FacebookMeta
ndividual website related to the Factory, or to establish a URL incorporating any variation of the “Philly Pretzel Factory” name or the Proprietary Marks, or create any profile on Facebook, Twitter, T
From the filings
HQ-led decisions
Philly Pretzel Factory
Quick service restaurantSoftware purchasing at Philly Pretzel Factory is controlled at the franchisor level, with mandates covering point-of-sale, CRM, and payment terminals. The system runs on a proprietary Philly Pretzel Factory POS and intranet, creating a locked tech environment for its 164 total units. For vendors, the addressable market is 160 franchised locations, with decision-making concentrated in the Pennsylvania headquarters under CEO Daniel Dizio and President Martin Ferrill.
For software vendors selling into US franchise brands.
Live signals
Total units
164
160 franchised
Unit growth YoY
—
vs prior filing
AUV
$617K
Item 19, 2025
Royalty
6%
of gross sales
Ad fund
2%
national + local
Initial fee
$40K
per unit
Investment range
$183K–$685K
all-in, Item 7
Procurement
Approved supplier
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.
8%of gross sales (FY2026)
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.
LinkedInLinkedIn
o the Factory, or to establish a URL incorporating any variation of the “Philly Pretzel Factory” name or the Proprietary Marks, or create any profile on Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, LinkedIn, Plaxo, You
TikTokTikTok
elated to the Factory, or to establish a URL incorporating any variation of the “Philly Pretzel Factory” name or the Proprietary Marks, or create any profile on Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, LinkedIn, Pl
TwitterX
website related to the Factory, or to establish a URL incorporating any variation of the “Philly Pretzel Factory” name or the Proprietary Marks, or create any profile on Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Lin
Uber EatsUber
stribution not specifically identified in the relevant agreements. We reserve the right to approve any third-party vendor that you may use to provide delivery services (Door Dash, Uber Eats, etc.). Yo
YouTubeGoogle
to establish a URL incorporating any variation of the “Philly Pretzel Factory” name or the Proprietary Marks, or create any profile on Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, LinkedIn, Plaxo, YouTube, or any other
Franchisor behaviours
What the franchisor requires
28 requirements the franchisor states in this filing, each in its own words; 4 explicit no's; 2 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 have the independent right, as often as we deem appropriate, including on a daily basis, to access your cash register/POS system that we may require you to maintain in connection with the operation of your Factory and to retrieve all information relating to your Factory’s operations.
Must the franchisee submit periodic financial statements (monthly, quarterly or annual) to the franchisor?
YesItem 6
annual financial reports and operating statements in the form we specify, prepared by a certified public accountant or state licensed public accountant, within 90 days after the close of each of your fiscal years
How the franchisor buys
Is the franchisor or an affiliate itself a supplier of required products, services or systems?
YesItem 8
We and/or our Affiliate currently negotiate purchase arrangements with suppliers for the benefit of franchisees and may derive revenue from your purchase of certain foodstuffs and other required products, including but not limited to equipment, flour, mustard, and beverages from designated or approved suppliers.
Does the franchisor reserve the right to change designated suppliers or systems at any time?
YesItem 8
We may revoke our approval of particular products or suppliers when we determine, in our sole discretion, that products or suppliers no longer meet our standards for the System.
How much revenue did the franchisor and its affiliates earn from franchisee purchases in the last fiscal year?
653117Item 8
As of our fiscal year ended December 31, 2025, we derived $653,117 or 8.6% of our total revenue of $7,620,724 from required purchases and leases.
Does the franchisor or an affiliate receive rebates, commissions or other revenue from designated or approved suppliers?
YesItem 8
We and/or our Affiliate currently negotiate purchase arrangements with suppliers for the benefit of franchisees and may derive revenue from your purchase of certain foodstuffs and other required products, including but not limited to equipment, flour, mustard, and beverages from designated or approved suppliers.
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?
50Item 8
approximately 50 – 70% of all purchases and leases necessary to operate your Traditional Factory after opening.
Does the franchisor charge a fee to evaluate a proposed supplier?
YesItem 8
If we incur any costs in connection with testing a particular product or evaluating an unapproved supplier at your request, you must reimburse our reasonable testing costs, regardless of whether we subsequently approve the supplier.
Can a franchisee propose a new supplier for the franchisor's approval?
YesItem 8
If you wish to purchase any item (for which we have identified approved or designated supplier(s)) from an unapproved supplier, you must provide us with a written request for approval of the supplier.
Communications
Does the franchisor own or control the business telephone numbers, or take them over when the agreement ends?
YesFranchise agreement
Immediately cease using all telephone numbers and listings and domain names, as applicable, used in connection with the operation of the Factory and direct the transfer of all telephone numbers and domain names to us or our designee, or, if we so direct, to disconnect the numbers or cancel the domain name(s);
Data and IT
Must the franchisee comply with PCI, data-security or cybersecurity standards set by the franchisor?
YesFranchise agreement
You agree to comply with the then-current Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (“PCI DSS”), as such standards may be revised and modified by the PCI Security Standards Council (see www.pcisecuritystandards.org), or any successor organization or standards that we may reasonably specify.
Franchise management
Does the franchisor conduct periodic inspections, audits or evaluations of the franchised business?
YesFranchise agreement
During normal business hours and without prior notice, we have the right to enter upon your Factory premises, inspect your records, interview your employees and customers and observe the manner in which you operate your Factory.
Can the franchisor change the operations manual and brand standards unilaterally?
YesFranchise agreement
We have the right to change the standards and specifications applicable to the operation of a Factory.
Must the franchisor approve the franchisee's site or location before opening?
YesFranchise agreement
Final site selection must be acceptable to both you and 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
Other than the webpage that we maintain, you will not be permitted to maintain an individual website related to the Factory, or to establish a URL incorporating any variation of the “Philly Pretzel Factory” name or the Proprietary Marks, or create any profile on Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, LinkedIn, Plaxo, YouTube, or…
Is a minimum grand opening advertising spend required?
YesItem 11
For your Grand Opening Campaign, you are required to spend at least $5,000 to satisfy your Grand Opening Advertising Requirement in the manner described in our Grand Opening Manual.
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 3% of your Gross Sales each month on local advertising in accordance with our standards and specifications (“Local Advertising Requirement”).
Must the franchisee participate in a customer loyalty or rewards program?
YesItem 11
You must spend the Local Advertisement Requirement as we prescribe in the Operations Manual or otherwise in writing, which may include, without limitation, requirements for placing a certain number and/or type(s) of media advertisements and participate in customer loyalty programs.
Must the franchisee participate in a regional advertising cooperative when one exists?
YesItem 11
If a Cooperative has been established applicable to the Factory at the time you begin operating under the franchise agreement, you must immediately become a member of such Cooperative.
Operations
Must the franchisee buy products from a designated distributor?
YesItem 8
You must also purchase all inventory (including oven-ready pretzel items), equipment, fixtures, furnishings, product display units, uniforms, supplies and materials, ice cream cones, and frozen ready to bake pretzel items from us or from our designated or approved suppliers.
Must equipment be purchased from designated or approved suppliers?
YesItem 8
You must also purchase all inventory (including oven-ready pretzel items), equipment, fixtures, furnishings, product display units, uniforms, supplies and materials, ice cream cones, and frozen ready to bake pretzel items from us or from our designated or approved suppliers.
Payments
Must the franchisee use a payment processor or merchant-services provider designated or approved by the franchisor?
YesItem 11
You must also use our designated vendor’s credit card processing plan.
Are royalties and other fees collected by automatic bank debit (ACH or electronic funds transfer) from the franchisee's account?
YesFranchise agreement
You shall participate in our electronic funds transfer program (“EFT”) under which we automatically deduct all weekly royalty fees and other payments owed to us under this Agreement from your bank account.
People
Must employees wear uniforms specified by the franchisor?
YesItem 8
You must also purchase all inventory (including oven-ready pretzel items), equipment, fixtures, furnishings, product display units, uniforms, supplies and materials, ice cream cones, and frozen ready to bake pretzel items from us or from our designated or approved suppliers.
Point of sale
Must the franchisee use a specific point-of-sale system designated or approved by the franchisor?
YesFranchise agreement
You must purchase and use any and all computer software programs (“Software”) and all computer hardware necessary, including without limitation, a point of sale electronic cash register/point of sale system and payment card reader, for the efficient operation of the Software which we develop and/or designate for use…
Does the franchisor have independent access to the data in the franchisee's POS or computer system?
YesItem 11
We have the independent right, as often as we deem appropriate, including on a daily basis, to access your cash register/POS system that we may require you to maintain in connection with the operation of your Factory and to retrieve all information relating to your Factory’s operations.
Training
Can the franchisor charge the franchisee for additional, refresher or remedial training?
YesFranchise agreement
We reserve the right to offer, from time to time, additional training programs and/or refresher courses to you, your manager and/or your employees.
Is attendance at an annual convention or conference mandatory for the franchisee?
YesItem 11
If you fail to attend the annual conference without obtaining our prior written consent, you must pay us a fee of $1,500.
The filing answers no to 4 questions
- Must the franchisee use an accounting or bookkeeping system designated or approved by the franchisor?Item 6
- Is there a franchisee advisory council, association or committee?Item 11
- Must the franchisee participate in a customer-satisfaction or net-promoter survey program?Item 11
- Does the franchisor require minimum staffing levels or specific roles?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.
HQ leadership: CEO/President + VP Ops/Franchise + a first dedicated IT/systems owner.
VP SalesHead of SalesCROSales Director
- 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%.
- 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.
- 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 Philly Pretzel Factory
Philly Pretzel Factory operates 164 total units, 160 of which are franchised, with an average unit volume of $616,826. The brand is a quick-service restaurant concept headquartered in Pennsylvania, with no parent company on file—it appears independently owned. For software vendors, the addressable base is those 160 franchised locations, though purchasing control sits firmly at the franchisor level. The operator footprint is entirely single-unit: 19 mapped operators run roughly 19 locations, with no multi-unit owners in the 2–9, 10–24, or 25+ bands. Top states by unit count are New Jersey (8), Pennsylvania (4), Missouri (3), Illinois (2), and Virginia (1).
Who controls software purchasing
Technology decisions are centralized at the franchisor headquarters. The FDD’s Item 1 lists Daniel Dizio as Chief Executive Officer and Martin Ferrill as President. No separate Chief Information Officer or Chief Technology Officer is named, meaning software vendors should expect the CEO and President to be directly involved in or to delegate technology procurement. Other named executives—Leonard M. Lehman (Founding Partner), Frank Weiss (Vice President of Real Estate), and Greg Salzano (Director of Franchise Development)—are less likely to own software buying but may influence operational tool decisions. The absence of multi-unit franchisees further concentrates purchasing power at HQ, since no large operator groups hold independent negotiating leverage.
Mandated and current tech stack
Philly Pretzel Factory mandates five technology categories for its franchisees. The point-of-sale system is a proprietary Philly Pretzel Factory POS, paired with a proprietary intranet. Beyond those in-house systems, the franchisor requires a third-party CRM, a mobile app management platform, and credit card terminals. The specific vendors for the CRM, mobile app management, and payment terminals are not named in the available FDD extract. This stack creates a hybrid environment: the core operational software is locked to the franchisor’s own systems, while customer-facing and payment tools are mandated but sourced from external providers. For a software vendor, displacing the proprietary POS or intranet is unlikely without a strategic partnership at the CEO level, but the mandated third-party categories represent potential replacement or upsell opportunities if the current vendors’ contracts come up for review.
Procurement, renewals, and timing
The FDD does not include an Item 8 extract, so the brand’s procurement model—whether it uses designated suppliers, approved suppliers, or an open purchasing framework—is not publicly disclosed. Similarly, the initial franchise term length and Item 17 renewal conditions are absent from the available data. Without term and renewal signals, vendors cannot estimate when system-wide technology refreshes or contract renegotiations might occur. The 2026 FDD filing itself is the most current regulatory disclosure, and any material changes to tech mandates would appear in future amendments. Vendors should monitor subsequent filings for new Item 11 or Item 8 language that could signal an opening.
How to read the Philly Pretzel Factory FDD
The 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document is the primary source for the data on this page. Item 1 identifies the executives and ownership structure. Item 11 provides the franchisor’s mandated technology list, which we’ve summarized above. Item 19 discloses the $616,826 average unit volume. Because the FDD omits Item 8 procurement rules and Item 17 renewal terms, those areas remain unknown for now. The embedded PDF viewer below contains the full filing for your own due diligence. For a ranked target list of franchise systems matched to your software category, FranCloud can help.
Questions vendors ask
Philly Pretzel Factory, answered from the filing
The FDD lists CEO Daniel Dizio and President Martin Ferrill as key executives. No dedicated CIO or CTO is named, so technology decisions likely route through these top officers.
The franchise mandates a proprietary Philly Pretzel Factory POS, a proprietary intranet, a third-party CRM, mobile app management system, and credit card terminals.
There are 164 total units: 160 franchised and 4 company-owned. Operators are concentrated in New Jersey (8), Pennsylvania (4), and Missouri (3).
The most recent FDD does not include an Item 8 extract, so the designated versus approved supplier model is not publicly disclosed.
The FDD does not disclose initial term length or Item 17 renewal timing, so contract windows cannot be estimated from public filings alone.
The 2026 FDD is filed with state franchise regulators. You can view the embedded PDF viewer below for 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 Philly Pretzel Factory files a new annual FDD, usually the freshest signal of a vendor change.
Operator footprint
Who runs the locations
19 operators run 19 mapped locations. 0 of them are multi-unit. Aggregate counts from the filing; no names.
Operators by units owned
Single-unit19
Top states by locations
| NJ | 8 |
|---|---|
| PA | 4 |
| MO | 3 |
| IL | 2 |
| VA | 1 |
Related Quick service restaurant brands
Primary franchise filings · updated June 2026. Every figure is source-traceable and QA-checked.