That is an independent, manager-run estimate of annual pre-tax owner earnings for one U.S. restaurant open at least one year, with a base scenario near $45,000. The 2026 Villa Pizza, LLC Franchise Disclosure Document reports 2025 Gross Sales, not profit or owner compensation. An owner who personally replaces the required full-time manager could have an estimated owner-operator benefit of about $80,000–$146,000, but roughly $63,040 of that comparison is compensation for active management work rather than passive business profit.
What does the 2026 Villa Pizza FDD actually disclose?
Officially, Item 19 discloses Gross Sales—not owner earnings. For calendar 2025, the 31 reporting domestic franchised restaurants open at least one year had unaudited median annual Gross Sales of $794,481 and average annual Gross Sales of $1,069,372. The observed range was $164,813 to $3,671,741. These figures are per restaurant, not per owner or portfolio.
The average being materially above the median indicates that higher-volume restaurants pull the average upward. Only 10 of 31 reporting restaurants, or 32%, exceeded the average. For that reason, the median is the more defensible central revenue anchor for a scenario model, although it is still not a forecast for a new location.
How comparable is the Item 19 population to one Villa Pizza restaurant?
The comparison is useful but not brand-format specific. The franchised cohort combines Villa Pizza, Villa Fresh Italian Kitchen and Villa Italian Kitchen restaurants. Of the 32 eligible restaurants, seven were in airports and one was in a convenience-store environment. Airport hours and convenience-store menus can differ substantially from a traditional food-court or in-line restaurant.
The 2026 FDD also defines two standard development formats: approximately 600–900 square feet for a food-court location and 1,200–3,000 square feet for an in-line restaurant. Item 19 does not publish separate sales or profit results for those formats. A buyer therefore should not treat the combined median as a format-specific projection.
How is the annual owner-earnings range estimated?
The estimate applies a broad official industry net-income margin to an FDD-anchored revenue range. Because Item 19 provides no franchise profit data, the model starts with the $794,481 franchised median Gross Sales figure, then uses 80%, 100% and 120% of that median as explicit analytical revenue assumptions. Those percentages are not FDD quartiles or probabilities.
The margin anchor is derived from the IRS 2022 Corporation Complete Report: $35.281 billion of net income less deficit divided by $617.565 billion of total receipts for Food services and drinking places, or 5.71%. Because the IRS category is broader than limited-service pizza and gives no usable franchise-specific dispersion, the conservative and upside margins are modeled at three percentage points below and above that benchmark. NAICS 722513, Limited-Service Restaurants, is a closer operating classification, but the IRS table used here is published at the broader industry level.
One restaurant open at least one year; rounded to the nearest dollar
Interpretation: the range is driven by both restaurant sales and the assumed all-in net-income margin; it is not the full range of outcomes observed in Item 19.
Sources: 2026 Villa Pizza, LLC FDD, Item 19, pp. 38–39; IRS Corporation Complete Report, Publication 16 and IRS 2022 Table 5.1 industry data. Scenario spreads are editorial assumptions.
| Scenario | Revenue assumption | Net-income margin | Manager-run owner earnings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | $635,585 | 2.71% | $17,243 |
| Base | $794,481 | 5.71% | $45,388 |
| Upside | $953,377 | 8.71% | $83,067 |
- Target measure: estimated pre-tax owner earnings is intended to approximate cash available after normal unit-level operating expenses and recurring franchise fees, but before personal income taxes and financing principal payments. Because the input is an IRS net-income margin, this is a proxy rather than a direct cash-flow calculation.
- Revenue: 80%, 100% and 120% of the official franchised median Gross Sales. The FDD does not report these scenario bands.
- Margin: the 5.71% IRS all-in corporate net-income benchmark, with an editorial sensitivity of minus or plus three percentage points. Franchise fees are not subtracted again because the benchmark is treated as all-in.
- Accounting treatment: the IRS measure is not franchise-unit EBITDA or distributable cash flow. It may include depreciation, interest and corporate-level effects, so debt service and capital spending still require separate buyer analysis.
How does active owner involvement change the result?
Active operation can increase total owner benefit, but it does not create the same amount of passive profit. Item 15 requires the restaurant to be directly supervised by a full-time trained manager, who may be the owner. The owner-operator comparison adds the BLS May 2024 median wage of $63,040 for food service managers in Food services and drinking places to the manager-run residual earnings.
This addition represents the market value of management labor the owner performs. It is not guaranteed cash savings: an owner may still need assistant managers, payroll burden, benefits or coverage during absences, and an individual market wage may be higher or lower.
The $63,040 gap represents active management labor value
Interpretation: the business-profit estimate does not change solely because the owner works in the restaurant; the higher owner-operator figure adds compensation for labor that otherwise would be performed by a paid manager.
Sources: 2026 Villa Pizza, LLC FDD, Item 15, p. 30; BLS Food Service Managers occupational profile, May 2024 wage data.
Which disclosed costs can move Villa Pizza owner earnings most?
Food, labor and recurring franchise fees create a substantial known cost layer, but the FDD does not provide a complete franchised-unit expense statement. For 23 affiliate-operated restaurants open at least one year in 2025, Item 19 reports average food and paper cost of 22.22% and average labor cost of 30.29%. Those are company-operated proxies, not franchised results.
Item 6 separately requires a 6% continuing royalty, 1% local advertising expenditure and an Advertising Fund contribution of up to 3% of gross revenue. The fee base is defined as gross revenue, which is close to but not necessarily identical to the Item 19 Gross Sales definition. The chart below is therefore a cost-pressure map, not a reconciled profit bridge.
Affiliate food and labor ratios plus maximum disclosed recurring percentage fees
Interpretation: even at the affiliate average food and labor ratios, rent and other operating costs must fit inside the residual 37.49%; that residual is not owner profit.
Sources: 2026 Villa Pizza, LLC FDD, Item 19, p. 38, and Item 6, pp. 6–9. Affiliate restaurants did not pay royalty or national advertising fund fees, so the combined display is analytical rather than reported.
Why are occupancy and labor the largest unresolved variables?
The FDD gives no franchised average rent, common-area charges, utilities, delivery commissions, repairs or insurance expense. Those omissions matter because the cohort includes airports, convenience stores, food courts and in-line restaurants with different hours, lease structures and staffing needs. A location can meet the system median in sales and still produce substantially different owner earnings.
Labor also affects the owner-role comparison twice: first as a restaurant operating expense and then as the economic value of work performed by an owner-operator. A buyer should model local wage rates, payroll taxes, benefits, overtime, manager coverage and operating hours rather than using a national wage figure without adjustment.
How much confidence should a buyer place in this range?
Evidence confidence is limited. The revenue anchor is current, same-brand FDD evidence, but the earnings margin comes from a broader 2022 federal corporate dataset rather than Villa Pizza franchised-unit profit-and-loss statements. The FDD cohort also mixes concepts, formats and nontraditional locations.
Item 20 adds another caution: systemwide outlets declined from 71 at the start of 2025 to 66 at year-end, while franchised outlets declined from 43 to 41. Those counts do not establish why individual outlets changed status or what surviving restaurants earned, but they reinforce the need to review current unit-level evidence rather than relying on a single system average.
What should a prospective owner verify before relying on an earnings model?
The buyer should replace broad assumptions with unit- and format-specific evidence wherever possible. The most decision-useful checks are:
- Request the written substantiation supporting the 2026 FDD Item 19 financial performance representation and confirm how each reporting restaurant was classified.
- Ask for sales and full operating expense evidence from restaurants matching the proposed format: food court, in-line, airport or another nontraditional venue.
- Interview current and former franchisees about food and paper cost, manager payroll, hourly labor, rent, common-area charges, utilities, delivery commissions, insurance and repair expense.
- Confirm whether the Advertising Fund is currently active and what percentage applies; Item 6 permits a contribution of up to 3% in addition to 1% local advertising.
- Separate owner salary or manager replacement value from distributions and retained business profit. Ask whether reported figures include owner compensation, depreciation and interest.
- Model loan interest and principal separately. The FDD does not offer franchisor financing, and personal taxes depend on entity structure, jurisdiction and owner circumstances.
What is the strongest defensible Villa Pizza owner-earnings range?
The strongest defensible range is approximately $17,000–$83,000 in annual manager-run pre-tax owner earnings per restaurant open at least one year, with a base scenario near $45,000. It is a scenario-based estimate—not an official Villa Pizza profit disclosure. Active owner management can raise total owner-operator benefit to roughly $80,000–$146,000, but the added amount primarily values labor performed by the owner.
The most important earnings driver is the combination of location-level sales and occupancy/labor control. The largest unresolved uncertainty is the absence of franchised-unit operating expense and profit data by concept and format. Before making a decision, a buyer should verify Item 19 substantiation, obtain comparable unit-level profit-and-loss evidence and test the model through interviews with current and former franchisees.