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From the filings
HQ-led decisions
Milk Tea Lab
Quick service restaurantSoftware purchasing at Milk Tea Lab is controlled by a tight executive team led by CEO and Co-Founder KaMan Loi and CFO and Co-Founder Wai Ha Ha. The brand currently operates 8 company-owned locations and mandates a web-based POS system, making the addressable market small but concentrated at headquarters. Vendors should prepare for a direct HQ sales motion with a focus on replacing or integrating with the mandated POS.
For software vendors selling into US franchise brands.
Live signals
Total units
8
0 franchised
Unit growth YoY
—
vs prior filing
AUV
—
Item 19, 2023
Royalty
—
of gross sales
Ad fund
—
national + local
Initial fee
$48K
per unit
Investment range
$163K–$461K
all-in, Item 7
Procurement
Approved supplier
from the filing
Non-compete
2 years
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.
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onally disclaim any ownership interest in that or any similar Internet addresses. You will not maintain a website, mobile application or social media (e.g., Instagram, Facebook or Twitter) account or
Franchisor behaviours
What the franchisor requires
24 requirements the franchisor states in this filing, each in its own words; 4 explicit no's; 6 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 will have independent access to information and data on your Computer System.
Must the franchisee submit periodic financial statements (monthly, quarterly or annual) to the franchisor?
YesFranchise agreement
You will send us annual income and expense statements within 60 days of the end of your fiscal year.
How the franchisor buys
Is the franchisor or an affiliate itself a supplier of required products, services or systems?
YesFranchise agreement
For some products and materials, these suppliers will be us and/or our Affiliates, as those Affiliates may change from time to time.
Does the franchisor reserve the right to change designated suppliers or systems at any time?
YesItem 8
We may, from time-to-time withhold, condition and/or revoke our approval of particular items or suppliers in our discretion.
How much revenue did the franchisor and its affiliates earn from franchisee purchases in the last fiscal year?
0Item 8
During the last fiscal year, our affiliate received no revenue from products sold to franchisees.
Does the franchisor or an affiliate receive rebates, commissions or other revenue from designated or approved suppliers?
YesFranchise agreement
We or our Affiliates may receive rebates, commissions, and other benefits from suppliers in relation to items purchased by you and other 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 90% to 97% of your expenditures for leases and purchases in establishing your Outlet and approximately 90% to 97% of your expenditures on an on-going basis will be for goods and services which must be purchased from either us or our affiliates or an Approved Supplier.
Does the franchisor charge a fee to evaluate a proposed supplier?
YesItem 8
We may charge you a testing fee and will use our good faith efforts to notify you of our decision within 45 days after receiving your request for approval and all requested backup information.
Can a franchisee propose a new supplier for the franchisor's approval?
YesFranchise agreement
You may propose alternative products, services, supplies, equipment and materials for the operation of your MTL Outlet, as well as alternative manufacturers, suppliers or distributors.
Communications
Does the franchisor own or control the business telephone numbers, or take them over when the agreement ends?
YesFranchise agreement
You irrevocably appoint us or our nominee to be your attorney-in-fact coupled with an interest, and with power of substitution, to execute and to file for you any relevant document to transfer your telephone number or telephone listing.
Franchise management
Does the franchisor conduct periodic inspections, audits or evaluations of the franchised business?
YesFranchise agreement
We have a right to and may, in our discretion, perform inspections of your MTL Outlet in connection with your ongoing obligation to maintain your MTL Outlet in accordance with our standards.
Can the franchisor change the operations manual and brand standards unilaterally?
YesFranchise agreement
We may modify the Manual from time to time in our discretion, and you agree that from time to time we may change the System.
Must the franchisor approve the franchisee's site or location before opening?
YesItem 12
You are granted the rights to operate your Outlet at one specific location, which is to be selected by you and consented to by us.
Marketing
Is the franchisee prohibited from operating its own website or social media accounts, or required to use pages the franchisor provides?
YesItem 11
You will not maintain a website, mobile application or social media (e.g., Instagram, Facebook or Twitter) account or user name, or any other presence, or otherwise advertise on the Internet, or any other public computer network, in connection with your Outlet, without our prior written consent or in the manner we…
Is a minimum grand opening advertising spend required?
YesItem 11
you are required to spend a minimum of $5,000 for grand opening advertising and sales promotions within 60 days of opening your Outlet.
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 not less than 3% of your monthly Gross Sales on advertising and promotion in the Territory ("Local Advertising").
Operations
Must the franchisee buy products from a designated distributor?
YesItem 8
You are required to purchase all products, services, supplies, inventory, computers, equipment, and materials required for the operation of your Outlet from manufacturers, suppliers, or distributors we designate, or from other suppliers who meet our specifications and standards as to quality, appearance, and service…
Must equipment be purchased from designated or approved suppliers?
YesFranchise agreement
You must purchase products, services, supplies, equipment and materials for the operation of your MTL Outlet that meet our specifications, and you must purchase such items only from manufacturers, suppliers or distributors designated by us, or from other suppliers we approve who meet our specifications.
Payments
Are royalties and other fees collected by automatic bank debit (ACH or electronic funds transfer) from the franchisee's account?
YesFranchise agreement
All fees and payments together with the other amounts due to us or our Affiliates will be made via EFT or such other manner which we may designate from time to time.
People
Does the franchisor require minimum staffing levels or specific roles?
YesFranchise agreement
A Manager must always be on duty while your MTL Outlet is open for business.
Point of sale
Must the franchisee use a specific point-of-sale system designated or approved by the franchisor?
YesItem 11
You are required to purchase a computer system as described in the Manual ("Computer System").
Does the franchisor have independent access to the data in the franchisee's POS or computer system?
YesItem 11
We will have independent access to information and data on your Computer System.
Training
Can the franchisor charge the franchisee for additional, refresher or remedial training?
YesFranchise agreement
We may also provide refresher programs to experienced employees or Managers.
Is attendance at an annual convention or conference mandatory for the franchisee?
YesFranchise agreement
Attendance of at least one Principal Ownerat these meetings and at least one Manager (if applicable) will be mandatory.
The filing answers no to 4 questions
- Is there a franchisee advisory council, association or committee?Item 11
- Must the franchisee participate in a customer loyalty or rewards program?Franchise agreement
- Must the franchisee participate in a regional advertising cooperative when one exists?Franchise agreement
- Must the franchisee participate in a gift card program?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.
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 Milk Tea Lab
Milk Tea Lab is a quick-service restaurant concept headquartered in California with 8 company-owned units as of its 2023 Franchise Disclosure Document. No franchised locations are reported, and year-over-year unit growth is not disclosed. The brand does not publish an average unit volume, so vendors cannot benchmark potential deal size against system-wide sales. For a software vendor, the total addressable market is exactly those 8 locations, all controlled from a single headquarters. This is a small, concentrated account where a single deal can cover the entire system.
Who controls software purchasing
The 2023 FDD lists two executives in Item 1: KaMan Loi, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, and Wai Ha Ha, Chief Financial Officer and Co-Founder. In a chain of this size, these two individuals are the de facto technology buyers. There is no CIO, CTO, or VP of IT named in the filing, and no operator footprint is mapped in our corpus. Vendors should expect a direct, relationship-driven sales process targeting the CEO and CFO. The absence of a franchised operator base means there is no multi-unit owner layer to navigate; all software decisions are centralized at HQ.
Mandated and current tech stack
Milk Tea Lab’s 2023 FDD mandates a web-based POS system. No specific vendor is named, and no other operational or back-office technology mandates appear in the disclosure. This creates a dual opportunity: vendors can either pitch a replacement POS that meets the web-based requirement or offer complementary tools that integrate with the existing POS. Because the brand is small and company-owned, a pilot across all 8 units is feasible and can serve as a proof of concept for a system-wide rollout.
Procurement, renewals, and timing
Item 8 of the FDD, which typically outlines procurement and purchasing restrictions, contains no extract in our data. This means the designated-supplier or approved-supplier model is not publicly known. Vendors will need to ask directly during discovery whether Milk Tea Lab restricts purchasing to specific vendors or allows open sourcing. On the renewal side, Item 17 describes a 10-year initial term with renewal conditions that include giving notice, signing a new agreement, remodeling, and paying a renewal fee. With only 8 company-owned units and no disclosed franchised growth, there is no predictable franchise-sales-driven contract cycle. Software contract windows are likely driven by internal HQ budget cycles or technology refresh initiatives rather than franchise agreement expirations.
How to read the Milk Tea Lab FDD
The 2023 FDD is the most recent filing available and provides the foundational data points used in this analysis. It confirms the 8-unit, company-owned structure, the executive team, the 10-year term, and the web-based POS mandate. It also reveals what is not disclosed: no AUV, no royalty rate, no named POS vendor, no procurement model, and no operator footprint. For vendors, the FDD is a starting point for a conversation with KaMan Loi and Wai Ha Ha about how technology supports their 8 locations today and where they plan to invest next. To see a ranked target list of franchise systems that match your software category, reach out to FranCloud.
Questions vendors ask
Milk Tea Lab, answered from the filing
KaMan Loi (CEO and Co-Founder) and Wai Ha Ha (CFO and Co-Founder) are the named executives in the 2023 FDD. As a small, company-owned chain, purchasing decisions likely run through these two leaders.
The 2023 FDD mandates a web-based POS system. No specific vendor name or additional operational tech mandates are disclosed in the filing.
Milk Tea Lab operates 8 total units, all company-owned as of the 2023 FDD. No franchised units are reported.
The 2023 FDD does not include an Item 8 procurement extract, so the designated-supplier versus approved-supplier model is not publicly disclosed.
Franchise agreements run 10 years with renewal requiring notice, a new agreement, remodel, and a renewal fee. With only 8 company-owned units and no franchised growth disclosed, contract windows are unpredictable and likely tied to HQ-driven refresh cycles.
The 2023 FDD was filed with state franchise regulators. You can view the embedded PDF viewer below to read the full disclosure document.
Source
Read the filing itself
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FDD alert
Tell me when this brand refiles.
We’ll email you the moment Milk Tea Lab files a new annual FDD, usually the freshest signal of a vendor change.
Operator footprint
No franchisee network yet. Milk Tea Lab’s latest FDD reports no franchised locations.
Related Quick service restaurant brands
Primary franchise filings · updated June 2026. Every figure is source-traceable and QA-checked.