YelpYelp
Mandatoryorships or endorsements or enter into other types of strategic marketing alliances without our prior approval. You must list and advertise your Mensho restaurant in the Google and Yelp directories and
From the filings
HQ-led decisions
Mensho
Quick service restaurantSoftware purchasing decisions at Mensho ultimately flow through its Chief Executive Officer, Tomoharu Shono, at the brand's California headquarters. The franchisor mandates Yelp for its locations, while also listing major social platforms as recommended tech. With only 10 total units—6 franchised and 4 company-owned—this is a small, early-stage target for vendors seeking to establish a relationship before the system scales.
For software vendors selling into US franchise brands.
Live signals
Total units
10
6 franchised
Unit growth YoY
—
vs prior filing
AUV
—
Item 19, 2026
Royalty
5%
of gross sales
Ad fund
1%
national + local
Initial fee
$30K
per unit
Investment range
$578K–$3.46M
all-in, Item 7
Procurement
Franchisor controlled
from the filing
Non-compete
2 years
from the filing
Item 19
No 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.
6%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.
FacebookMeta
for example, fees that you pay to a third-party agency to create Local marketing content, provide public relations exposure, or manage social networking outlets for you, including Facebook, Twitter, Y
InstagramMeta
agency to create Local marketing content, provide public relations exposure, or manage social networking outlets for you, including Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram. Local mar
LinkedInLinkedIn
u pay to a third-party agency to create Local marketing content, provide public relations exposure, or manage social networking outlets for you, including Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, LinkedIn, YouTube, a
PinterestPinterest
nd Yelp directories and any others that we may designate. We consider the content that you place on third-party social media social media channels (e.g., Facebook, Yelp, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube,
TwitterX
on Owner Opened U.S. 2016 Mensho Tokyo San Francisco San Francisco, CA Mensho Geary LLC (affiliate-owned) 2021 Menya Shono San Rafael San Rafael, CA Licensee* 2021 Jikasei MENSHO (Twitter building) Sa
YouTubeGoogle
ectories and any others that we may designate. We consider the content that you place on third-party social media social media channels (e.g., Facebook, Yelp, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, and Instagr
Franchisor behaviours
What the franchisor requires
27 requirements the franchisor states in this filing, each in its own words; 2 explicit no's; 5 questions the text does not settle, which is not a no.
Accounting
Must the franchisee use an accounting or bookkeeping system designated or approved by the franchisor?
YesFranchise agreement
In addition to using the Computer System, Franchisee shall use other business and accounting software programs that Company designates in order to record business activities, sales and inventories and prepare operating and financial reports and records in accordance with the requirements of this Agreement and the…
Does the franchisor have direct or independent electronic access to the franchisee's financial, sales or customer records?
YesItem 11
This allows us remote access to the information on your POS system at any time without prior notice to you.
Must the franchisee submit periodic financial statements (monthly, quarterly or annual) to the franchisor?
YesItem 11
You must prepare and submit monthly financial statements following generally accepted accounting principles and any additional accounting reporting requirements that we specify in the Manual.
How the franchisor buys
Does the franchisor reserve the right to change designated suppliers or systems at any time?
YesFranchise agreement
Company may modify the items in the Equipment, Supplies and Décor Package by (i) removing or adding new items; (ii) changing quantities; (iii) changing the specifications or brand name of items in the Equipment, Supplies and Décor Package; (iv) changing the prices or payment terms; (v) changing the supplier; or (vi)…
How much revenue did the franchisor and its affiliates earn from franchisee purchases in the last fiscal year?
280425.43Item 8
During our fiscal year ended September 30, 2025, our affiliate Mensho TK received $280,425.43 in revenue from purchases by our franchisees of Mensho restaurants.
Does the franchisor or an affiliate receive rebates, commissions or other revenue from designated or approved suppliers?
YesItem 8
We or one of our affiliates may derive revenue on account of your transactions with designated third party suppliers of Non-Proprietary Goods/Services.
Does the franchisor charge a fee to evaluate a proposed supplier?
YesItem 8
You must pay us the supplier testing fee that we disclose in Item 6 before we will evaluate your proposed supplier or alternative item regardless of whether or not we approve the supplier or the particular item of Non-Proprietary Goods/Services.
Can a franchisee propose a new supplier for the franchisor's approval?
YesItem 8
If we require you to use an approved supplier for a particular item of Non-Proprietary Goods/Services, but you wish to purchase the item from a supplier that we have not yet approved, you may submit a written request for approval of the supplier, unless it is an item for which we have designated a particular vendor…
Communications
Does the franchisor own or control the business telephone numbers, or take them over when the agreement ends?
YesFranchise agreement
Company shall immediately cancel Franchisee’s email address with the Mensho Website domain, take down any subpage for the Franchised Restaurant that is then hosted on the Mensho Website, and reclaim the phone number assigned to the Franchised Restaurant during the Term.
Data and IT
Must the franchisee comply with PCI, data-security or cybersecurity standards set by the franchisor?
YesItem 11
You must comply with the then-current Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI/DSS), as those standards may be revised by the PCI Security Standards Council, LLC (see www.pcisecuritystandards.org) or successor organization.
Franchise management
Must the franchisee participate in a customer-satisfaction or net-promoter survey program?
YesFranchise agreement
Franchisee shall additionally participate in network-wide or United States marketing programs identified by Company, including gift or loyalty card programs, social networking programs, customer and marketing surveys, direct marketing programs and designated e-commerce programs.
Does the franchisor conduct periodic inspections, audits or evaluations of the franchised business?
YesItem 11
We or our designee will periodically visit the Franchised Restaurant to inspect your operations, observe your employees and review your books and records (including data stored on your POS system) in order to verify your compliance with the Franchise Agreement and the Manual.
Can the franchisor change the operations manual and brand standards unilaterally?
YesFranchise agreement
Company reserves the right to modify the Manual from time to time to reflect changes that it may implement in the mandatory and recommended specifications, components, standards, and operating procedures of the System.
Must the franchisor approve the franchisee's site or location before opening?
YesFranchise agreement
Company shall have 30 days following receipt of Franchisee’s completed site proposal to make any site visit that it chooses to make and approve or disapprove the proposed site by giving written notice to Franchisee (the “Site Approval Notice”).
Marketing
Is the franchisee prohibited from operating its own website or social media accounts, or required to use pages the franchisor provides?
YesItem 13
You may not maintain your own website to promote the Franchised Restaurant.
Is a minimum grand opening advertising spend required?
YesFranchise agreement
Franchisee must spend a minimum of $5,000 on approved Local Marketing during the period beginning 30 days before and ending 60 days after the Opening Date to publicize the opening of the Franchised 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
Each calendar quarter (prorated for any partial period) after the Opening Date of your Mensho restaurant, you must spend a minimum of 2% of your Gross Sales on approved local marketing.
Must the franchisee participate in a customer loyalty or rewards program?
YesItem 8
You must participate in all guest loyalty or frequent customer programs now or in the future adopted or approved by us.
Operations
Must equipment be purchased from designated or approved suppliers?
YesItem 8
At this time, our affiliate, Mensho TK, is the exclusive supplier to our franchisees of the Equipment, Supplies and DĂ©cor Package that we describe in Item 1, which you must purchase before the Opening Date.
Payments
Are royalties and other fees collected by automatic bank debit (ACH or electronic funds transfer) from the franchisee's account?
YesItem 6
We collect most fees by way of a preauthorized bank deduction electronic payment system (our ACH system).
Must the franchisee participate in a gift card program?
YesFranchise agreement
Franchisee shall additionally participate in network-wide or United States marketing programs identified by Company, including gift or loyalty card programs, social networking programs, customer and marketing surveys, direct marketing programs and designated e-commerce programs.
People
Does the franchisor require minimum staffing levels or specific roles?
YesFranchise agreement
The Franchised Restaurant shall at all times be under the direct, personal supervision of at least one General Manager at all times during the Term.
Must employees wear uniforms specified by the franchisor?
YesFranchise agreement
All employees and independent contractors, while working in the Franchised Restaurant, shall present a neat and clean appearance and wear the uniforms that Company designates for their jobs, in the color, style and design then specified by Company.
Point of sale
Must the franchisee use a specific point-of-sale system designated or approved by the franchisor?
YesItem 11
In operating your Mensho restaurant, you must use Toast POS, a cloud-based payment processing and data collection system that eliminates the need for an on-site server.
Does the franchisor have independent access to the data in the franchisee's POS or computer system?
YesItem 11
This allows us remote access to the information on your POS system at any time without prior notice to you.
Sales and CRM
Must the franchisee use a CRM system designated or approved by the franchisor?
YesItem 8
In addition, you must purchase, enroll in or subscribe to, as applicable, all customer relationship management software analytic applications, social media analytics and online and mobile ordering software or other types of customer-facing or relationship management programs that we designate.
Training
Can the franchisor charge the franchisee for additional, refresher or remedial training?
YesItem 11
Additionally, we may periodically offer advanced and refresher training at an operating Mensho restaurant that we designate or through video chat technology for your General Manager or Kitchen Manager/Assistant Kitchen Manager.
The filing answers no to 2 questions
- Is there a franchisee advisory council, association or committee?Item 11
- Must the franchisee participate in a regional advertising cooperative when one exists?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 franchisee/operator personally, or a small franchisor still owner-run. Wears every hat.
OwnerCEOPresidentPrincipal
- 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%.
- 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.
- 97.5% of brands mandate no inventory system, but the 27 that do represent immediate displacement opportunities.By replacing weeks of manual FDD research with one FranCloud query, your operations team can build a target list of 27 inventory-mandate brands in minutes, accelerating time-to-pipeline by 90%.
The vendor opportunity at Mensho
Mensho is a quick-service ramen concept headquartered in California with a total footprint of just 10 US locations, according to its 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document. Of those, 6 are franchised and 4 are company-owned. The operator base is small and fragmented: 4 mapped operators run roughly 4 located units, and none of them are multi-unit franchisees. The top state by unit count is Wisconsin, with a single location. For a software vendor, this is not a volume play. It is an early-stage relationship bet on a brand that may grow its franchise system over the coming years.
Average unit volumes are not disclosed in the FDD, and year-over-year unit growth is not reported. The royalty rate is 5.0% of gross sales, and the initial franchise term runs for 10 years. These economics are standard for an emerging brand, but the lack of disclosed AUV means vendors cannot yet model a value proposition around a percentage of revenue.
Who controls software purchasing
All signs point to the CEO. The FDD's Item 1 lists a single executive: Tomoharu Shono, Chief Executive Officer. In a system with no parent company and no disclosed IT or procurement leadership, the CEO is the sole decision-maker for any technology that would be adopted at the franchisor level. There is no multi-unit operator class to influence purchasing from the franchisee side, as all mapped operators are single-unit owners. A vendor's pitch runs directly through Mr. Shono at the California headquarters.
Mandated and current tech stack
The FDD is light on operational technology mandates. No point-of-sale system, back-office platform, or kitchen display system is named as required. The one mandated technology is Yelp, signaling that the franchisor prioritizes local reputation management and customer acquisition over back-of-house digitization. The brand also recommends a suite of social media platforms—Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter, and YouTube—for franchisee use. This suggests a marketing-tech opening, but no current mandate for a centralized social media management or listening tool.
Procurement, renewals, and timing
Item 8 of the FDD contains no extract, leaving Mensho's procurement model undisclosed. Vendors should assume they will need to sell directly to the franchisor and negotiate inclusion in any future mandated or recommended supplier list from scratch. The renewal structure offers a potential timing signal. The initial term is 10 years, and a 10-year renewal option exists, but it is conditional: the franchisor must still be offering new franchises in the US at the time of renewal notice, which must be given 9 to 12 months before expiration. The renewal Franchise Agreement may contain materially different terms, including higher fees and a smaller protected area. For a vendor, this means that as franchisees approach the back half of their initial term, they may be forced into a re-evaluation of their tech stack under the new agreement's requirements—creating a narrow but predictable window for displacement or upsell.
How to read the Mensho FDD
The 2026 Mensho FDD is embedded below. It is the definitive source for the legal and operational disclosures summarized on this page. Review Item 1 for the full list of executives and their backgrounds, Item 11 for the franchisor's complete obligations regarding technology and training, and Item 17 for the precise renewal conditions. For vendors building a ranked target list of emerging franchise brands, FranCloud can help you identify systems like Mensho before they scale.
Questions vendors ask
Mensho, answered from the filing
The 2026 FDD lists Tomoharu Shono as Chief Executive Officer. In a system this small, the CEO is the de facto buyer for any technology that would be deployed or mandated across the franchise network.
The FDD does not disclose a mandated POS or operational system. The only mandated technology disclosed is Yelp, indicating a current focus on reputation and local marketing tech over back-of-house systems.
Mensho operates 10 total US locations, split between 6 franchised and 4 company-owned units. This places it in the very early stages of franchising, with a concentrated operator base.
The FDD's Item 8 does not contain an extract regarding procurement. The model—whether designated supplier, approved supplier, or open—is not disclosed in the most recent filing.
With a 10-year initial term and a 10-year renewal option, natural churn is low. The renewal requires 9-12 months' notice, creating a potential window for tech evaluation tied to the then-current Franchise Agreement's updated terms.
The 2026 Mensho FDD was filed with state franchise regulators. You can review the full document in the embedded PDF viewer below to analyze the legal and operational disclosures directly.
Source
Read the filing itself
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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 Mensho files a new annual FDD, usually the freshest signal of a vendor change.
Operator footprint
Who runs the locations
4 operators run 4 mapped locations. 0 of them are multi-unit. Aggregate counts from the filing; no names.
Operators by units owned
Single-unit4
Top states by locations
| WI | 1 |
|---|
Related Quick service restaurant brands
Primary franchise filings · updated August 2026. Every figure is source-traceable and QA-checked.