For a mature U.S. Clean Eatz Café, the strongest 2026 disclosure shows a $126,590 median “EBTIDA (less owner/manager salary)” for 2025. Using the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ $63,040 restaurant-manager wage benchmark produces an estimated $63,550 manager-run pre-tax owner result. An active owner who replaces that manager may receive an estimated $126,590 owner-operator benefit, but roughly half represents compensation for labor rather than passive business profit.
Data basis. Legal franchisor: Clean Eatz Franchising LLC. FDD issuance date: April 30, 2026. Item 19 reports 2025 results for 92 franchised Cafés that had been open at least 18 months on December 31, 2025 and remained under the same franchisee; transferred units were excluded. The conversion from the FDD earnings measure to manager-run owner earnings uses the BLS May 2024 median wage for food service managers employed in food services and drinking places. The newer Express operating format is not represented by this mature-Café cohort. Evidence confidence is HIGH for the underlying earnings measure because Item 19 directly reports EBTIDA for a broad, defined franchised-Café population; the manager-run conversion remains an estimate. Sources checked July 13, 2026.
FDD references: 2026 Clean Eatz Franchise Disclosure Document, Item 19, pp. 44–46; Item 20, pp. 46–51; Item 6, pp. 13–16; Item 15, pp. 36–37. No matching public FDD hosted on a verified franchise-controlled domain was identified, so the FDD citations are intentionally unlinked.
Before owner or manager salary, taxes, interest, depreciation, and amortization.
Average 2025 receipts for the same 92-Café Item 19 cohort; revenue is not owner income.
The Item 19 sample equals 80.7% of franchised outlets open at year-end 2025.
$128,312 average EBTIDA divided by compatible $1,030,285 average gross revenue.
6% royalty, 2% brand fund, at least 1% local marketing, plus $638 monthly technology fee.
BLS May 2024 median for food service managers in food services and drinking places.
What does the Clean Eatz FDD actually report?
It reports Café-level revenue, major operating-cost categories, and “EBTIDA (less owner/manager salary)”—not owner take-home pay. The official 2025 median EBTIDA was $126,590, while the average was $128,312 across 92 mature franchised Cafés. The FDD removes manager and franchise-owner pay because those amounts vary by owner preference and local market conditions.
The FDD defines the measure as gross revenue plus miscellaneous income, minus cost of goods sold, employee labor, occupancy, and other operating costs. It excludes taxes, interest, depreciation, amortization, manager salary, and franchise-owner salary. Because the table omits owner or manager compensation, the figure is closer to a pool available for management labor and owner return than to pure business profit. Only 40 of the 92 represented Cafés—43%—attained or surpassed the average gross revenue.
The $1,030,285 average gross revenue figure is customer receipts, not annual owner income. The compatible average operating bridge leaves $128,312 before owner or manager pay and before several financing and capital items.
Official 2025 averages for the same 92-Café cohort; values reconcile exactly to the FDD’s $128,312 average EBTIDA.
Interpretation: food, staffing, occupancy, and the broad “Other Operating Costs” category consume 87.5% of average gross revenue before owner or manager salary. Royalty and advertising-fund payments are already included within that broad operating-cost line, so subtracting them again would double count.
Source: 2026 Clean Eatz FDD, Item 19, Table 1, pp. 44–46. Average EBTIDA margin calculation: $128,312 ÷ $1,030,285 = 12.45%, rounded to 12.5%.
How much may a manager-run owner earn?
A manager-run owner may earn about $63,550 annually at the FDD median, before personal income taxes, debt principal, capital expenditures, and other excluded items. This is an estimate: $126,590 median EBTIDA minus the $63,040 BLS industry-specific median manager wage.
The result is not a salary guarantee or a forecast. A real manager’s total employer cost may exceed cash wages because payroll taxes, bonuses, benefits, recruiting, and local wage conditions can add expense. Conversely, a lower-cost market or shared multi-unit management structure could reduce the manager burden. The FDD requires either the owner or an approved, fully trained manager to supervise the Café on premises; a manager responsible for day-to-day operations must meet the franchisor’s ownership or approved-arrangement requirements and devote full time and best efforts.
What is a reasonable annual earnings range?
The defensible manager-run range is approximately a $26,172 loss to $192,797 of pre-tax owner earnings, while the corresponding owner-operator benefit ranges from $36,868 to $255,837. These are scenarios, not probabilities: the Conservative and Upside anchors use the official bottom- and top-quartile average EBTIDA figures, and the Base anchor uses the official median.
| Scenario anchor | Official FDD EBTIDA | Estimated manager-run owner earnings | Estimated owner-operator benefit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative: bottom-quartile average | $36,868 | −$26,172 | $36,868 |
| Base: system median | $126,590 | $63,550 | $126,590 |
| Upside: top-quartile average | $255,837 | $192,797 | $255,837 |
Each manager-run calculation subtracts the same $63,040 BLS manager-wage benchmark from the applicable official FDD EBTIDA anchor.
Each line compares estimated manager-run residual earnings with owner-operator benefit at the same official FDD earnings anchor.
Interpretation: the $63,040 gap between each pair is the assumed market value of management labor. Owner operation improves cash available to the owner only because the owner performs a full-time role that would otherwise require paid management.
Sources: 2026 Clean Eatz FDD, Item 19, pp. 44–46; BLS Food Service Managers profile. Calculations use full-precision subtraction and are rounded to the nearest dollar.
At the Base anchor, the $126,590 owner-operator benefit can be viewed as approximately $63,550 of manager-run residual business earnings plus $63,040 of labor value. Calling the full $126,590 “passive profit” would overstate the economics.
What is included—and what is still missing?
The FDD measure captures major unit-level operating costs, but it is not after-tax take-home pay and does not fully capture capital or financing demands. The table includes food cost, non-manager employee wages, occupancy, and a broad operating-cost category; it excludes manager or owner pay, interest, depreciation, amortization, and personal income taxes.
- Included in Item 19
- Cost of goods sold; employee labor excluding manager and owner pay; occupancy; bonuses, payroll taxes, workers’ compensation, royalties, advertising-fund payments, bank charges, professional fees, software, supplies, utilities, repairs, licenses, travel, auto, and miscellaneous operating costs.
- Not included
- Manager salary, franchise-owner salary, interest, depreciation, amortization, and taxes. The FDD also warns that capitalized and balance-sheet expenditures may be absent.
- Manager-run estimate
- Official FDD EBTIDA minus a $63,040 BLS manager wage benchmark. It is before personal income taxes and before financing principal payments.
- Owner-operator benefit
- Official FDD EBTIDA when the owner personally performs the required management role. This combines residual operating return with compensation for the owner’s labor.
- Debt service
- Not modeled. Item 10 states that Clean Eatz does not offer direct or indirect financing or guarantee a borrower’s obligations.
- The BLS $63,040 wage is a national May 2024 median for food service managers in food services and drinking places, not a Clean Eatz-specific payroll figure.
- The same wage is used in all three scenarios to isolate the effect of the FDD earnings anchors; local compensation can vary substantially.
- Employer payroll burden, benefits, bonuses, and recruiting cost are not added to the wage benchmark, so manager-run residual earnings may be overstated.
- No personal tax calculation is made, and no after-tax owner income is published.
Which variables move Clean Eatz owner earnings most?
Sales volume and controllable restaurant costs have the largest effect, while owner involvement determines whether the management-labor component is paid to an employee or retained as compensation for the owner’s work. The FDD’s quartile averages show EBTIDA ranging from $36,868 in the bottom sales quartile to $255,837 in the top sales quartile. Average gross revenue was $672,572 in the bottom quartile and $1,519,084 in the top quartile; the full reported Café revenue range was $389,339 to $2,053,793.
Clean Eatz charges a 6% royalty and 2% Brand Fund contribution, requires at least 1% of gross sales for local marketing, and charges a $638 monthly technology fee. A regional advertising cooperative is currently not in effect, although the FDD permits future contributions. These fees are material, but the Item 19 “Other Operating Costs” line already includes royalties and advertising-fund payments, so they should not be deducted a second time from the disclosed EBTIDA.
The average cohort also shows why small percentage changes matter. A one-percentage-point change in operating margin on $1,030,285 of annual revenue equals about $10,303 before taxes and financing. Food purchasing, scheduling, occupancy negotiations, local marketing efficiency, and equipment or maintenance needs can therefore move owner earnings by tens of thousands of dollars.
The 92-unit sample excludes younger Cafés and transferred outlets and is based on franchisee reports that the franchisor says were not audited for Item 19. It does not describe every unit that opened, closed, changed hands, or operated for less than 18 months.
How should Item 20 affect the earnings interpretation?
Item 20 adds survivorship and operating-history context that the mature-unit earnings table cannot show by itself. The system ended 2025 with 114 franchised outlets, up from 110 at the beginning of the year after 11 openings, two terminations, and five outlets that ceased operations for other reasons. Three franchise outlets transferred to new owners during 2025.
Those outcomes do not establish why any individual location closed or transferred, but they show that the Item 19 results should not be read as a universal result for all entrants. The bottom-quartile average manager-run scenario is already negative after a national manager wage, and a new Café may face ramp-up costs or sales levels that differ from the mature sample.
What should a prospective owner verify before relying on the range?
Verify the exact management payroll, local occupancy, food cost, and sales mix for comparable Cafés before treating any scenario as a budget. The franchisor states that written substantiation for Item 19 is available to prospective franchisees on reasonable request, and Item 20 supplies contacts for current and former franchisees.
- Request the written Item 19 substantiation and confirm how each Café’s manager or owner compensation was removed from the reported financials.
- Ask franchisees in similar markets for general-manager wages, bonuses, payroll taxes, benefits, and the owner’s weekly time commitment.
- Compare local rent, common-area maintenance, utilities, insurance, food distribution, and required supplier pricing with the FDD averages.
- Confirm whether local marketing exceeded the 1% minimum and whether any regional advertising cooperative or new required technology cost applies.
- Separate recurring repairs from capital replacements, remodels, and equipment upgrades that may not appear in the Item 19 operating result.
- Model loan interest and principal separately; do not subtract the Item 7 initial investment from annual sales or mistake EBTIDA for cash after debt service.
- Interview bottom-, middle-, and top-performing franchisees rather than relying only on system averages or selected operators.
What is the decision-useful earnings answer?
The strongest defensible result is approximately $63,550 of manager-run pre-tax owner earnings at the 2025 median, with a scenario range from a $26,172 loss to $192,797. An owner who personally fills the management role has a median-anchored owner-operator benefit of $126,590, ranging from $36,868 to $255,837 across the selected FDD anchors, but the difference is compensation for active labor rather than passive profit. The most important driver is Café-level sales and cost control; the largest unresolved uncertainty is the true local cost of full-time management and other omitted capital or financing demands. A buyer should verify Item 19 substantiation, manager compensation, and comparable franchisee economics before converting the range into a personal income plan.