WEN 2019 Franchise Disclosure Document Review for Wendys
Not too long ago, Wendy’s (WEN; Neutral) filed its 500+ page Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) for 2019. In this report, we cite some of the highlights from that document following our review of it, including our review of it in comparison to last year’s Franchise Disclosure Document. For example, we note that the median U.S. company-owned restaurant generated $1,868,693 in revenue last year (versus $1,830,565 in 2017), and that the median U.S. franchised restaurant generated $1,548,551 in revenue last year (versus $1,541,069 in 2017). The best-performing restaurant in the Wendy’s U.S. system overall — generating $4,714,549 in 2018 sales — is in Chicago. Our report also contains data regarding the sales lifts provided by the company’s Image Activation initiative, broken down by type of design. For franchised restaurants that underwent a Refresh — the most frequently chosen Image Activation format — that was completed during 2018, the median gross sales lift cited in the FDD is +4.6%. We reiterate our Neutral rating on WEN and note the following: