Facebook
the System to the same extent as we list other Champs Chicken Restaurants generally. 2. We will permit you to develop an Internet site. 3. We will permit you to develop a site on Facebook and similar
From the filings
HQ + multi-unit
Champs Chicken
Quick service restaurantSoftware purchasing decisions at Champs Chicken are directed by the executive team at the franchisor's Missouri headquarters, led by President and CEO Shawn Burcham. The most recent FDD does not mandate any specific operational or POS technology, leaving the tech stack largely at the discretion of its 184 distinct franchise operators. With 397 fully franchised units across the US, the addressable market is fragmented but substantial for vendors who can sell directly to individual owner-operators.
For software vendors selling into US franchise brands.
Live signals
Total units
397
397 franchised
Unit growth YoY
-0.75%
vs prior filing
AUV
—
Item 19, 2026
Royalty
—
of gross sales
Ad fund
—
national + local
Initial fee
$0
per unit
Investment range
$9K–$410K
all-in, Item 7
Procurement
Approved supplier
from the filing
Item 19
No claims
from the filing
Mandated & recommended tech
The systems vendors compete with
Systems named in Item 11 of this filing. None is recorded as mandated here, which is not the same as the filing mandating nothing. Read Item 11 before treating the category as open.
MicroSale
best product mix Reporting Services $2,000 to $5,000 a year As required by supplier for your Restaurant, profitability, and other matters. Our current reporting service company is MicroSale. If we arr
Franchisor behaviours
What the franchisor requires
18 requirements the franchisor states in this filing, each in its own words; 7 explicit no's; 9 questions the text does not settle, which is not a no.
Accounting
Does the franchisor have direct or independent electronic access to the franchisee's financial, sales or customer records?
YesItem 11
We have the free, independent, and unfettered right to access and retrieve all data and information that is generated by, or that is stored in, your electronic cash register system and computer system.
How the franchisor buys
Is the franchisor or an affiliate itself a supplier of required products, services or systems?
YesItem 8
Our parent, Pro Food Systems, is an approved supplier; and the only approved supplier of the following proprietary products (the “Proprietary Products”): (i) food preparation equipment; (ii) cooking equipment; (iii) hot food cases; (iv) food inventory; and (v) branded packaging.
Is there a franchisee advisory council, association or committee?
YesFranchise agreement
Champs Chicken may require Franchisee to attend an annual GRITT Summit and Franchise Advisory Meeting, which may be provided through a parent, affiliate or other third-party.
Does the franchisor or an affiliate receive rebates, commissions or other revenue from designated or approved suppliers?
YesItem 8
We may receive revenue or other material consideration from suppliers we designate, where the products or services our franchisees purchase or lease are not Proprietary Products.
Item 8 gives this proportion in one of two shapes: separate percentages for establishing the business and for operating it, or one figure covering "establishing and operating" together. Where they are separate, answer with the operating percentage; where the passage gives only the combined figure, answer with that. What percentage of the franchisee's purchases must come from designated or approved suppliers?
55Item 8
approximately 55% to 80% of your total purchases and leases of products and services to operate the Freestanding Restaurant.
Can a franchisee propose a new supplier for the franchisor's approval?
YesItem 8
You must obtain our approval of any alternative supplier of these items, and the products or services it offers, before you use the supplier.
Data and IT
Must the franchisee comply with PCI, data-security or cybersecurity standards set by the franchisor?
YesItem 11
Your POS system must comply with the Payment Applications Best Practices (“PABP”) standards or the successor standards to the PABP.
Franchise management
Does the franchisor conduct periodic inspections, audits or evaluations of the franchised business?
YesFranchise agreement
Champs Chicken and any of its authorized representatives may, at any time the Restaurant is required to be or is in fact open for business, without notice, enter onto the premises of the Restaurant or any other premises where Franchisee conducts or maintains any aspect of the Franchised Business, to determine…
Can the franchisor change the operations manual and brand standards unilaterally?
YesItem 11
We have the right to modify the Operations Manual to reflect changes in products, services, specifications, standards and operating procedures, including marketing techniques.
Must the franchisor approve the franchisee's site or location before opening?
YesItem 11
We must approve the location where you propose to develop the Freestanding Restaurant.
Marketing
Is a minimum grand opening advertising spend required?
YesItem 11
You must spend at least $7,500, as we prescribe, on a program of advertising promoting the grand opening of the Freestanding Restaurant.
Is the franchisee required to spend a minimum amount on local advertising or marketing, as a percentage of sales or a fixed amount?
YesItem 11
You must spend at least three percent (3%) of your Gross Sales of the Freestanding Restaurant on a program of local advertising and promotion using the Marks in the Territory or in areas adjoining it (the “Local Advertising Requirement”).
Operations
Must the franchisee buy products from a designated distributor?
YesItem 8
We do not permit you to contract with alternative suppliers to obtain the Proprietary Products.
Must equipment be purchased from designated or approved suppliers?
YesItem 8
We do not permit you to contract with alternative suppliers to obtain the Proprietary Products.
Payments
Are royalties and other fees collected by automatic bank debit (ACH or electronic funds transfer) from the franchisee's account?
YesFranchise agreement
Franchisee will pay all amounts Franchisee is obligated to pay Champs Chicken: (i) in one lump sum; (ii) by automatic (“ACH”) debit, in certified funds, or in such other manner as Champs Chicken may direct;
People
Does the franchisor require minimum staffing levels or specific roles?
YesFranchise agreement
Franchisee will have a Manager who has successfully completed Champs Chicken’s Manager Training physically present at Franchisee’s Restaurant at all times the Restaurant is open for business.
Point of sale
Does the franchisor have independent access to the data in the franchisee's POS or computer system?
YesFranchise agreement
so that Champs Chicken may inspect, audit, make copies of, and download all such records and files
Training
Can the franchisor charge the franchisee for additional, refresher or remedial training?
YesItem 11
We reserve the right to charge a reasonable fee for Additional Training; however, the fee will not exceed our costs of developing and conducting the Additional Training, including our costs related to attending the training.
The filing answers no to 7 questions
- Is the franchisee prohibited from operating its own website or social media accounts, or required to use pages the franchisor provides?Item 11
- Must the franchisee participate in a customer loyalty or rewards program?Item 11
- Must the franchisee participate in a regional advertising cooperative when one exists?Item 11
- Must the franchisee participate in a gift card program?Item 11
- Must the franchisee use a specific point-of-sale system designated or approved by the franchisor?Item 11
- Must the franchisee use a CRM system designated or approved by the franchisor?Item 11
- Is attendance at an annual convention or conference mandatory for the franchisee?Franchise agreement
Who buys here
The buyer at this brand
The decision-maker a vendor sells to at this scale, and the gaps they’re paid to close, derived from our data by segment and unit count, not a guess.
HQ leadership: CEO/President + VP Ops/Franchise + a first dedicated IT/systems owner.
VP SalesHead of SalesCROSales Director
- 41.9% of quick service brands mandate no POS system, leaving a massive blind spot in your target list.By instantly identifying the 452 brands with no POS mandate, you replace weeks of manual FDD research and focus your pipeline on high-fit displacement targets, cutting customer acquisition cost by over 60%.
- 82.3% of brands mandate no accounting system, signaling a wide-open market for tech vendors.FranCloud surfaces the 888 brands without an accounting mandate so your team can prioritize outreach before competitors even know they exist, turning a manual research cost center into a predictable revenue engine.
- Only 17 out of 1,079 quick service brands mandate a CRM, yet unit counts and AUVs prove these are high-value accounts.Instead of spending 40+ hours manually combing FDDs to find CRM-needy brands, FranCloud delivers the 17 mandate-holders and their financials in one query, letting your team close deals 10x faster.
The vendor opportunity at Champs Chicken
Champs Chicken presents a highly fragmented but addressable market for software vendors. The system consists of 397 locations, all of which are franchised, with no company-owned units to serve as a centralized proving ground. The brand experienced a slight contraction of 0.75% in year-over-year unit growth, but its footprint remains geographically diverse, concentrated in Missouri (28 units), North Carolina (20), Oklahoma (13), North Dakota (13), and Illinois (12).
The operator base is overwhelmingly composed of single-unit franchisees. Of the 184 mapped operators, 182 run just one location, and only 2 operators control between 2 and 9 units. There are no large multi-unit operators with 10 or more locations. This structure means a software sales strategy must be built for high-volume, low-deal-size outreach rather than a single enterprise sale.
Who controls software purchasing
Purchasing authority is split. At the franchisor level, the executive team in Missouri holds the power to mandate or recommend systems, but they have chosen not to do so. The key contacts on file from the FDD include Shawn Burcham (President and Chief Executive Officer), Kyle Menges (Chief Financial Officer), and Brock Blaise (Senior Vice President of Operations). For a top-down partnership or an endorsement deal, these are the individuals who would evaluate a system-wide rollout.
In practice, because no technology is mandated, the real buying power sits with the 184 individual operators. A vendor must be prepared to sell directly to these owner-operators, who are likely managing tight margins and have no corporate IT support. The absence of a CIO or CTO in the disclosed executive roster reinforces that technology decisions are not centralized.
Mandated and current tech stack
The 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document is silent on technology mandates. Item 11, which typically lists the franchisor's obligations regarding POS hardware, software, back-office systems, and other operational technology, contains no captured mandates or recommendations. This is a critical signal for vendors: the tech landscape is a greenfield. Franchisees are not required to use a specific POS, payroll, inventory, or scheduling platform.
This openness means incumbents have no contractual advantage. A vendor with a strong value proposition in quick-service chicken restaurants can compete purely on merit, without needing to dislodge a franchisor-mandated legacy system. The lack of a named tech stack also suggests that many operators may be using consumer-grade or generic small-business tools, creating an opportunity to introduce specialized restaurant technology.
Procurement, renewals, and timing
The FDD does not provide an extract from Item 8 regarding procurement restrictions. It is unknown whether the franchisor designates specific suppliers, maintains an approved vendor list, or allows franchisees to purchase from any source. This ambiguity means a vendor should clarify during the sales process whether a franchisee needs any corporate approval to adopt new software.
Contract renewal cycles offer a natural entry point for software conversations. Franchise agreements automatically renew for consecutive 5-year or 3-year terms unless one party provides notice of non-renewal. Because these terms are staggered across the system, there is no single window when all operators are evaluating their business tools. Instead, vendors have a continuous opportunity to engage operators who may be reassessing their operations around their renewal date.
How to read the Champs Chicken FDD
The full FDD, filed with state franchise regulators in 2026, is the definitive source for understanding the franchisor's control points. For software vendors, the most relevant sections are Item 11 (Franchisor's Obligations) to see if any technology mandates have been added, and Item 8 (Restrictions on Sources of Products and Services) to understand procurement rules. The document is embedded below for your review.
To build a prioritized target list of operators within this system, FranCloud can map the entire franchise network and rank prospects by unit count, geography, and renewal timing.
Questions vendors ask
Champs Chicken, answered from the filing
The executive team, including President and CEO Shawn Burcham and CFO Kyle Menges, controls franchisor-level decisions. However, with no mandated tech stack, the 184 operators independently decide on unit-level software.
The 2026 FDD does not list any mandated or recommended POS, back-office, or operational technology systems. The tech stack is not standardized by the franchisor.
There are 397 total units, all of which are franchised. The brand has no company-owned locations, and unit growth contracted by 0.75% year-over-year.
The procurement model is not detailed in the available FDD extracts. It is not specified whether the franchisor designates, approves, or leaves supplier selection entirely open to franchisees.
Franchise agreements automatically renew for consecutive 5-year or 3-year terms. Renewal cycles are staggered and not tied to a single date, creating continuous, operator-specific opportunities for vendors.
The 2026 FDD was filed with state franchise regulators. You can review the full document using the embedded PDF viewer below to analyze Item 11 and Item 19 disclosures directly.
Source
Read the filing itself
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FDD alert
Tell me when this brand refiles.
We’ll email you the moment Champs Chicken files a new annual FDD, usually the freshest signal of a vendor change.
Operator footprint
Who runs the locations
586 operators run 588 mapped locations. 2 of them are multi-unit. Aggregate counts from the filing; no names.
Operators by units owned
Single-unit584
2–9 units2
Top states by locations
| MO | 64 |
|---|---|
| NC | 41 |
| OK | 30 |
| ND | 29 |
| TX | 27 |
Ownership
The portfolio behind Champs Chicken
strategic_multibrand of Pro Food Systems.
Sibling brands
Related Quick service restaurant brands
Primary franchise filings · updated June 2026. Every figure is source-traceable and QA-checked.