Bojangles Item 19: $2.16M median across 470 franchised full-size restaurants with bone-in chicken menu, fiscal 2024. Format filter explained, year-one ramp, and category comparison to Popeyes and Wingstop.
Quick answer: Bojangles’ Item 19 reports a $2.16M median across 470 franchised full-size restaurants with the bone-in chicken menu — the brand’s dominant format. The format filter is meaningful: smaller formats and reduced-menu units have different economics that would distort the median. The $2.16M is competitive with QSR category leaders and reflects strong Southeast cultural fit. Outside the Southeast, performance has been more variable.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 470 franchised restaurants |
| Sample criteria | Full-size restaurants with bone-in chicken menu |
| Reporting period | Fiscal year 2024 |
| Median annual gross sales | $2,157,821 |
| Total system units | 559 |
| Total investment (Item 7) | $2,796,870 - $3,664,400 |
| Royalty rate | 4% of gross sales |
The format filter is the methodologically interesting element of this disclosure. Bojangles operates in multiple format variations: full-size free-standing restaurants with the complete menu, smaller end-cap or non-traditional formats, and restaurants that offer reduced menus (often without bone-in chicken). Each format has structurally different unit economics, and blending them in a single median would average together different business models.
Restricting to “full-size restaurants with bone-in chicken menu” isolates the brand’s economic core — the format that 80%+ of new franchisees are building. The 470-restaurant sample is meaningful at this scale; the 559 total system count suggests roughly 89 restaurants in non-qualifying formats (smaller, reduced-menu, or non-bone-in).
A 4% royalty is unusually low for a publicly franchised QSR. Most established QSR brands run 5-6% royalty rates; some run higher. The Bojangles 4% rate is a competitive positioning choice that has real economic impact for franchisees.
On a $2.16M restaurant:
The $20K-$44K annual differential matters for unit-level profitability. Over a 10-year franchise term, the savings compound to $200K-$440K against alternative brands. For operators evaluating the brand on pure unit economics, the royalty advantage is part of why Bojangles is attractive for capital-efficient buyers.
The trade-off is that the lower royalty likely constrains the franchisor’s ability to invest in brand-building, technology, and support relative to higher-royalty peers. The brand has been refining the model — particularly around technology and off-premises capability — but at a slower pace than higher-royalty competitors fund.
Bojangles is concentrated in the Southeast US. The brand’s core markets — North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, and parts of the Mid-Atlantic — produce the strongest unit-level economics. The breakfast biscuit, the brand’s signature product, has decades of cultural familiarity in these markets and produces above-category breakfast daypart capture.
Outside the Southeast, performance has been more variable. The brand has expanded into Texas, parts of the Midwest, and the Northeast with uneven success. New markets where customers haven’t grown up with the brand take longer to build awareness, ramp slower, and tend to produce lower steady-state AUV than core Southeast markets.
For buyers, the implication is geographic:
Validation calls with franchisees in markets comparable to your target — especially expansion markets — are critical. Calls with core-Southeast franchisees can be misleading if you’re opening in Ohio or Connecticut.
| Brand | Sample | Median AUV | Investment | AUV/Investment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wingstop | 1,759 | $2.0M | $310K-$1M | 3.0× |
| Popeyes | 2,186 | $1.88M | $505K-$3.92M | 0.9× |
| Bojangles | 470 | $2.16M | $2.8M-$3.66M | 0.7× |
| KFC | n/a public | ~$1.5M | $1.4M-$3.3M | 0.6× |
| Chick-fil-A | n/a (not franchised) | n/a | n/a | n/a |
Bojangles produces the second-highest median AUV in the franchised chicken category (behind Wingstop) but at substantially higher investment. The AUV-to-investment ratio of 0.7× is tight compared to lighter-format chicken alternatives. The brand competes on absolute AUV and the favorable royalty rate, not on capital efficiency.
For multi-unit operators willing to commit to higher-investment ground-up builds in core Southeast markets, Bojangles can produce strong returns. For capital-efficient single-unit buyers, lighter-format alternatives like Wingstop or Popeyes typically produce better returns on invested capital.
For broader category context, see our best chicken franchises 2026 roundup. For brand-vs-brand comparison, [Wingstop vs Popeyes vs Bojangles category analysis].
A new Bojangles full-size restaurant typically generates 70-80% of system median in year one — $1.5M-$1.75M. Month-by-month:
Year two typically lands at $1.85M-$2.05M in core markets. Year three approaches or hits the median. Expansion markets ramp 6-12 months slower and may not reach the disclosed median in 36 months.
For brand-specific cost detail, see the live Bojangles franchise page.
Bojangles' most recent Item 19 reports a $2,157,821 median annual gross sales across 470 franchised full-size restaurants with the bone-in chicken menu for fiscal year 2024.
Bojangles operates restaurants in multiple format variations including smaller end-cap formats and restaurants that don't offer the full bone-in fried chicken menu. These formats have meaningfully different unit economics — bone-in chicken requires more kitchen equipment, more menu complexity, and produces higher AUV. The format filter isolates the brand's economic core and produces a cleaner read on the dominant format.
Bojangles' $2.16M median (bone-in format) is higher than Popeyes' $1.88M and well above KFC's typical $1.5M. The premium reflects the breakfast daypart strength (Bojangles' breakfast biscuit is a category-leading product) and the Southeast geographic concentration where the brand benefits from cultural fit. Outside the Southeast, Bojangles' performance has been more variable.
The 4% royalty is unusually low for QSR — most peers run 5-6%. The lower royalty reflects the brand's positioning to attract franchisees in a competitive QSR development environment. For operators, the 1-2 percentage point royalty differential is meaningful: on a $2.16M unit, a 4% royalty is $86K vs $108K-$130K at 5-6%.
Mixed results. The brand has expanded outside the Southeast (mid-Atlantic, parts of the Midwest, Texas) with uneven success. Markets without cultural familiarity for the brand ramp slower and produce lower steady-state AUV than core Southeast markets. New buyers outside the Southeast should validate carefully through franchisee calls in similar non-core markets.
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