BIGGBY COFFEE's strongest official 2025 earnings evidence is not owner take-home pay. It is the median store-level EBITDA reported for the bottom and top EBITDA quartiles of 216 qualifying franchised drive-through Stores. The all-Store median was $101,913. An active owner who truly replaces a full-time paid manager could have an estimated owner-operator benefit of roughly $96,647–$262,320, but part of that amount is compensation for the owner's labor rather than passive business profit.
The owner-operator figures are independent analytical scenarios, not an Item 19 financial performance representation by Global Orange Development, LLC. They combine official 2026 FDD facts with a separately identified U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics manager-wage benchmark. Actual results can differ materially by location, format, sales, labor, occupancy, financing, owner involvement, and execution.
Legal franchisor: Global Orange Development, LLC. Document: 2026 BIGGBY COFFEE Franchise Disclosure Document, issued April 30, 2026, with state-specific addenda. Item 19 status: official Gross Sales, expense, EBITDA, and Profit Margin disclosures for 2025. Applicable population: franchised drive-through Stores meeting the stated age, operating, and reporting criteria. Benchmark: Food Service Managers wage data for food services and drinking places from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Date checked: July 19, 2026.
Public context is available from the official BIGGBY COFFEE U.S. franchise website and its official public Item 19 earnings summary. The matching 2026 FDD itself was not located as a public file on the franchisor-controlled domain, so FDD citations below are provided in plain text by Item and page.
OFFICIAL. Median across the 216-Store financial-reporting cohort for 2025.
OFFICIAL. Average store-level result after the expense categories listed in Item 19.
OFFICIAL FDD term. EBITDA divided by Gross Sales for the 216 Stores.
OFFICIAL. Median for 347 qualifying franchised drive-through Stores in 2025.
OFFICIAL count; DERIVED coverage. 46.9% of the 461 franchised Stores operating at year-end 2025.
DERIVED. $88,506 divided by $778,108 average Gross Sales in Chart 2.
What does BIGGBY COFFEE Item 19 actually measure?
Officially, Item 19 measures 2025 Gross Sales, specified operating expenses, EBITDA, and Profit Margin for selected franchised drive-through Stores. It does not report owner salary, distributions, personal taxes, debt principal, or a complete after-expense take-home figure.
- Gross Sales means Unit Sales less promotional discounts; it is revenue, not owner earnings.
- Labor includes employees, managers, hiring and training, workers' compensation, and payroll taxes, but excludes officer or guaranteed payments, health insurance or retirement, organizational support staff, and management fees.
- Marketing & Fees includes advertising, royalty fees, and technology fees.
- EBITDA equals Gross Profit minus the listed Operating Expenses and excludes miscellaneous income, cash over or short, interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization.
- Profit Margin is EBITDA divided by Gross Sales; it is not the same as net-income margin.
The 347-Store median Gross Sales figure of $722,832 should never be presented as an owner's income. The closer official earnings measure is EBITDA, and the FDD expressly warns that additional costs may be significant.
Three observed median anchors from the 2025 Item 19 cohort; the scenario labels organize the evidence and are not probabilities.
Interpretation: the $101,913 system median is the most useful single official reference, while the quartile medians show that outlet-level earnings varied substantially.
Source: 2026 BIGGBY COFFEE Franchise Disclosure Document, Item 19, Chart 2, page 50. Values are official EBITDA medians for the stated 2025 cohorts.
How did average Gross Sales become store-level EBITDA?
Officially, the 216-Store cohort averaged $778,108 in Gross Sales and $108,651 in EBITDA during 2025. The bridge below reproduces the FDD calculation using the exact average expense categories; it does not add expenses that Item 19 omitted.
Every plotted value is an average for the same 216 qualifying franchised drive-through Stores in 2025.
Interpretation: labor and Cost of Goods Sold were the two largest disclosed expense groups. Marketing & Fees averaged $88,506, but the FDD still warns that other significant expenses may not be fully reflected.
Source and formula: 2026 BIGGBY COFFEE Franchise Disclosure Document, Item 19, Chart 2, page 49. $778,108 − $227,727 − $234,618 − $16,598 − $40,757 − $61,251 − $88,506 = $108,651.
How does owner involvement change the result?
Officially, every Store must be supervised by an approved Designated Manager, and an owner may fill that role. For a first Store, a Principal may be required to serve as Designated Manager for up to one year; otherwise, a full-time on-premises approved manager is required. Item 19 does not identify which reporting Stores were owner-managed, so the labor effect is estimated rather than official.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Food Service Managers profile reports a May 2024 median annual wage of $63,040 for Food Service Managers in food services and drinking places. Using that wage as a replacement-manager labor value produces the following owner-operator scenarios.
| Scenario anchor | Official EBITDA proxy | Owner labor value | Estimated owner-operator benefit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative — bottom-quartile median | $33,607 | +$63,040 | $96,647 |
| Base — all-Store median | $101,913 | +$63,040 | $164,953 |
| Upside — top-quartile median | $199,280 | +$63,040 | $262,320 |
Method: official EBITDA anchor + $63,040 May 2024 median Food Service Manager wage for food services and drinking places. The BLS wage benchmark excludes self-employed workers and is not total employer cost. No payroll burden, benefits, personal taxes, debt service, capital expenditures, or unquantified omitted operating costs are added. The adjustment is valid only when the owner actually replaces a paid manager whose compensation would otherwise be included in labor.
The $63,040 increment is labor value, not passive profit. It also may overstate the benefit if the owner still needs supervisory help, works fewer hours than a full-time manager, or if owner compensation was excluded from the reporting Store's labor line as an officer or guaranteed payment.
What can reduce the amount available to the owner?
Officially, recurring franchise charges include a 6% royalty, a 3% Advertising Fund contribution, and local advertising of up to 3% of Gross Sales, plus specified technology and support fees. Item 19 says its Marketing & Fees line includes advertising, royalty, and technology fees, so those charges must not be subtracted a second time from the disclosed EBITDA.
- Royalty and advertising: Item 6 states a 6% royalty, an Advertising Fund contribution currently equal to 3% of Gross Sales, and local advertising up to 3% of Gross Sales. The official BIGGBY COFFEE franchise FAQ also identifies the 6% ongoing royalty.
- Technology and support: required charges include per-terminal POS hardware support and PERC Services licenses plus Store-level Office 365, back-of-house support, ProfitKeeper, learning management, support portal, cybersecurity, and online-menu integration fees.
- Potentially omitted costs: Item 19 cautions that significant expenses may include financing charges, depreciation, additional occupancy, supplies, insurance, taxes, accounting and legal fees, administrative expenses, compliance, fringe benefits, and repairs.
- Debt service: interest is excluded from EBITDA, and principal payments are not operating expenses. Item 10 states that the franchisor does not offer or guarantee financing, so the article does not impose one universal loan structure.
- Personal taxes: no after-tax take-home estimate is provided because entity structure, jurisdiction, deductions, and owner circumstances differ.
How reliable is the reported earnings range?
The official EBITDA evidence is high-confidence for the specific 2025 reporting cohort, but uncertain as a forecast for a new buyer. Item 19 used 216 of the 461 franchised Stores operating at year-end 2025, and the franchisor states that the Stores may have been operated longer and by more experienced operators than a new Store.
- Sales cohort: 347 Stores had operated at least 13 months and met the drive-through, seven-days-per-week, and closure criteria.
- Earnings cohort: 216 Stores electronically reported financial performance in the standard format and were selected as consistent and representative.
- Excluded outlets: non-drive-through Stores, kiosks, Stores not open seven days weekly, Stores closed more than 30 consecutive days, and a limited number with non-representative data.
- No company-operated comparison: Item 20 reported 461 franchised outlets and zero company-owned outlets at the end of 2025.
- Format limitation: Item 7 defines Whitebox leasehold, Modular, and Site-built alternatives, but Item 19 does not provide separate EBITDA for each development format. The official business-model overview describes the operating formats but does not replace Item 19 economics.
- Unaudited data: the FDD says the Store financial information was not audited and may not have been prepared under GAAP.
Only 46.9% of the 461 franchised Stores were in the full sales-and-expense cohort. That is a meaningful sample, but it is not the entire system and excludes several outlet types and operating conditions that may produce different results.
What should a buyer verify before relying on these figures?
A buyer should treat $101,913 as a central official EBITDA reference for qualifying mature drive-through Stores, not as a promised salary. The most important work is reconciling a specific site's forecast to the Item 19 definitions and identifying every expense that sits below or outside EBITDA.
- Request the written substantiation supporting the 2026 Item 19 financial performance representation, as contemplated by the FTC's guidance on evaluating franchise earnings claims.
- Ask current franchisees for profit-and-loss statements that reconcile Gross Sales, discounts, Cost of Goods Sold, Labor, Administration, Services, Marketing & Fees, EBITDA, interest, depreciation, taxes, repairs, and capital spending.
- Separate owner-managed Stores from manager-run Stores and determine where owner salary, guaranteed payments, benefits, and management fees appear in each statement.
- Compare the proposed Whitebox, Modular, or Site-built location with Stores of similar age, drive-through configuration, rent burden, labor market, hours, and sales mix.
- Test debt service separately using the buyer's actual financed amount, interest rate, term, and lender fees rather than subtracting a generic payment from EBITDA.
- Review Item 20 franchisee contacts, including former owners, and ask why Stores transferred, closed, or required relocation.
What is the strongest defensible annual earnings range?
The strongest official range is $33,607 to $199,280 in annual store-level EBITDA, with a $101,913 all-Store median, for the 2025 qualifying drive-through cohort. It is an official Item 19 earnings measure, but it is not net owner take-home because financing, taxes, depreciation, capital spending, and potentially significant operating costs remain outside or incompletely captured.
For an active owner who genuinely replaces a full-time paid Designated Manager, the independent owner-operator benefit scenario is approximately $96,647 to $262,320, including $63,040 of labor value. The most important earnings driver is Store-level sales relative to labor and Cost of Goods Sold. The largest unresolved uncertainty is how owner compensation and the additional expenses listed in the Item 19 caution affect a particular Store's cash available to the owner. Before investing, verify the Item 19 substantiation, reconcile a location-specific profit-and-loss statement, and compare owner-managed and manager-run franchisees with similar formats and maturity.