From the filings

HQ-led decisions

The Original Hot Chicken and Inked Tacos

Quick service restaurant

Software purchasing at The Original Hot Chicken and Inked Tacos is controlled at the HQ level by a small executive team led by Executive Chairman Aziz Hashim and Head of Franchise Development and Training Sunny Ashman. The brand operates a single company-owned unit with no franchised locations yet mapped, making this an early-stage target for vendors. The 2023 FDD mandates two specific technology systems—Franklin Junction and POS Training—signaling a tightly controlled tech environment from the outset.

For software vendors selling into US franchise brands.

Live signals

Total units
1
0 franchised
Unit growth YoY
vs prior filing
AUV
Item 19, 2023
Royalty
6%
of gross sales
Ad fund
2%
national + local
Initial fee
$25K
per unit
Investment range
$215K–$698K
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.

8%of gross sales (FY2023)

Ongoing fees: 8% of gross sales (FY2023)Royalty 6%, Ad fund 2%. Total 8% of gross sales. Drawn against a 15% reference scale.

15% reference

Royalty 6%Ad fund 2%

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.

Yelp
Mandatory
MarketingItem 11

etermine, using forms of advertisement we approve or designate. You must also list your Restaurant with the online directories and subscriptions we periodically prescribe (such as Yelp® and Google®),

RTI
POSItem 4

he time of filing, Ruby Tuesday, Inc. and each of its subsidiaries had the address and principal place of business of 333 East Broadway Avenue, Maryville, TN 37804, and its parent RTI Holding Company

Franchisor behaviours

What the franchisor requires

18 requirements the franchisor states in this filing, each in its own words; 2 explicit no's; 14 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?

Yes

Franchise agreement

You agree to establish and maintain at your own expense a bookkeeping, accounting, and recordkeeping system conforming to the requirements and formats we prescribe from time to time.

Does the franchisor have direct or independent electronic access to the franchisee's financial, sales or customer records?

Yes

Item 11

We will have access to your Computer System, including hardware, software, security, configurations, connectivity, and data access, at all times, and we will have the right to collect and retain from the Computer System any and all data concerning your Restaurant.

Must the franchisee submit periodic financial statements (monthly, quarterly or annual) to the franchisor?

Yes

Franchise agreement

within fifteen (15) days after the end of each calendar month, the operating statements, financial statements, statistical reports and other information we request regarding your Restaurant covering the preceding month;

How the franchisor buys

Is the franchisor or an affiliate itself a supplier of required products, services or systems?

Yes

Item 1

Our affiliate, Ohio Valley Foods Systems LLC (“Ohio Valley Foods”) is currently the exclusive supplier to Restaurants of certain food products and branded merchandise.

Does the franchisor reserve the right to change designated suppliers or systems at any time?

Yes

Item 11

We may periodically modify the Brand Standards for the Computer System, including the designated or approved suppliers for the Computer System, and you must update your Computer System to comply with our modified Brand Standards promptly after you receive notice.

How much revenue did the franchisor and its affiliates earn from franchisee purchases in the last fiscal year?

0

Item 8

In our prior fiscal year ended May 31, 2023, neither we nor our affiliates derived any revenue from the sale of products and services to our 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?

40

Item 8

Collectively, the purchases you obtain according to our specifications or from approved or designated suppliers represent approximately 60%-80% of your total purchases to establish your Restaurant and 40%-80% of your total purchases to operate your Restaurant.

Can a franchisee propose a new supplier for the franchisor's approval?

Yes

Item 8

If you would like us to consider approving a supplier that is not currently an approved supplier, you must submit your request in writing before purchasing any items or services from that supplier.

Franchise management

Can the franchisor change the operations manual and brand standards unilaterally?

Yes

Item 11

We may modify the Brand Standards Manual periodically, including changes in Brand Standards.

Must the franchisor approve the franchisee's site or location before opening?

Yes

Item 11

You must obtain our approval of the site for the proposed Restaurant before you sign a Franchise Agreement for that Restaurant.

Marketing

Is the franchisee prohibited from operating its own website or social media accounts, or required to use pages the franchisor provides?

Yes

Item 11

Except as provided above, or as approved by us in writing or in the Brand Standards Manual, you may not develop, maintain or authorize any Online Presence that mentions your Restaurant, links to any Franchise System Website or displays any of the Marks, or engage in any promotional or similar activities, whether…

Is a minimum grand opening advertising spend required?

Yes

Item 11

You must spend at least $15,000 for a grand opening marketing program for your Restaurant to take place on the dates we designate before and after your Restaurant opens.

Is the franchisee required to spend a minimum amount on local advertising or marketing, as a percentage of sales or a fixed amount?

Yes

Item 11

Currently, the Local Advertising Expenditure is 1% of your Gross Sales per month, and must be paid to us to conduct marketing for your Restaurant.

Operations

Must equipment be purchased from designated or approved suppliers?

Yes

Item 8

You must also purchase certain Operating Assets only from suppliers that we have designated or approved (or that otherwise meet our Brand Standards).

Payments

Are royalties and other fees collected by automatic bank debit (ACH or electronic funds transfer) from the franchisee's account?

Yes

Item 6

Currently, we require all one-time payments to be made by wire transfer, and all recurring payments to be made through an electronic funds transfer system that allows us to debit a business account you designate for all amounts you owe us on their due dates or the next business day if the due date is a national…

Point of sale

Must the franchisee use a specific point-of-sale system designated or approved by the franchisor?

Yes

Item 11

You must obtain and install the computer hardware, software, point-of-sale and other technology systems that we periodically designate (the “Computer System”).

Does the franchisor have independent access to the data in the franchisee's POS or computer system?

Yes

Item 11

We will have access to your Computer System, including hardware, software, security, configurations, connectivity, and data access, at all times, and we will have the right to collect and retain from the Computer System any and all data concerning your Restaurant.

Training

Can the franchisor charge the franchisee for additional, refresher or remedial training?

Yes

Item 11

We may charge you or your personnel attendance fees for any additional training courses, modules, programs, events and meetings (currently, not imposed).

The filing answers no to 2 questions
  • Does the franchisor or an affiliate receive rebates, commissions or other revenue from designated or approved suppliers?Item 8
  • 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.

Sales LeaderSingle 1 19

The franchisee/operator personally, or a small franchisor still owner-run. Wears every hat.

OwnerCEOPresidentPrincipal
  1. 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%.
  2. 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.
  3. 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 The Original Hot Chicken and Inked Tacos

The Original Hot Chicken and Inked Tacos is a quick-service restaurant concept operating a single company-owned location in Georgia. For software vendors, the addressable market is currently one unit, with no franchised locations mapped in our corpus. The brand is part of TOHC Strategic Company LLC, and its executive team includes Aziz Hashim (Executive Chairman), James Walker (Chief Culinary and Concept Officer), and Sunny Ashman (Head of Franchise Development and Training). The 2023 FDD does not disclose an AUV, and year-over-year unit growth is not available. Royalties are set at 6.0% on a 10-year initial term.

This is an early-stage target. The small unit count means any software sale today is a direct-to-HQ conversation, not a multi-unit rollout. Vendors who establish relationships now could position themselves as default stack components if the brand begins franchising.

Who controls software purchasing

Purchasing authority sits at HQ. The FDD lists three executives in Item 1, and the most likely software buyers are Executive Chairman Aziz Hashim and Head of Franchise Development and Training Sunny Ashman. James Walker, as Chief Culinary and Concept Officer, may weigh in on kitchen and operational tools. There are no franchisee operators mapped, so no multi-unit owner influence exists today. This is a centralized decision-making structure with a very short path to the buyer.

Mandated and current tech stack

The 2023 FDD mandates two systems: Franklin Junction and POS Training. Franklin Junction is named as a mandated vendor, and POS Training is listed as a separate mandated requirement. No other technology vendors—POS, payroll, inventory, or scheduling—are disclosed in the FDD. This suggests a minimal current stack, leaving gaps that vendors in adjacent categories could fill. The explicit mandate language means any franchisee who joins the system will be required to adopt these tools, creating a guaranteed install base for those vendors as the brand grows.

Procurement, renewals, and timing

Item 8 of the FDD does not include a procurement extract, so the brand’s purchasing model—whether designated supplier, approved supplier, or open—is not publicly known. Vendors should clarify this directly with HQ. On renewals, Item 17 outlines a structured process: franchisees must give notice between 180 and 540 days before expiration, comply with brand standards, remodel or relocate as required, sign the then-current agreement, and pay a renewal fee. The initial term is 10 years. With no franchisees yet in the system, these renewal windows are not active, but they signal a formal, HQ-controlled renegotiation cycle for the future.

How to read the The Original Hot Chicken and Inked Tacos FDD

The 2023 FDD is embedded below. It is the primary source for all facts on this page—unit count, executive names, mandated vendors, royalty rates, and renewal terms. Software vendors should pay particular attention to Item 11 (mandated systems) and Item 1 (buying-center names), as these sections reveal who to call and what they already use. For a ranked target list of franchise brands matched to your software category, FranCloud can help.

Questions vendors ask

The Original Hot Chicken and Inked Tacos, answered from the filing

The buying center is small. Executive Chairman Aziz Hashim and Head of Franchise Development Sunny Ashman are the named decision-makers in the FDD. James Walker, Chief Culinary Officer, may influence operational tech choices.
The 2023 FDD mandates Franklin Junction and POS Training. No other operational or POS vendors are disclosed, suggesting a lean, early-stage stack with room for additional tools as the brand scales.
One company-owned unit. No franchised locations are mapped in our corpus. This is a nascent quick-service restaurant concept headquartered in Georgia.
The FDD does not include an Item 8 procurement extract, so the designated-supplier versus approved-supplier model is not publicly disclosed. Vendors should inquire directly about purchasing pathways.
With only one unit and no franchisees, contract cycles are not tied to a large renewal calendar. The 10-year initial term and 180-day renewal notice window suggest future franchisees will have defined renegotiation points.
The 2023 FDD is filed with state franchise regulators. You can review it directly in the embedded PDF viewer below to verify all cited facts and explore additional disclosures.
Source

Read the filing itself

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The Original Hot Chicken and Inked Tacos2023 FDDView only

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The brands you can actually sell into, from the filings.

Operator footprint

Who runs the locations

2 operators run 2 mapped locations. 0 of them are multi-unit. Aggregate counts from the filing; no names.

Operators by units owned

Single-unit2

Top states by locations

WI1
TX1

Ownership

The portfolio behind The Original Hot Chicken and Inked Tacos

pe_firm of NRD Capital.

Related Quick service restaurant brands

Primary franchise filings · updated June 2026. Every figure is source-traceable and QA-checked.