y on your use of designated or approved sources. You will utilize the online ordering service provider designated by us for Cheba Hut Businesses. You are currently required to use OLO as the designate
From the filings
Cheba Hut
Quick service restaurantSoftware purchasing control at Cheba Hut is not centralized at a named HQ executive in the FDD; the franchisor mandates Olo as a key technology system. The brand operates 83 total units, 80 of which are franchised, presenting a concentrated addressable market of single-unit operators. With an average unit volume of $2,337,070 and a 5% royalty, the system's tech stack and renewal cycles are the critical data points for vendors.
For software vendors selling into US franchise brands.
Live signals
Ongoing fee load
What the operator pays every month
The recurring percentage of gross sales named in this filing, before rent, labour or any technology fee.
7%of gross sales (FY2026)
15% reference
Mandated & recommended tech
The systems vendors compete with
1 of these are mandated in the franchise agreement. Each is named in Item 11 of the filing, the incumbents a challenger must displace or integrate with.
Franchisor behaviours
What the franchisor requires
25 requirements the franchisor states in this filing, each in its own words; 2 explicit no's; 7 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 (or our designee) have the right to independently access the electronic information and data relating to your Franchise and to collect and use your electronic information and data in any manner, including to promote the System and the sale of Franchises.
Must the franchisee submit periodic financial statements (monthly, quarterly or annual) to the franchisor?
YesFranchise agreement
You will deliver monthly Financial Statements to us within 20 days of the end of each calendar month, which must be certified by you as complete and accurate.
How the franchisor buys
Is the franchisor or an affiliate itself a supplier of required products, services or systems?
YesItem 8
We are currently the only approved supplier of the Cheba Hut WTF Board, online ordering board, and select plaques and proprietary spices.
Does the franchisor reserve the right to change designated suppliers or systems at any time?
YesFranchise agreement
We reserve the right to: (i) change or add approved suppliers of these services at any time in our sole discretion;
Does the franchisor or an affiliate receive rebates, commissions or other revenue from designated or approved suppliers?
YesItem 8
We currently receive rebates from suppliers based on purchases made by us and our franchisees.
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?
90Item 8
We estimate that approximately 75% of purchases required to open your Cheba Hut Business and 90% of purchases required to operate your Cheba Hut Business will be from us or from other approved suppliers or under our specifications.
Does the franchisor charge a fee to evaluate a proposed supplier?
YesItem 8
We reserve the right to charge a fee to evaluate the proposed product, service or supplier.
Can a franchisee propose a new supplier for the franchisor's approval?
YesFranchise agreement
If you want us to approve a supplier that you propose, you must send us a written notice specifying the supplier’s name and qualifications and provide any additional information that we request.
Data and IT
Must the franchisee comply with PCI, data-security or cybersecurity standards set by the franchisor?
YesFranchise agreement
You agree to comply with the then-current Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards as those standards may be revised and modified by the PCI Security Standards Council, LLC (see www.pcisecuritystandards.org), or any successor organization or standards that we may reasonably specify.
Franchise management
Does the franchisor conduct periodic inspections, audits or evaluations of the franchised business?
YesFranchise agreement
To ensure compliance with this Franchise Agreement, we or our representatives will have the right to enter your Cheba Hut Restaurant, evaluate your operations, and inspect or examine your books, records, accounts, and tax returns.
Can the franchisor change the operations manual and brand standards unilaterally?
YesFranchise agreement
We can modify the Brand Standards Manual at any time.
Must the franchisor approve the franchisee's site or location before opening?
YesItem 11
We must approve the site before you sign the Lease and you must obtain our approval of the site within 120 days of signing the Franchise Agreement.
Marketing
Is the franchisee prohibited from operating its own website or social media accounts, or required to use pages the franchisor provides?
YesFranchise agreement
At this time, we do not allow our franchisees to maintain their own websites (other than the localized webpage that we provide) or market their Cheba Hut Restaurant on the Internet (other than through approved social media outlets).
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
In addition to the Brand Fund Contributions, you must spend an average of 1% of your Net Sales on local advertising each month (“Local Advertising Requirement”).
Must the franchisee participate in a customer loyalty or rewards program?
YesFranchise agreement
You agree to participate in our gift and loyalty card programs, if any, and agree to make gift and loyalty cards available for purchase and redemption at your Cheba Hut Restaurant.
Must the franchisee participate in a regional advertising cooperative when one exists?
YesItem 11
If we elect to form such cooperatives, or if such cooperatives already exist near your territory, you will be required to participate in compliance with the provisions of the Brand Standards Manual, which we may periodically modify at our discretion.
Operations
Must equipment be purchased from designated or approved suppliers?
YesItem 8
You must obtain the computer hardware, software licenses, maintenance and support services, and other related services that meet our specifications from the suppliers we specify.
Payments
Must the franchisee use a payment processor or merchant-services provider designated or approved by the franchisor?
YesFranchise agreement
You agree to maintain, at all times, credit card relationships with the credit and debit card issuers or sponsors, check or credit verification services, financial-center services, merchant service providers, loyalty and gift cards, and electronic fund transfer systems (together, “Credit Card Vendors”) that we may…
Are royalties and other fees collected by automatic bank debit (ACH or electronic funds transfer) from the franchisee's account?
YesFranchise agreement
You must complete and send us an ACH Authorization Form allowing us to electronically debit a banking account that you designate (“Account”) for: (i) all fees payable to us pursuant to this Franchise Agreement (other than the Initial Franchise Fee); and (ii) any amounts that you owe to us or any of our affiliates for…
Must the franchisee participate in a gift card program?
YesItem 11
In addition to offering and accepting Cheba Hut gift cards and loyalty cards, you must accept all credit cards and debit cards that we determine.
People
Does the franchisor require minimum staffing levels or specific roles?
YesItem 15
An experienced hospitality professional who has a minimum of three years of restaurant and bar management experience must manage the day-to-day operation of the Cheba Hut Business (“Designated Manager”).
Must employees wear uniforms specified by the franchisor?
YesItem 8
All non-proprietary ingredients, beverage products, cooking materials, containers, cartons, bags, menus, napkins, other paper and plastic products, utensils, uniforms, and other supplies and materials used in your Cheba Hut Business must strictly conform to our reasonable specifications and quality standards.
Point of sale
Must the franchisee use a specific point-of-sale system designated or approved by the franchisor?
YesItem 8
You must use the computer hardware and software, including the point-of-sale system that we periodically designate to operate your Cheba Hut Franchise.
Does the franchisor have independent access to the data in the franchisee's POS or computer system?
YesItem 11
We (or our designee) have the right to independently access the electronic information and data relating to your Franchise and to collect and use your electronic information and data in any manner, including to promote the System and the sale of Franchises.
Training
Is attendance at an annual convention or conference mandatory for the franchisee?
YesItem 11
In addition to participating in ongoing training, you will be required to attend an annual meeting of all franchisees at a location we designate and pay a convention fee, currently estimated to be $420 per person, if we hold an annual meeting of all franchisees (See Item 6).
The filing answers no to 2 questions
- Is there a franchisee advisory council, association or committee?Item 11
- Is a minimum grand opening advertising spend required?Item 11
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.
The franchisor's owner/CEO decides; an ops or franchise-development lead may evaluate.
- 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 Cheba Hut
Cheba Hut operates 83 total restaurants, with 80 of those being franchised locations. The system is composed entirely of single-unit operators; the FDD maps 51 operators across approximately 51 located units, with zero multi-unit franchisees. This structure means a software vendor must sell to individual owner-operators, not a centralized multi-unit decision-maker. The top states for unit concentration are Texas with 11 locations, California and Colorado with 4 each, and Oregon and Tennessee with 3 each. The brand posted year-over-year unit growth of 9.589% and an average unit volume of $2,337,070.02, signaling a healthy but compact system where each unit represents a significant revenue opportunity.
Who controls software purchasing
The 2026 FDD does not identify a chief information officer, chief technology officer, or any executive specifically responsible for technology procurement. The sole named individual in Item 1 is Scott Jennings, listed as the agent for service of process. This absence of a named technology buyer suggests that purchasing authority for non-mandated systems may be decentralized to the franchisee level or held by undisclosed franchisor leadership. For a vendor, the practical implication is clear: the sales motion likely targets individual franchisees unless the franchisor exerts control through a mandate, as it does with Olo.
Mandated and current tech stack
The FDD is explicit on one point: Olo is a mandated technology system. No other point-of-sale, back-office, inventory, or labor management vendors are named as mandated or recommended. This creates a defined competitive landscape. If you sell a solution that competes with or complements Olo's digital ordering platform, you must address the existing mandate head-on. For any other software category—POS, payroll, scheduling, or loyalty—the FDD provides no signal of an incumbent, leaving the stack open but also unguided by franchisor requirements.
Procurement, renewals, and timing
Item 8 of the FDD contains no extract regarding procurement policies. There is no disclosure of designated suppliers, approved supplier programs, or purchasing cooperatives. This lack of a procurement signal means vendors cannot rely on a franchisor-driven purchasing channel for anything beyond the Olo mandate. On contract timing, the initial franchise term is 10 years. Item 17 permits one successor term of 10 years, conditioned on good standing, signing the then-current franchise agreement—which may have materially different terms including higher royalties—executing a general release, paying a renewal fee, and remodeling to current standards. Because franchisees sign at different times, renewal windows are staggered across the system, creating a continuous but fragmented opportunity for software sales tied to remodel or renegotiation cycles.
How to read the Cheba Hut FDD
The 2026 FDD is the foundational document for understanding this brand's technology mandates and contractual constraints. Focus your review on Item 11 to confirm the Olo mandate and check for any additional system requirements that may have been omitted from this summary. Item 17 is essential for modeling renewal-driven sales opportunities, as the 10-year term and conditional successor term define the rhythm of potential switching events. Item 8, while silent in this extraction, should be read in full to verify that no procurement restrictions exist. The embedded PDF viewer below provides the complete filing. For a ranked target list of franchise systems based on tech-stack fit and buying signals, FranCloud can help.
Questions vendors ask
Cheba Hut, answered from the filing
Read the filing itself
Every number on this page traces back to this document. Read it in full, page by page. Buy the original PDF to download, search, and annotate it.
View only A one-time purchase: the original filing, yours to keep.
FDD alert
Tell me when this brand refiles.
We’ll email you the moment Cheba Hut files a new annual FDD, usually the freshest signal of a vendor change.
Operator footprint
Who runs the locations
51 operators run 51 mapped locations. 0 of them are multi-unit. Aggregate counts from the filing; no names.
Operators by units owned
Top states by locations
| TX | 11 |
|---|---|
| CA | 4 |
| CO | 4 |
| OR | 3 |
| TN | 3 |
Related Quick service restaurant brands
Primary franchise filings · updated August 2026. Every figure is source-traceable and QA-checked.