WorldpayWorldpay
Mandatoryon 30 days’ notice. We POS System is not may increase this fee by up to 20% per capable of processing annum. our gift cards, you must acquire a card reader that is compatible with Worldpay by FIS proc
From the filings
HQ-led decisions
U Swirl Franchising
Quick service restaurantSoftware purchasing at U Swirl Franchising is controlled at the corporate level, with key decision-makers including CEO Nealesh Dahya, CFO Nimesh Dahya, and VP of Operations Chris Bewley. The franchise currently mandates Worldpay by FIS for payment processing across its 57-unit system. With an average unit volume of $481,567 and a 10-year initial term, the addressable market is concentrated but offers renewal-driven sales windows.
For software vendors selling into US franchise brands.
Live signals
Total units
57
57 franchised
Unit growth YoY
0%
vs prior filing
AUV
$482K
Item 19, 2024
Royalty
6%
of gross sales
Ad fund
1%
national + local
Initial fee
$25K
per unit
Investment range
$419K–$630K
all-in, Item 7
Procurement
Approved supplier
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.
7%of gross sales (FY2025)
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.
YelpYelp
nt and responding to a we provide a gift card, refund or other customer complaint value to the customer as part of our (currently estimated to addressing the issue. (Maintaining a Yelp be between $20
Franchisor behaviours
What the franchisor requires
25 requirements the franchisor states in this filing, each in its own words; 7 explicit no's; 2 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?
YesItem 11
You must purchase off-the-shelf bookkeeping software that we specify and use it to produce reports submitted to us periodically.
Must the franchisee submit periodic financial statements (monthly, quarterly or annual) to the franchisor?
YesFranchise agreement
You will deliver a balance sheet, profit and loss statement, statement of cash flows and explanatory footnotes prepared under generally accepted accounting principles applied on a consistent basis (“Financial Statements”) to us within the time period required by the Franchise Operations Manual.
How the franchisor buys
Does the franchisor reserve the right to change designated suppliers or systems at any time?
YesFranchise agreement
We may change or add approved suppliers of this Technology at any time, in our sole discretion.
Does the franchisor or an affiliate receive rebates, commissions or other revenue from designated or approved suppliers?
YesItem 8
We and our affiliates may receive rebates from some suppliers based on your purchase of products and services and we may but we have no obligation to pass them on to our franchisees or use them in any particular manner.
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
We estimate that approximately 80% of purchases required to open your Franchised Business and 50% of purchases required to operate your Franchised Business will be from approved suppliers or under our specifications.
Does the franchisor charge a fee to evaluate a proposed supplier?
YesItem 8
We reserve the right to charge a fee to evaluate the proposed product, service or supplier.
Can a franchisee propose a new supplier for the franchisor's approval?
YesItem 8
If you desire to have a non-approved supplier become an approved supplier, you must submit samples of the supplier’s products or services to USI, along with a written statement describing why the products or services and the supplier should be approved for use in the System.
Communications
Does the franchisor own or control the business telephone numbers, or take them over when the agreement ends?
YesItem 11
At the time of the expiration or termination of the Franchise Agreement for any reason, your business telephone numbers may become the property of USI, at USI’s sole option.
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 as those standards may be revised and modified by the PCI Security Standards Council, LLC, or any successor 2025 FA v1 C-18 organization or standards we may reasonably specify.
Franchise management
Does the franchisor conduct periodic inspections, audits or evaluations of the franchised business?
YesFranchise agreement
To ensure compliance with this Franchise Agreement, we or our representatives will have the right to enter your Premises, evaluate your Franchised Business operations, and inspect or examine your books, records, accounts and tax returns.
Can the franchisor change the operations manual and brand standards unilaterally?
YesFranchise agreement
We can modify the Franchise Operations Manual at any time.
Must the franchisor approve the franchisee's site or location before opening?
YesItem 12
You may operate your Franchised Business only at the approved location.
Marketing
Is a minimum grand opening advertising spend required?
YesItem 11
Grand Opening Program You will spend a minimum of $5,000 on approved grand opening marketing, advertising and promotion for your Franchised Business during the period beginning 30 days before and ending 90 days 2025 FDD v1 24 after the opening of your Franchised Business.
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
In addition to the Advertising Fund Contributions, you must spend 1% of Gross Sales on local advertising (“Local Advertising Requirement”).
Must the franchisee participate in a customer loyalty or rewards program?
YesFranchise agreement
You agree to participate in our gift card and loyalty programs, if any, and agree to make gift cards and loyalty programs available for purchase and redemption at your Franchised Business subject to the policies and procedures in the Franchise Operations Manual.
Must the franchisee participate in a regional advertising cooperative when one exists?
YesItem 11
If your Store is located in a Co-op area, you will be required to participate in the Co-op.
Operations
Must the franchisee buy products from a designated distributor?
YesItem 8
You must purchase the proprietary products we or our affiliates develop from time to time for proprietary recipes or formulas and purchase them only from us or a third party who we have licensed to prepare and sell the products.
Must equipment be purchased from designated or approved suppliers?
YesItem 8
Equipment and POS System. You must purchase or lease equipment and furnishings used in your Store from suppliers designated or approved by USI.
Payments
Must the franchisee use a payment processor or merchant-services provider designated or approved by the franchisor?
YesFranchise agreement
You agree to maintain, at all times, credit card relationships with the credit and debit card issuers or sponsors, check or credit verification services, financial center services, payment providers, merchant service providers, loyalty and gift cards, and electronic fund transfer systems (together, “Payment Vendors”)…
Are royalties and other fees collected by automatic bank debit (ACH or electronic funds transfer) from the franchisee's account?
YesFranchise agreement
Franchisee shall participate in an electronic funds transfer program under which USI automatically deducts from Franchisee’s bank account the Royalty Fee, the advertising fees (as specified in Section 2.11), and other payments owed to USI
Must the franchisee participate in a gift card program?
YesItem 16
As the Gift Card program is part of the System, you must participate by offering Gift Cards to your customers and honoring all Gift Cards presented to you as payment for products, regardless of whether the Gift Card was issued by you or another USI Store.
People
Must employees wear uniforms specified by the franchisor?
YesItem 8
All non-proprietary ingredients, beverage products, cooking materials, containers, cartons, bags, menus, napkins, other paper and plastic products, utensils, uniforms and other supplies and materials used in your Franchised Business must strictly conform to our quality standards and reasonable specifications.
Point of sale
Must the franchisee use a specific point-of-sale system designated or approved by the franchisor?
YesItem 11
You must use a computerized point of sale system (together with the software, referred to as “POS System”) meeting our specifications from a designated or approved supplier.
Training
Can the franchisor charge the franchisee for additional, refresher or remedial training?
YesItem 6
The then-current fee Within ten days We may charge you for training additional Training or (currently $500 per after invoicing persons, newly-hired personnel, refresher Assistance Fees attendee for additional training courses, remedial training, training) advanced training courses, and additional or special…
Is attendance at an annual convention or conference mandatory for the franchisee?
YesItem 11
In addition to participating in ongoing training, you will be required to attend any national or regional meeting or conference of franchisees.
The filing answers no to 7 questions
- Does the franchisor have direct or independent electronic access to the franchisee's financial, sales or customer records?Item 11
- Is the franchisor or an affiliate itself a supplier of required products, services or systems?Item 8
- Is there a franchisee advisory council, association or committee?Item 11
- Must the franchisee participate in a customer-satisfaction or net-promoter survey program?Franchise agreement
- Is the franchisee prohibited from operating its own website or social media accounts, or required to use pages the franchisor provides?Franchise agreement
- Does the franchisor require minimum staffing levels or specific roles?Franchise agreement
- Does the franchisor have independent access to the data in the franchisee's POS or computer system?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 franchisor's owner/CEO decides; an ops or franchise-development lead may evaluate.
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 U Swirl
U Swirl Franchising operates a system of 57 franchised quick-service restaurant locations, with headquarters in Georgia. The brand is part of Bob Partners X, LLC and U Swirl LLC. For software vendors, the immediate addressable market is those 57 franchisee-operated units, though the number of company-owned locations is not disclosed in the 2025 FDD. Average unit volume sits at $481,567, and franchisees pay a 6.0% royalty. The initial franchise term is 10 years, with a single 10-year successor term available to operators in good standing. This structure means that every unit will eventually face a renewal event, creating natural windows for technology re-evaluation.
Who controls software purchasing
According to Item 1 of the 2025 FDD, the executive team includes Nealesh Dahya (Chief Executive Officer), Nimesh Dahya (Chief Financial Officer), Steve Hubbard (President), Kristen Greve (Vice President of Franchising), and Chris Bewley (Vice President of Operations). For a software vendor, the most direct paths into the organization are likely through the CEO and CFO on financial and strategic systems, and through the VP of Operations for store-level and operational technology. Because the franchisor mandates at least one technology (Worldpay by FIS), purchasing authority for mandated systems clearly sits at the corporate level. For non-mandated tools, individual franchisees may have discretion, but the FDD does not clarify the extent of that autonomy.
Mandated and current tech stack
The only technology explicitly mandated in the 2025 FDD is Worldpay by FIS for payment processing. No other point-of-sale, back-office, inventory, labor, or loyalty systems are named as required or recommended. This leaves a wide opening for vendors in adjacent categories—provided they can demonstrate value to both the franchisor and the franchisee base. The absence of a named POS mandate is particularly notable for vendors selling into quick-service restaurants, where integrated POS and operational platforms are common.
Procurement, renewals, and timing
Item 8 of the FDD, which typically outlines procurement restrictions and designated suppliers, was not extracted in the available data. As a result, the specific procurement model—whether designated supplier, approved supplier, or open—is not disclosed. Vendors should be prepared to navigate either a top-down approval process or a franchisee-driven purchasing environment. On timing, the 10-year initial term and the availability of one 10-year successor term suggest that contract renewal cycles are infrequent but predictable. The FDD states that renewal requires signing the then-current Franchise Agreement, which may contain materially different terms, including higher royalty and advertising contributions. This clause signals that franchisees approaching renewal may be more open to operational changes, including software upgrades, as they reset their cost structures.
How to read the U Swirl FDD
The 2025 U Swirl Franchise Disclosure Document is the primary source for the data points above. It is filed with state franchise regulators and contains detailed information on the franchisor’s history, fees, obligations, and financial performance representations. For software vendors, the most relevant sections are Item 1 (the franchisor and its executives), Item 8 (restrictions on sources of products and services), Item 11 (the franchisor’s obligations, including any mandated technology), and Item 17 (renewal, termination, and transfer). The embedded PDF viewer below provides full access to the document. For a ranked target list of franchise systems matched to your software category, FranCloud can help you prioritize your outreach.
Questions vendors ask
U Swirl Franchising, answered from the filing
The buying center includes CEO Nealesh Dahya, CFO Nimesh Dahya, and VP of Operations Chris Bewley, based on FDD Item 1 disclosures.
The 2025 FDD mandates Worldpay by FIS for payment processing. No other operational or POS systems are named as required.
There are 57 franchised units. The number of company-owned locations is not disclosed in the FDD.
The FDD does not include an Item 8 extract, so whether they use designated suppliers, approved suppliers, or an open model is not disclosed.
With 10-year initial terms and one 10-year successor term available, renewal-triggered evaluations may occur near the end of each term for operators in good standing.
The 2025 FDD is filed with state franchise regulators. You can review it using the embedded PDF viewer below.
Source
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FDD alert
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Operator footprint
Who runs the locations
45 operators run 45 mapped locations. 0 of them are multi-unit. Aggregate counts from the filing; no names.
Operators by units owned
Single-unit45
Top states by locations
| AZ | 9 |
|---|---|
| GA | 5 |
| MN | 5 |
| MO | 3 |
| NC | 3 |
Ownership
The portfolio behind U Swirl Franchising
parent_company of Bob Partners X, LLC and U Swirl LLC.
Related Quick service restaurant brands
Primary franchise filings · updated June 2026. Every figure is source-traceable and QA-checked.