Island Empanada

The vendor opportunity at Island Empanada

Island Empanada is a quick-service restaurant concept headquartered in New York. According to its 2023 Franchise Disclosure Document, the system consists of just 9 total units—7 franchised and 2 company-owned. No year-over-year unit growth percentage is disclosed, and no average unit volume (AUV) is reported. For a software vendor, the immediate addressable market is limited to those 7 franchised locations, plus the 2 corporate stores if the franchisor controls purchasing centrally.

The royalty rate is 4.0% of gross sales, and the initial franchise term runs 10 years. Renewal is available for an additional 10-year term provided the franchisee is in good standing, signs the then-current Franchise Agreement (which may contain materially different terms), completes any required remodel, and pays a renewal fee. This renewal structure means that every decade, a small batch of operators may revisit their tech stack—but with only 7 franchised units, the total number of decisions is tiny.

Who controls software purchasing

The 2023 FDD lists three executives in Item 1: Roy Pelaez, President and CEO; Kathleen Pelaez, Vice President of Administration; and James Stevenson, Vice President of Development. In a system this small, the CEO is almost certainly the final decision-maker on any enterprise software purchase, with administrative and operational input from the two VPs. There is no separate CIO, CTO, or procurement officer named in the disclosure. Vendors should direct outreach to Roy Pelaez at the New York headquarters.

No parent company is disclosed; Island Empanada appears to be independently owned. No operator footprint is mapped in our corpus, meaning we have no visibility into multi-unit franchisees who might make their own software decisions independently of the franchisor.

Mandated and current tech stack

The 2023 FDD does not capture any mandated or recommended technology systems. There is no named point-of-sale vendor, no required back-office or inventory platform, and no specified online ordering or delivery integration. This absence of mandates could mean franchisees choose their own tools, or it could simply mean the franchisor has not formalized technology requirements in the disclosure document. Either way, a vendor pitching Island Empanada should be prepared to sell the franchisor on a system-wide standard where none is publicly documented.

Procurement, renewals, and timing

Item 8 of the FDD—which typically outlines procurement obligations, designated suppliers, and rebate arrangements—was not extracted in our data. Without that signal, we cannot confirm whether Island Empanada requires franchisees to buy from specific vendors or whether they operate an open procurement model. This is a critical gap; vendors should review the full FDD directly to understand any purchasing restrictions before building a pitch.

On renewals, Item 17 provides the only concrete timing trigger. Franchisees operating under a 10-year agreement who wish to renew must give notice, sign the current Franchise Agreement (which may differ materially from their original), remodel their location, and pay a renewal fee. With only 7 franchised units and no disclosed growth rate, the number of renewal events in any given year is likely zero or one. There is no indication of a system-wide technology refresh cycle or a scheduled RFP window.

How to read the Island Empanada FDD

The full 2023 Franchise Disclosure Document is embedded below. It was filed with state franchise regulators and contains the legal and operational disclosures that govern the franchise relationship. For software vendors, the most relevant sections are Item 1 (executives and corporate structure), Item 8 (procurement restrictions), Item 11 (franchisor assistance and any mandated technology), and Item 17 (renewal and transfer triggers that open contract windows). Because our extract lacks detail on Items 8 and 11, a direct review of those sections is essential before engaging the buying center.

If you sell software into franchise systems, FranCloud can help you identify and rank targets like Island Empanada based on unit count, growth rate, tech mandates, and decision-maker access.