Maybe the fast-food customers are all just going to Culver’s.
The fast-food burger chain, based in Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin, continued its consistent run of growth in 2025, generating stronger sales from a larger number of locations, according to the company’s latest franchise disclosure document, or FDD.
The company’s average-unit volumes surpassed $4 million, according to the document, rising by 9.2% compared with 2024. That is similar to the company’s rate of growth the previous year, but it comes as many other chains have struggled to generate sales amid persistently weak customer traffic.
Culver’s unit count, meanwhile, also continued to grow, albeit at a moderately slower pace. The chain added another 44 restaurants, bringing its total number to 1,041 locations. All but seven of those locations are owned by franchisees.
But that’s not the only thing we can glean from the FDD.
Culver’s has long been one of the industry’s least-appreciated growth stories. The company is headquartered in Wisconsin farm country and has generally been slower on such common strategies as mobile ordering.
The brand gets its franchisees from its workforce. It has a broader menu than you’d expect, with items like pork loin or pot roast sandwiches and walleye dinners that run counter to the specialization-at-all costs trend.
Perhaps it’s unsurprising that the chain also has a unique FDD that discloses far more information than your average franchise.
To wit: Store profitability, a clearly crucial stat in any restaurant chain but particularly in a franchise, improved last year.
A group of company-operated stores generated income of 13% of their sales, up from 12.2% a year ago, according to the FDD.
That document details sales and cost information from the seven company stores, which also shows that food costs remained stable, at 30.5% of sales, despite soaring beef prices. Labor costs have improved, likely due to sales leverage, to 31.7% of sales from 32.5%.
What’s more, it shows stores that generate stronger sales tend to generate better profitability.
Consider that the company-operated Culver’s in Spring Green, Wisconsin, generated $2.9 million in sales last year. Only 99 of the chain’s franchised locations generate less than $3 million per year, according to the FDD.
That Spring Green store spent 34.8% of its sales on labor, 31.2% on food and came away with $253,199 in income, or 8.7% of revenue.
By comparison, the company Culver’s in Sauk City, Wisconsin, about 27 miles to the east northeast, generated $5.2 million in sales.
Its food cost came in at 29.8% of sales and its labor costs at 30.3%. And then that store generated an income of $816,519, or 15.9% of sales. That does not include rent, however, or depreciation, which would bring the figures down. That was not included in the FDD.
There’s other interesting data here, too. Culver’s, for instance, generates about the same average-unit sales when it’s not located within a half-mile of an interstate highway as it does when it is that close to one.
That hasn’t always been the case. In 2024, for instance, highway-adjacent locations made about 7.8% more in revenues than those further away from such thoroughfares.
Meanwhile, more people tend to yield more sales. In locations in which there are fewer than 10,000 people within a 3-mile radius, 64 restaurants average $3.6 million in sales per location.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, more people yields more business. A Culver’s in a location with 100,000 or more nearby people averages $4.7 million in sales.
The same can’t necessarily be said about the income of the people around a Culver’s location.
Indeed, in areas where the median household income is $110,000 or more, restaurants average $3.8 million. By comparison, when they’re located in areas where the household income is $50,000 or less, Culver’s averages $4.1 million per location.
The sweet spot, apparently, is middle income, $80,000 to $90,000, where a typical Culver’s does $4.4 million.