FacebookMeta
arwhal’s and/or a Narwhal’s-approved source upon fourteen (14) days prior notice. Internet. You may not create a webpage, blog, social media page (including, but not limited to, a Facebook page, Insta
From the filings
+50% units YoYHQ-led decisions
Narwhal's Crafted
Quick service restaurantSoftware purchasing at Narwhal's Crafted is controlled at the headquarters level by a small executive team including Director of Technology David Schulenberg. The brand currently mandates specific social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, YouTube) but does not disclose a mandated POS or operational tech stack in its 2025 FDD. The addressable market is extremely limited, with only 3 total units, all company-owned.
For software vendors selling into US franchise brands.
Live signals
Total units
3
0 franchised
Unit growth YoY
+50%
vs prior filing
AUV
$1.96M
Item 19, 2024
Royalty
8%
of gross sales
Ad fund
2%
national + local
Initial fee
$35K
per unit
Investment range
$1.05M–$1.84M
all-in, Item 7
Procurement
Franchisor controlled
from the filing
Non-compete
2 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.
10%of gross sales (FY2025)
15% reference
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.
InstagramMeta
a Narwhal’s-approved source upon fourteen (14) days prior notice. Internet. You may not create a webpage, blog, social media page (including, but not limited to, a Facebook page, Instagram account, Tw
SnapchatSnapchat
or notice. Internet. You may not create a webpage, blog, social media page (including, but not limited to, a Facebook page, Instagram account, Twitter account, Tik Tok account, or Snapchat account), w
TwitterX
ed source upon fourteen (14) days prior notice. Internet. You may not create a webpage, blog, social media page (including, but not limited to, a Facebook page, Instagram account, Twitter account, Tik
YouTubeGoogle
dia page (including, but not limited to, a Facebook page, Instagram account, Twitter account, Tik Tok account, or Snapchat account), web video page (including but not limited to a YouTube channel), ap
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?
YesFranchise agreement
Franchisee agrees to grant Franchisor 24 hour remote access via internet, third party connection or otherwise to Franchisee’s point of sale computer system and the data contained therein for Franchisor to review and download (but not alter) real time information that Franchisee is required to submit to Franchisor…
Must the franchisee submit periodic financial statements (monthly, quarterly or annual) to the franchisor?
YesFranchise agreement
After the Bar is open for business, Franchisee shall provide to Franchisor (1) on a monthly basis a complete financial statement for Franchisee’s operation of the Franchise covering the preceding month of the Franchisee’s operation of the Franchise within fifteen (15) days following the close of each such month; and…
How the franchisor buys
Is the franchisor or an affiliate itself a supplier of required products, services or systems?
YesItem 8
Narwhal’s reserves the right to designate any supplier as the sole supplier for particular goods or services required to be provided by You or designate itself or an Affiliate as an approved supplier and to make a profit from the sale of such goods to You.
Does the franchisor reserve the right to change designated suppliers or systems at any time?
YesItem 8
Narwhal’s reserves the right to designate any supplier as the sole supplier for particular goods or services required to be provided by You or designate itself or an Affiliate as an approved supplier and to make a profit from the sale of such goods to You.
Does the franchisor or an affiliate receive rebates, commissions or other revenue from designated or approved suppliers?
YesItem 8
Certain suppliers to Narwhal’s franchisees may pay rebates and other consideration to Narwhal’s on purchases made by 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?
0Item 8
As of the date hereof, You are not required to purchase items from Narwhal’s in order to establish the Bar 514223.13 19 4/29/2024.2.2025 4937-1063-0671, v. 5 or to operate the Bar thereafter.
Does the franchisor charge a fee to evaluate a proposed supplier?
YesItem 8
You shall reimburse Narwhal’s for the reasonable costs of any such investigation.
Can a franchisee propose a new supplier for the franchisor's approval?
YesItem 8
If You propose to use any product in lieu of a required product or a supplier not approved by Narwhal’s for any such required product, You shall submit to Narwhal’s specifications, photographs and other information and samples for examination and testing sufficient for Narwhal’s to determine whether the item and its
Communications
Does the franchisor own or control the business telephone numbers, or take them over when the agreement ends?
YesFranchise agreement
At Franchisor’s option, Franchisee shall assign to Franchisor the business telephone number for the Narwhal’s Crafted Bar and Franchisee agrees to execute at any time any documents which may be necessary or desirable to affect the transfer.
Data and IT
Must the franchisee comply with PCI, data-security or cybersecurity standards set by the franchisor?
YesFranchise agreement
Franchisee shall be compliant with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI- DSS) regarding the security of credit card information.
Franchise management
Does the franchisor conduct periodic inspections, audits or evaluations of the franchised business?
YesItem 11
Subject to the availability of Narwhal’s resources and staff, Narwhal’s may in its discretion perform periodic on-site quality reviews of the operation of Your Bar.
Can the franchisor change the operations manual and brand standards unilaterally?
YesFranchise agreement
Franchisor may from time to time modify or change the Narwhal’s Crafted Confidential Operations Manual as Franchisor deems necessary.
Must the franchisor approve the franchisee's site or location before opening?
YesItem 12
Your Bar must be located within the Area at a location that must be approved by Narwhal’s.
Marketing
Is the franchisee prohibited from operating its own website or social media accounts, or required to use pages the franchisor provides?
YesFranchise agreement
Franchisee shall not create a home page, blog, social media page (including but not limited to a Facebook page, Instagram account, Twitter account, Tic Tok account, Snapchat account), web video page (including but not limited to a You Tube channel), app, or any other public page for the Franchise on the Internet or…
Is a minimum grand opening advertising spend required?
YesFranchise agreement
Franchisee shall spend a minimum of $3000 on advertising and marketing of the grand opening of the Bar at times and in manner as approved by Franchisor (“Grand Opening Campaign”).
Is the franchisee required to spend a minimum amount on local advertising or marketing, as a percentage of sales or a fixed amount?
YesFranchise agreement
During the term of this Agreement after the Bar is open for business, Franchisee shall spend a minimum of the greater of (i) $12,000.00 or (ii) two percent (2%) of Franchisee’s Gross Sales per calendar year for all advertising and marketing
Must the franchisee participate in a regional advertising cooperative when one exists?
YesFranchise agreement
If Franchisor makes such a determination with respect to Franchisee’s Area, Franchisee’s participation will be mandatory.
Operations
Must equipment be purchased from designated or approved suppliers?
YesItem 8
Certain interior items, including certain equipment, fixtures and interior signs must be purchased from Narwhal’s or other Narwhal’s approved suppliers.
People
Does the franchisor require minimum staffing levels or specific roles?
YesItem 11
Each Bar requires a full time General Manager.
Must employees wear uniforms specified by the franchisor?
YesFranchise agreement
Franchisee shall purchase (i) all ingredients for the Products; (ii) all point of sale systems, equipment, furniture, graphics, signs, uniforms, advertising materials and fixtures and (iii) all products which bear the “Narwhal’s Crafted” brand including merchandise for sale (“Proprietary Materials”) directly from…
Point of sale
Must the franchisee use a specific point-of-sale system designated or approved by the franchisor?
YesItem 11
You will be required to purchase certain Narwhal’s designated point of sale systems that You will be 514223.13 26 4/29/2024.2.2025 4937-1063-0671, v.
Does the franchisor have independent access to the data in the franchisee's POS or computer system?
YesFranchise agreement
Franchisee agrees to grant Franchisor 24 hour remote access via internet, third party connection or otherwise to Franchisee’s point of sale computer system and the data contained therein for Franchisor to review and download (but not alter) real time information that Franchisee is required to submit to Franchisor…
Training
Can the franchisor charge the franchisee for additional, refresher or remedial training?
YesItem 11
Narwhal’s reserves the right to require Your employees to attend additional training courses and refresher courses in the future.
Is attendance at an annual convention or conference mandatory for the franchisee?
YesItem 11
As a continuing training requirement, You and Your General Manager must attend each Narwhal’s meeting (but no more than two in any one calendar year) during the term of the Franchise Agreement.
The filing answers no to 4 questions
- Is there a franchisee advisory council, association or committee?Item 6
- Must the franchisee participate in a customer-satisfaction or net-promoter survey program?Franchise agreement
- Must the franchisee buy products from a designated distributor?
- Are royalties and other fees collected by automatic bank debit (ACH or electronic funds transfer) from the franchisee's account?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 Narwhal's Crafted
Narwhal's Crafted is a quick-service restaurant concept headquartered in Missouri, operating just 3 locations—all of which are company-owned. The brand reported an Average Unit Volume (AUV) of $1,962,235 in its 2025 Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD). While the unit count is tiny, the brand showed 50% year-over-year unit growth, signaling early-stage expansion. For software vendors, the immediate addressable market is 3 units, with no franchisee operators to sell into. The entire system is controlled by the parent entity, 26h holdings, with a single mapped operator across roughly one located unit in Wisconsin. The unit-band split confirms no multi-unit franchisees exist: all activity is concentrated in the 1-unit band.
Who controls software purchasing
Purchasing authority sits squarely with the HQ executive team. The FDD lists Brad Merten as Chief Executive Officer and Director, Brandon Holzhueter as Chief Financial Officer and Director, and critically, David Schulenberg as Director of Technology. Schulenberg is the most direct point of contact for any software pitch. The leadership group also includes Matt Feldt, Director of Marketing, who likely influences any marketing technology decisions, and Al McBee, Financial Controller and Human Resources Director, who may weigh in on HR or financial systems. Because there are no franchisees, there is no multi-unit operator (MUO) layer to navigate. This is a pure HQ sale.
Mandated and current tech stack
The 2025 FDD is unusually sparse on operational technology mandates. It does not name a point-of-sale system, back-office platform, or inventory management tool. The only mandated technology disclosed is a set of social media platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, and YouTube. This suggests the brand is focused on consumer-facing digital presence but has not yet standardized or disclosed its internal operational stack. For a vendor, this represents either a greenfield opportunity or a signal that the brand is too small to have formalized its tech requirements. Any outreach should first seek to understand what systems are currently in use informally.
Procurement, renewals, and timing
Procurement rules are not detailed in the FDD. Item 8, which typically outlines designated suppliers and purchasing restrictions, provided no extract. This absence means vendors cannot assume a closed or preferred-supplier model; the path to a sale is likely direct and relationship-based. The franchise agreement runs for a 10-year initial term. Renewal conditions allow a franchisee in good standing to add two additional terms of 5 years each, but since there are currently no franchisees, this has no immediate impact on software sales cycles. The 50% unit growth rate is the primary timing signal: if the brand continues opening company-owned locations, each new unit represents a potential software deployment.
How to read the Narwhal's Crafted FDD
The full 2025 FDD is embedded below. It is the definitive source for understanding the brand's legal structure, fees, and obligations. For software vendors, the most relevant items are Item 1 (the executives listed above), Item 8 (procurement, though empty here), Item 11 (the social media mandates), and Item 17 (renewal and term conditions). The document confirms the brand is part of 26h holdings and operates exclusively through company-owned units. Given the small scale, any vendor engagement should be highly targeted and focus on the Director of Technology as the entry point. For a ranked target list of franchise systems with stronger tech-mandate signals and larger addressable unit counts, FranCloud can help.
Questions vendors ask
Narwhal's Crafted, answered from the filing
The buying center includes David Schulenberg, Director of Technology, along with CEO Brad Merten and CFO Brandon Holzhueter. As a small, company-owned chain, decisions are centralized at HQ.
The 2025 FDD does not mandate a specific POS or operational technology system. It only mandates use of social media platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, and YouTube.
There are 3 total units in the US, all company-owned. The brand is a very small quick-service restaurant concept based in Missouri.
The procurement model is not disclosed in the most recent FDD. Item 8 provided no extract regarding designated or approved suppliers.
With a 10-year initial term and no franchisee-driven renewal pressure, windows are unpredictable. The 50% YoY unit growth suggests potential new-location tech needs, but scale remains tiny.
The FDD was filed with state franchise regulators in 2025. You can view the embedded PDF viewer below to read the full document.
Source
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 Narwhal's Crafted files a new annual FDD, usually the freshest signal of a vendor change.
Operator footprint
Who runs the locations
1 operators run 1 mapped locations. 0 of them are multi-unit. Aggregate counts from the filing; no names.
Operators by units owned
Single-unit1
Top states by locations
| WI | 1 |
|---|
Ownership
The portfolio behind Narwhal's Crafted
unknown of 26h holdings.
Related Quick service restaurant brands
Primary franchise filings · updated August 2026. Every figure is source-traceable and QA-checked.