s format can change from one year to the next.

Caribou Coffee (FDD issued April 28, 2026, covering fiscal 2025). This filing splits results by format instead of collapsing everything into one number. Non-traditional kiosk locations are broken out by venue type, for example grocery-store kiosks averaging $279,124 (65 stores) against airport kiosks averaging $1,745,315 (5 stores), while traditional Cabin locations (7 reporting franchises) averaged $742,087 and Chalet locations (5 reporting franchises) averaged $604,265. That’s an average/median/high/low format applied separately to each store type, which is more granular than a single system-wide number but also means some subsets are built on a very small handful of locations. The cash-flow and expense tables in the same Item 19 come from company-owned Chalets and Cabins, not from franchisees.

Here’s what those three approaches look like next to each other:

Brand (FDD year)	Disclosure format	What’s shown	Reporting base
Scooter’s Coffee (issued Apr. 2026)	Averages, medians, and quartiles	Gross sales through net profit margin, by quartile	621 reporting kiosks (761 in the sales tables)
7 Brew (issued May 2026)	Average, median, high, low	Total Sales only	320 stores open all of 2025
Caribou Coffee (issued Apr. 2026)	Average/median/high/low by format	Gross sales, split by kiosk venue type and store format	130 kiosks; 7 Cabins; 5 Chalets

Sources: the Scooter’s Coffee, 7 Brew, and Caribou Coffee FDDs named above, Item 19 of each.

As of October 13, 2026, 7 Brew’s support page says it is not accepting new franchise applications or expressions of interest; its Item 19 is shown for its format. Source: 7 Brew support.

Only Scooter’s carries a profit-margin figure in its current filing, and it is built partly on estimated expenses. None of the three publish franchisee net income after debt service, the number most people actually mean when they ask “how much would I make.”

What Item 19 cannot tell you

Even a generous, well-built Item 19 has real limits, and understanding them matters more than reading the top-line number.

It usually stops at revenue, not profit. Dunkin’s FDD issued March 26, 2026 is a useful example: its Item 19 discloses actual, historical AUVs (annual unit volume, defined as gross sales) for defined groups of franchised restaurants, and states that the figures do not reflect the costs of sales, operating expenses, or other costs that must be deducted to obtain net income or profit. 7 Brew’s current filing says the same about its Total Sales figures. A location can show a strong AUV in Item 19 and still lose money once those costs come out, and Item 19 alone won’t show you which is true.

It can exclude entire store types. Dunkin’s disclosure covers 7,010 of the 8,744 franchised restaurants operating in the U.S. at the end of 2025. It leaves out, among others, restaurants that opened during 2025, ones that closed and reported no sales for extended periods, multi-brand and self-serve locations, part-time or seasonal ones, and the combination restaurants. Any time an Item 19 carves out a format, ask why, and ask what the numbers look like for the carved-out group if the franchisor has them.

It reflects survivorship. A historic FPR is built from outlets open and reporting during the measured period. Locations that closed before or during that window can drop out: Dunkin’s filing, for instance, excludes the 81 franchised restaurants that closed in 2025. A system that’s had a wave of closures can still post a decent-looking Item 19 built entirely from the survivors.

Small subsets aren’t statistically stable. Caribou’s Chalet figure of $604,265 is built from five reporting locations, disclosed as such, but a five-location average moves a lot if one store has an unusual year. Compare that to Scooter’s 761-kiosk sales base and you’re looking at two very different levels of statistical weight, even though both are legitimate disclosures.

It cannot capture your specific deal. Your rent, your local labor market, your build-out cost, your debt terms, none of that is in a system-wide Item 19. The disclosure describes a population of stores, not the one you’d be signing a lease for.

How to actually read one

A few habits make Item 19 much more useful once you’re looking at an actual FDD:

Start with the measured group before you look at the number. How many outlets were open during the period, how many of those reported usable data, and what’s excluded. A disclosure built on 500-plus reporting locations and one built on five are not the same kind of evidence, even if the format looks similar on the page.

Separate revenue lines from margin lines. If a table says “average unit volume” or “gross sales,” that’s top-line. If it says EBITDAR, EBITDA, net income, or cash flow, that’s a margin concept, and you should note exactly which costs are excluded from it, because EBITDAR specifically leaves out rent.

Ask for the number the disclosure doesn’t show. If Item 19 stops at gross sales, the follow-up question for a franchisee call is straightforward: what’s the actual expense load. Our guide to questions to ask current and former franchisees has a longer list built around exactly this gap.

Read Item 19 next to Items 6 and 7, not by itself. The Item 19 revenue number means little without knowing the royalty percentage and ongoing fees from Item 6, and the upfront investment range from Item 7, sitting next to it. Our FDD walkthrough covers how those items connect, and our financial projections template gives you a place to put an Item 19 revenue figure next to your own cost assumptions and work the arithmetic yourself.

Turn an Item 19 into your own projection

Our free projections template starts from an Item 19 sales figure and layers in your rent, labor and royalty, so the number becomes yours. Plus the due-diligence kit.

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Cross-check the filing year. Franchise disclosure documents update annually, and a number from a 2023 filing describes a different economy than one from 2025 or 2026. Always confirm which year’s data you’re looking at, and treat multi-year-old figures as historical context, not current reality.

If you’re comparing more than one brand’s Item 19 side by side, our coffee franchise comparison lays out cost and format differences across several brands in one place, which is a faster starting point than pulling each FDD cold.

The bottom line

Item 19 is useful because it identifies any financial performance representations the franchisor provides in the FDD. But it was built as a legal disclosure standard, not a buyer’s report card. The format varies by brand, the depth varies by brand, and the franchisor can choose whether to provide an FPR, subject to the required Item 19 statements.

Read it for what it actually says: which outlets were measured, over what period, in what format, and with what excluded. Then go build the rest of the picture yourself, through franchisee calls, your own local cost estimates, and a franchise attorney’s review before you sign anything. For the full sourcing approach behind figures on this site, see our editorial methodology.