How Much Does a Clean Juice Franchise Owner Make?

Item 19 measures historical Gross Revenue, not owner earnings. The disclosure covers 54 franchised Traditional Stores that operated for at least 11 months during 2025 and separates only the highest and lowest quartiles. It does not report a systemwide average, a systemwide median, the middle 50% of outlets, cost of goods, payroll, rent, operating profit, owner compensation, cash flow, or net income.

The disclosure states that 55 franchised U.S. stores were operating on December 28, 2025, all of them Traditional Stores. One store that opened in June 2025 was excluded from the mature cohort. The Item 19 figures were compiled from unaudited franchisee reports and were not independently verified by the franchisor. These limitations matter because even broad sales coverage cannot answer the earnings question without unit-level expenses.

Source: 2026 Clean Juice Franchise Disclosure Document, Item 19, pp. 47–48. Five of 13 top-quartile stores, or 38.5%, met or exceeded their cohort average; eight of 14 bottom-quartile stores, or 57.2%, met or exceeded their cohort average. Those percentages describe attainment within selected quartiles, not the probability that a new outlet will reach a sales target.

The defensible output is a wide scenario range, not an official salary. For a manager-run Traditional Store, the model produces approximately $8,052 in the Conservative scenario, $22,634 in the Base scenario, and $43,745 in the Upside scenario. These are independent estimates for a mature single unit, not figures reported by Clean Juice and not predictions of what a particular buyer will achieve.

How were the three revenue anchors selected?

The Conservative and Upside revenue anchors use official Item 19 medians; the Base anchor is estimated. The Conservative case uses the bottom-quartile median of $268,412. The Upside case uses the top-quartile median of $486,053. Because the FDD omits the middle 50% and does not disclose a systemwide median, the Base revenue of $377,233 is the arithmetic midpoint between those two published medians. It is an analytical interpolation, not a Clean Juice result and not a claim about the most likely store.

How were operating margins applied?

The 3%, 6%, and 9% cash operating margins are explicit editorial sensitivity assumptions. No same-brand profit statement or directly comparable official unit-margin benchmark was available. The model therefore tests three transparent management-inclusive margins rather than importing a generic restaurant profit figure and presenting it as a Clean Juice fact.

• Manager-run treatment: each margin is assumed to remain after normal unit-level operating expenses, a paid full-time Key Person or equivalent manager, the standard 6% royalty, the current 2% Brand Development Fund contribution, and other recurring operating costs.
• Cash-oriented definition: estimated pre-tax owner earnings exclude personal income taxes, buyer-specific interest and principal payments, depreciation, major capital expenditures, and future remodel spending.
• No double charge: the 8% required percentage-fee burden is assumed to be inside the scenario margins and is not subtracted a second time.
• Rounding: calculations use full-dollar inputs and are rounded to the nearest dollar after multiplication.

Active operation can increase owner benefit, but it does not create passive profit. Item 15 requires the franchised business to be supervised on-premises by a Managing Owner who completes training and devotes full-time effort. If the Managing Owner is not full time, or if multiple stores are operated, the franchisee must appoint an approved full-time Key Person. This structure makes labor substitution central to the earnings analysis.

The owner-operator scenarios add the BLS median wage for food-service managers in food services and drinking places, $63,040 in May 2024, to the manager-run residual. The addition estimates the economic value of replacing a paid manager. It is not a franchisor-reported owner salary, does not include employer payroll taxes or benefits, and should not be added in full unless the owner actually performs the manager’s duties and the store avoids the corresponding payroll cost.

The standard percentage burden for a Traditional Store is currently 8% of Gross Revenue before recommended local marketing. Item 6 lists a 6% Royalty Fee and a current 2% Brand Development Fund contribution. Clean Juice may increase the broader Marketing Allocation to 3%, and it recommends—but does not currently require—another 1% of Gross Revenue for local marketing.

At the scenario revenue anchors, the current 8% required percentage fees equal approximately $21,473, $30,179, and $38,884 a year. These amounts are already incorporated conceptually in the scenario margins; the table below is an exposure illustration, not another deduction.

Source: 2026 Clean Juice Franchise Disclosure Document, Item 6, pp. 6–9, and Item 11, p. 31. A temporary 2026 Early Franchise Incentive Program may reduce the Royalty Fee to 3% for the first 12 accounting periods if its conditions are met; this article uses the standard 6% rate because the reduction is temporary and eligibility-specific.

The largest uncertainty is the absence of same-brand operating expenses and profit data. Item 19 provides strong coverage of mature store sales but withholds the middle 50% of the distribution and every expense line needed to convert Gross Revenue into business profit. That makes the final earnings estimate highly sensitive to product cost, staffing, rent, delivery mix, and local wage conditions.

• Selected-quartile disclosureThe FDD reports the top 13 and bottom 14 mature stores, but not the 27 stores in the middle half. The model cannot identify the true system median.
• Unaudited salesItem 19 states that franchisee-reported sales were not independently verified. The figures also exclude all costs and expenses.
• Traditional Store onlyNo Non-Traditional Store operated at year-end 2025, so the article does not estimate kiosk, food-truck, container, food-court, campus, hospital, or other closed-market economics.
• System population changedItem 20 shows franchised outlets declining from 69 at the start of 2025 to 55 at year-end, a 20.3% net reduction, with one opening and 15 outlets listed as ceasing operations for other reasons.
• Manager benchmark is nationalThe $63,040 BLS figure is a U.S. industry median wage, not a Clean Juice payroll record and not a local total-compensation quote.
• Financing is buyer-specificItem 10 states that the franchisor does not offer direct or indirect financing. Interest and principal therefore sit outside the operating-earnings scenarios.

A buyer should replace the scenario assumptions with store-level records whenever possible. The FDD states that written substantiation for Item 19 is available on reasonable written request, and Item 20 identifies current and former franchisees who can provide operating context.

• Request the written Item 19 substantiation and confirm how Gross Revenue was extracted, classified, and checked for each reporting Traditional Store.
• Obtain anonymized or permissioned profit-and-loss statements from mature franchisees, separating product cost, hourly labor, manager compensation, payroll burden, occupancy, delivery commissions, loyalty fees, repairs, insurance, and local marketing.
• Ask franchisees to distinguish owner salary, payroll compensation, draws, distributions, retained cash, depreciation, interest, principal payments, and capital expenditures.
• Interview both current and former franchisees about the 15 outlets reported as ceasing operations for other reasons during 2025 and the six ownership transfers reported for that year.
• Price a qualified local Key Person or food-service manager, including payroll taxes and benefits, rather than relying only on the national BLS wage.
• Model lease terms and occupancy as a percentage of local sales, then stress-test product cost, labor scheduling, digital-order fees, seasonality, and road-access disruption.
• Keep debt service outside operating profit and insert the buyer’s actual loan amount, interest rate, amortization, fees, and required reserves.

For one mature manager-run Traditional Store, the strongest defensible range from the available evidence is approximately $8,000 to $44,000 in annual pre-tax owner earnings. It is scenario-based, not official. A genuinely full-time owner-operator may realize approximately $71,000 to $107,000 of combined residual profit and management labor value, but the labor component is compensation for work performed.

The most important earnings drivers are Gross Revenue and the operating margin left after food and beverage cost, payroll, occupancy, required franchise fees, and digital-order costs. The largest unresolved uncertainty is that the 2026 Item 19 discloses no store-level profit data and omits the middle 50% of sales observations. Before making a decision, a buyer should verify the Item 19 substantiation, reconcile recurring obligations to actual franchisee profit-and-loss statements, and interview current and former owners about manager staffing, owner compensation, closures, transfers, and location-specific operating costs.