HQ-led decisions

Hardee's - SLA

Quick service restaurant

Software purchasing decisions for Hardee's are controlled at the corporate level, with key executives including CEO Joe Guith and Chief Supply Chain Officer Mauricio Sirgo listed in the 2026 FDD. The franchise system comprises 1,571 total units, of which 1,369 are franchised, representing a substantial addressable market for vendors. The FDD does not disclose currently mandated or recommended technology systems.

Live signals

Total units
1,571
1,369 franchised
Unit growth YoY
vs prior filing
AUV
$1.29M
Item 19, 2025
Royalty
3.5%
of gross sales
Ad fund
4.25%
national + local
Initial fee
$25K
per unit
Investment range
$1.38M–$2.64M
all-in, Item 7
Procurement
Approved supplier
from the filing
Non-compete
1 years
from the filing
Item 19
Claims
from the filing

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.

7.75%of gross sales (FY2026)

Ongoing fees: 7.75% of gross sales (FY2026)Royalty 3.5%, Ad fund 4.25%. Total 7.75% of gross sales. Drawn against a 15% reference scale.

15% reference

Royalty 3.5%Ad fund 4.25%

Mandated & recommended tech

The systems vendors compete with

10 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.

Brink
Mandatory
POSItem 11

ecord customer transactions and collect and generate gross sales reports (including sales by categories) for the Franchised Restaurant. In addition, (i) you must purchase or lease Brink Kitchen Displa

CrunchTime
Mandatory
InventoryItem 6

rvice CrunchTime); in (described in Item 11). You are not required addition, $825 per to use this software. If you use PAR Brink Franchised Restaurant you are also required to use CrunchTime bi-annual

Grubhub
Mandatory
DeliveryItem 8

quire you to accept and process specific customer delivery orders and we require you to use all approved third-party delivery service providers, currently Uber Eats, Door Dash and GrubHub if those del

Olo
Mandatory
DeliveryItem 8

time with approved vendors and you must comply with the rules and participation criteria applicable to these programs, including our loyalty program. We have currently designated OLO as the sole softw

PAR
Mandatory
POSItem 11

of Sale System A Hardee’s Restaurant typically requires a Computer/POS System consisting of 4 POS terminals and 6 kitchen display monitors. You must purchase or lease PAR ES600 or PAR ES8500 terminals

PAR Brink
Mandatory
POSItem 6

pproved suppliers Software Currently, $118 per As incurred $118 of this amount is paid to our affiliate, Support Fee Franchised Restaurant CKR, and the amount or related fees are (PAR Brink and per fi

QSR Automations
Mandatory
Industry softwareItem 8

r/POS System”) as further HR-SLA- FDD – 5/25 31 explained in Item 11. Current approved vendors for technology components of the Computer/POS System are PAR Tech, Inc., CrunchTime, QSR Automations, Xen

Uber Eats
Mandatory
DeliveryItem 8

/delivery programs, we require you to accept and process specific customer delivery orders and we require you to use all approved third-party delivery service providers, currently Uber Eats, Door Dash

Xenial
Mandatory
POSItem 8

ystem are PAR Tech, Inc., CrunchTime, QSR Automations, Xenial Xpient (5.0 or higher) and Meracki. Currently, you must use either the PAR Brink (and CrunchTime) POS software or the Xenial Xpient (5.0 o

Xpient
Mandatory
POSItem 8

r HR-SLA- FDD – 5/25 31 explained in Item 11. Current approved vendors for technology components of the Computer/POS System are PAR Tech, Inc., CrunchTime, QSR Automations, Xenial Xpient (5.0 or highe

Facebook
MarketingItem 13

our Proprietary Marks in any Internet domain name or e-mail address, in the operation of any Internet web site or on a social media platform including any social networking site, Facebook, Twitter, In

Instagram
MarketingItem 13

rks in any Internet domain name or e-mail address, in the operation of any Internet web site or on a social media platform including any social networking site, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest

Pinterest
MarketingItem 13

Internet domain name or e-mail address, in the operation of any Internet web site or on a social media platform including any social networking site, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube,

Punchh
LoyaltyItem 11

written notice to you. We will provide you access to the online ordering/delivery and loyalty program software and technology (which currently includes OLO, Data Menu Management, Punchh Loyalty, Data

Snapchat
MarketingItem 13

or e-mail address, in the operation of any Internet web site or on a social media platform including any social networking site, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, Snapchat, Vine, blogs

Twitter
MarketingItem 13

ietary Marks in any Internet domain name or e-mail address, in the operation of any Internet web site or on a social media platform including any social networking site, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram,

YouTube
MarketingItem 13

main name or e-mail address, in the operation of any Internet web site or on a social media platform including any social networking site, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, Snapchat, V

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.

Sales LeaderNational 1000+

Formal HQ procurement; C-suite sponsor + cross-functional committee + IT/security/legal; often PE-backed.

VP SalesHead of SalesCROSales Director
  1. 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%.
  2. 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.
  3. 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 Hardee's

Hardee's operates as a quick-service restaurant brand with its headquarters in Tennessee. According to the 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document, the system includes 1,571 total units. Of these, 1,369 are franchised locations, creating a significant addressable market for software vendors targeting franchise operators. The remaining 202 units are company-owned. The average unit volume (AUV) stands at $1,288,025, with a royalty rate of 3.5% on gross sales. The initial franchise term is 20 years. Year-over-year unit growth figures are not available in the current filing. The brand appears to be independently owned, as no parent company is listed.

Who controls software purchasing

The 2026 FDD identifies the leadership team in Item 1. Joe Guith serves as Chief Executive Officer. Kerry Olson holds the position of Chief People and Legal Officer, and Mauricio Sirgo is the Chief Supply Chain Officer. The filing also names Albert J. Fioravanti and Leonard Padula as Independent Managers. The specific executive responsible for information technology or software procurement is not identified in the document. Vendors should anticipate that purchasing decisions for enterprise-wide or mandated technology are centralized at the headquarters level, given the corporate structure and the absence of a mapped multi-unit operator footprint in our corpus.

Mandated and current tech stack

The 2026 FDD does not capture any mandated or recommended technology systems. No point-of-sale, back-office, or operational software vendors are named in the filing. This absence of data means the current technology landscape for franchisees is not publicly defined through the FDD. For a software vendor, this represents an information gap that requires direct discovery. The lack of a mandated stack can signal either a fully open environment or an undisclosed preferred vendor program.

Procurement, renewals, and timing

Procurement signals from Item 8 of the FDD are not captured in our extract, leaving the designated supplier or approved vendor model unclear. Renewal terms, outlined in Item 17, offer franchisees the option to renew for either 10 years or 5 years. Renewal conditions include signing a general release, satisfying all monetary obligations, demonstrating the right to remain in possession, not being in default, completing a remodel, and paying a renewal fee. Critically, the renewal requires signing the then-current form of Franchise Agreement, which may include updated royalty fees, advertising contributions, and other terms. These renewal windows, occurring every 5 to 10 years, represent natural inflection points where franchisees may be required to adopt new technology standards.

How to read the Hardee's FDD

The full 2026 Hardee's FDD is available below. It contains the legal and operational disclosures filed with state franchise regulators. Reviewing the complete Item 11 (Obligations) and Item 8 (Restrictions on Sources of Products and Services) directly is essential for verifying any technology mandates not captured in our summary. The document provides the foundational data for building a targeted sales strategy into this 1,369-unit franchise network. For a ranked target list of franchise brands aligned with your software category, FranCloud can help prioritize your outreach.

Questions vendors ask

Hardee's - SLA, answered from the filing

The 2026 FDD lists Joe Guith (CEO), Kerry Olson (Chief People and Legal Officer), and Mauricio Sirgo (Chief Supply Chain Officer) as key leaders. The specific IT or procurement buyer is not named in the filing.
The 2026 FDD does not specify any mandated or recommended technology systems, including POS or operational software, for franchisees.
Hardee's has 1,571 total US locations, consisting of 1,369 franchised units and 202 company-owned units, per the 2026 FDD.
The 2026 FDD does not include an extract from Item 8 regarding procurement restrictions, so the model—whether designated supplier, approved supplier, or open—is not disclosed.
The initial franchise term is 20 years. Renewals are for 10 or 5 years, requiring a new agreement with potentially updated fees and terms, which may trigger technology reviews.
The 2026 FDD is filed with state franchise regulators. You can review it directly using the embedded PDF viewer below.
Source

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Operator footprint

Who runs the locations

1,414 operators run 1,414 mapped locations. 0 of them are multi-unit. Aggregate counts from the filing; no names.

Operators by units owned

Single-unit1,414

Top states by locations

NC184
VA176
FL96
IL91
AL81

Related Quick service restaurant brands

Primary franchise filings · updated June 2026. Every figure is source-traceable and QA-checked.