For a manager-run Salsarita's Fresh Mexican Grill restaurant, this is the strongest defensible estimated pre-tax owner-earnings range supported by the 2026 FDD's franchised-unit sales distribution and an external restaurant-margin sensitivity. The FDD itself reports Gross Sales—not profit, owner compensation, distributions, or take-home pay.
This range is an independent analytical scenario, not an Item 19 financial performance representation by Salsarita's Franchising, LLC. It combines identified FDD facts with separately identified benchmark and scenario assumptions. Actual results can differ materially because of location, unit format, sales, food cost, labor, occupancy, financing, owner involvement, and execution.
Legal franchisor: Salsarita's Franchising, LLC. FDD issuance date: April 27, 2026. Item 19 status: historical Gross Sales only for traditional locations open for the full 2025 operating year. Population used: the 42 traditional franchised restaurants divided into top, middle, and bottom thirds. Benchmark: a 3%–5% typical pretax restaurant-margin range reported in 2025 from National Restaurant Association data, with an explicit 8% upside sensitivity. Checked: July 14, 2026.
The current same-brand FDD provides a useful sales distribution but no unit-level expense statement or earnings measure, so the profit result depends materially on an external margin proxy and editorial sensitivity.
OFFICIAL. Fifty traditional company-owned and franchised locations open for all of 2025.
OFFICIAL. Median 2025 Gross Sales for 14 traditional franchised restaurants in the middle third.
OFFICIAL. Fourteen restaurants in each of the top, middle, and bottom franchised cohorts.
OFFICIAL. Current 5% Royalty Fee plus 2% advertising contribution on Net Revenues; contractual ceilings are higher.
BENCHMARK. May 2024 U.S. median annual wage for food service managers used only for the owner-operator labor-value scenario.
What does the 2026 Item 19 actually measure?
It measures restaurant revenue, not owner earnings. Item 19 states that 50 traditional Salsarita's locations—company-owned and franchised, open for the entire 2025 operating year—averaged $1,262,122 in annual Gross Sales. Nineteen exceeded the average, and reported sales ranged from $437,022 to $3,186,908. These are official historical sales figures for the disclosed population. They do not show food cost, labor, occupancy, royalties, advertising, technology, debt service, or owner compensation. Source: 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document, Item 19, pp. 44–46.
The FDD defines Gross Sales as receipts before specified deductions and expressly says the tables do not reflect costs of sales, operating expenses, Royalty Fees, advertising contributions, or other expenses required to calculate income or profit.
| Traditional franchised cohort | Restaurants | Average Gross Sales | Median Gross Sales |
|---|---|---|---|
| Top third | 14 | $1,980,624 | $1,656,778 |
| Middle third | 14 | $1,166,276 | $1,117,315 |
| Bottom third | 14 | $777,882 | $775,348 |
Official 2025 Gross Sales distribution for traditional franchised restaurants. The FDD excluded 14 restaurants from the combined 2025 averages: 10 nontraditional locations and four locations not open for the entire period. Source: 2026 FDD, Item 19, pp. 44–45.
How was the annual owner-earnings range estimated?
The model multiplies the official franchised-cohort medians by explicit all-in pretax margin assumptions. The Conservative scenario uses the bottom-third median and a 3% margin; the Base scenario uses the middle-third median and a 5% margin; the Upside scenario uses the top-third median and an 8% margin. The 3%–5% range is an external restaurant benchmark; 8% is a sensitivity assumption, not a published Salsarita's result.
Annual pre-tax owner earnings before financing principal and personal income taxes
Interpretation: the revenue cohort drives most of the dollar spread, while the margin assumption compounds the difference. Source basis: 2026 FDD Item 19 franchised medians; a 3%–5% pretax restaurant-margin benchmark reported by MarketWatch from National Restaurant Association data; 8% is an editorial sensitivity.
- Estimated pre-tax owner earnings means cash available after normal unit-level operating expenses and recurring franchise charges, but before personal income taxes and financing principal payments.
- The margin is treated as all-in; current royalty, advertising, payment-processing, technology, labor, occupancy, and other ordinary operating costs are assumed to be absorbed rather than subtracted again.
- No personal income tax estimate is published. Entity structure, state and local rules, deductions, and owner circumstances vary.
- No debt amount, interest rate, or amortization term is assumed. Interest, depreciation, replacement capital, and major remodel timing are not separately modeled because Item 19 provides no expense bridge.
- The scenarios are not probabilities. The middle scenario is not presented as the most likely result.
How does owner involvement change the result?
A working owner may capture both residual business profit and the labor value of serving as the restaurant's manager. Item 15 says the owner is not personally required to operate the restaurant, but the franchise must have an approved Operating Principal who owns at least 10%, controls day-to-day activities, and devotes full-time best efforts. The restaurant also must employ a Manager, and the Manager may be the same person as the Operating Principal. This makes a purely passive single-unit structure difficult to infer from the FDD. Source: 2026 FDD, Item 15, pp. 36–37.
If the owner personally fills the Manager role, the analysis adds the May 2024 national median food service manager wage of $65,310 as labor value. The resulting figure is labeled owner-operator benefit, not passive profit, because part of it compensates the owner for full-time work. See the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics profile for food service managers.
The gap equals the $65,310 manager labor benchmark in every scenario
Interpretation: owner involvement can increase total economic benefit, but the increment is compensation for labor, not evidence that the restaurant itself produces more profit. The BLS wage excludes employer payroll burden and benefits, so actual replacement-cost savings may differ.
Which fees and operating obligations matter most?
The recurring percentage fees are the largest clearly disclosed franchise-specific burden. As of the 2026 FDD date, the Royalty Fee is 5% of Net Revenues and the advertising contribution is 2%, for a current combined burden of 7%. The franchisor may increase the royalty to 6% and total advertising contributions to as much as 6%, subject to the agreement's notice and timing provisions. These figures are official FDD facts, not scenario assumptions. Source: 2026 FDD, Item 6, pp. 5–10.
| Recurring item | Disclosed amount | Treatment in this analysis |
|---|---|---|
| Royalty Fee | 5% current; 6% permitted | Assumed absorbed within the all-in margin; not deducted twice. |
| Advertising contributions | 2% current; up to 6% | Assumed absorbed within the all-in margin; not deducted twice. |
| Online ordering platform | $396 monthly average in 2025 | Included conceptually in operating costs; volume-dependent fees can vary. |
| POS software subscription | Estimated $228 monthly | Included conceptually in operating costs. |
| Gateway and merchant processing | $1,495 monthly average in 2025, plus disclosed vendor terms | Not separately modeled because fee definitions may overlap and depend on sales mix. |
The FDD's Item 7 investment range—$371,400 to $856,100 after a possible tenant-improvement allowance—is startup context, not an annual operating expense. It is not subtracted from one year of sales. Financing payments on that investment would reduce distributable cash separately.
Where is the earnings uncertainty largest?
The largest uncertainty is the missing same-brand expense statement. Item 19 provides enough information to anchor sales but not enough to reproduce food cost, payroll, occupancy, repair and maintenance, insurance, local taxes, depreciation, interest, manager compensation, or owner distributions. That means even a precise sales figure cannot produce a precise owner-income figure.
- Sales distribution
- Official and useful, but wide: the combined traditional-location range was $437,022 to $3,186,908 in 2025.
- Population exclusions
- Ten nontraditional locations and four locations not open for the full year were excluded from the combined averages.
- Format comparability
- The scenario applies only to traditional units. Airport, university, corporate-campus, and other nontraditional economics should not be merged with it.
- Margin definition
- The external 3%–5% benchmark is not Salsarita's-specific and does not publish a line-item bridge that can be reconciled to every Item 6 charge.
- System movement
- Item 20 shows 52 franchised and eight company-owned outlets at the end of 2025, down from 56 and nine at the start of the year. That movement is context for diligence, not proof of unit profitability or loss.
- Financing and taxes
- Debt structure and personal taxes can materially change cash retained by the owner, but neither is estimated here.
The FDD says written substantiation for Item 19 is available on reasonable request. A buyer should use it to understand the source records, outlet eligibility, the apparent year label used in the company-owned detail table, and whether the proposed site resembles the bottom, middle, or top franchised cohort.
What should a buyer verify before relying on this range?
Verify the unit-level expense structure with written substantiation and franchisee interviews. The FTC advises prospective franchise buyers to examine the disclosure document and speak with current and former franchisees; the Salsarita's FDD identifies those contacts in Item 20 and Exhibit J. Review the FTC's guide to buying a franchise alongside the brand's documents.
- Request Item 19 written substantiation and confirm the exact 2025 Gross Sales records for comparable traditional franchised outlets.
- Ask franchisees for food and paper cost, hourly and management labor, occupancy, utilities, insurance, repairs, delivery commissions, and local marketing as percentages of sales.
- Separate owner salary, owner draw, distributions, retained cash, depreciation, interest, and principal payments in every interview.
- Confirm whether the proposed Operating Principal will also be the Manager and what full-time involvement the franchisor will approve.
- Model current and maximum royalty and advertising percentages, plus technology and processing charges, without double counting them.
- Compare the site with the FDD's traditional cohort and do not substitute nontraditional or company-operated economics without a documented adjustment.
What is the decision-useful takeaway?
The strongest defensible manager-run range is approximately $23,000 to $133,000 per year, with a $56,000 Base scenario. It is scenario-based, not official owner-income disclosure. If the owner also performs the Manager role, estimated owner-operator benefit rises to roughly $89,000 to $198,000, but about $65,310 of each figure represents labor value rather than passive business profit.
The most important earnings driver is the combination of sales cohort and unit-level operating margin. The largest unresolved uncertainty is the absence of same-brand expense and profit data in Item 19. Before making a decision, a buyer should verify the FDD's written substantiation, obtain actual operating statements from comparable franchisees, and reconcile owner compensation, manager cost, recurring fees, debt service, and replacement capital line by line.
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