From the filings
Software purchasing at Uncle Maddio's Pizza is centralized at its Virginia headquarters, where President/CEO James Smith and CFO Ned Scherer are the key buyers. The most recent FDD (2024) does not mandate any specific POS or operational technology, which means vendors face an open, direct sales environment. With just 12 total units, the total addressable market is small, but the lack of mandated tech creates a greenfield opportunity for a new platform vendor.
For software vendors selling into US franchise brands.
Live signals
Ongoing fee load
The recurring percentage of gross sales named in this filing, before rent, labour or any technology fee.
7%of gross sales (FY2024)
15% reference
Franchisor behaviours
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
Must the franchisee use an accounting or bookkeeping system designated or approved by the franchisor?
YesFranchise agreement
Franchisee agrees to establish a bookkeeping and recordkeeping system conforming to the requirements prescribed from time to time by Franchisor
Does the franchisor have direct or independent electronic access to the franchisee's financial, sales or customer records?
YesItem 11
In other words, we will have independent access to your sales information and data produced by your POS system.
Must the franchisee submit periodic financial statements (monthly, quarterly or annual) to the franchisor?
YesFranchise agreement
Franchisee must provide Franchisor with those financial reports required by Franchisor from time to time.
How the franchisor buys
Is there a franchisee advisory council, association or committee?
YesItem 11
We have an Advertising Council composed of Franchisees to advise us on advertising policies.
Does the franchisor reserve the right to change designated suppliers or systems at any time?
YesFranchise agreement
Franchisor may designate, at any time and for any reason, a single or multiple suppliers for ingredients, products, supplies, furnishings, and
How much revenue did the franchisor and its affiliates earn from franchisee purchases in the last fiscal year?
0Item 8
During our fiscal year ending December 31, 2023, we did not derive any revenue from direct sales of equipment, products or services to franchisees.
Does the franchisor or an affiliate receive rebates, commissions or other revenue from designated or approved suppliers?
YesItem 8
We and our affiliates have the right to receive payments from Approved Suppliers or other authorized suppliers based upon their dealings with you and other franchisees, and we may use the monies we receive without restriction for any purpose we deem appropriate or necessary.
Does the franchisor charge a fee to evaluate a proposed supplier?
YesItem 8
The proposed supplier or you must pay, in advance, a fee not to exceed the reasonable cost of any evaluation, testing, and inspections we undertake.
Can a franchisee propose a new supplier for the franchisor's approval?
YesItem 8
If (i) you wish to purchase any item from a supplier (manufacturer or distributor) we have not previously approved or an item that does not comply with our standards and specifications and (ii) the item has not been designated by us to be exclusively supplied by a designated supplier(s), you must first submit to us a…
Communications
Does the franchisor own or control the business telephone numbers, or take them over when the agreement ends?
YesFranchise agreement
assign to Franchisor or its designee all of Franchisee’s rights, title, and interest in the telephone numbers, telephone directory listings and advertisements, website URLs, (whether acquired by Franchisee in accordance with or in violation of Section 15.2 hereof), e-mail addresses, other electronic media and…
Data and IT
Must the franchisee comply with PCI, data-security or cybersecurity standards set by the franchisor?
YesFranchise agreement
Franchisee agrees 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 (see www.pcisecuritystandards.org), or any successor organization or standards that Franchisor may reasonably specify.
Franchise management
Must the franchisee participate in a customer-satisfaction or net-promoter survey program?
YesFranchise agreement
As required by Franchisor, maintain a contract(s) with, or participate in any Franchisor contract(s), with any third-party(ies) offering customer service, customer loyalty, shopper experience, food safety or other service programs designed to audit, survey, evaluate or inspect business operations.
Does the franchisor conduct periodic inspections, audits or evaluations of the franchised business?
YesFranchise agreement
Franchisor and its duly authorized representatives shall have the right, if they so elect, at all reasonable times, to enter and inspect the Restaurant to ensure that Franchisee is complying with such specifications, standards, business practices, policies and requirements and to test any and all equipment, systems…
Can the franchisor change the operations manual and brand standards unilaterally?
YesFranchise agreement
Franchisor may update and change the Brand Standards Manual periodically to reflect changes in the System and the operating requirements applicable to Uncle Maddio’s Restaurants
Must the franchisor approve the franchisee's site or location before opening?
YesItem 11
The proposed site for your Restaurant must be accepted by us along with any applicable lease, sublease or purchase agreement.
Marketing
Is a minimum grand opening advertising spend required?
YesItem 11
You must spend a minimum of $15,000 for the grand opening promotion.
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 a reasonable amount each month for local market advertising but in no event will the aggregate amount spent in the months of each calendar quarter be less than 2% of the total Net Sales for such calendar quarter.
Must the franchisee participate in a customer loyalty or rewards program?
YesFranchise agreement
Franchisee understands that Franchisor implements promotions such as discount coupons, certificates, frequent customer programs (i.e. for customer loyalty programs), special menu promotions, gift programs and other activities intended to enhance customer awareness and build traffic at Uncle Maddio’s Restaurants on a…
Operations
Must the franchisee buy products from a designated distributor?
YesFranchise agreement
Franchisor may designate, at any time and for any reason, a single or multiple suppliers for ingredients, products, supplies, furnishings, and equipment and require Franchisee to purchase exclusively from such designated supplier or suppliers, which exclusive designated supplier(s), may be Franchisor or an affiliate…
Must equipment be purchased from designated or approved suppliers?
YesItem 8
you must purchase or lease fixtures, equipment and supplies, furnishings, products and services, and related items from suppliers that we designate or approve (“Approved Suppliers”).
Payments
Must the franchisee use a payment processor or merchant-services provider designated or approved by the franchisor?
YesFranchise agreement
Franchisee may not use any Credit Card Vendors that Franchisor has not approved in writing or for which Franchisor has revoked approval.
Must the franchisee participate in a gift card program?
YesFranchise agreement
Franchisee shall also accept debit cards, stored value gift card or other non-cash payment systems specified by Franchisor to enable customers to purchase authorized products and services.
People
Does the franchisor require minimum staffing levels or specific roles?
YesItem 15
During operations hours, a Manager who (i) satisfies the minimum qualifications and experience requirements in the Brand Standards Manual and (ii) has successfully completed the initial training program described in Section 14.1 of the Franchise Agreement, must at all times be at your Restaurant.
Must employees wear uniforms specified by the franchisor?
YesFranchise agreement
Ensure that all employees of the Restaurant wear uniforms and abide by the dress guidelines conforming to the specifications and standards Franchisor may from time to time designate in the Brand Standards Manual or otherwise.
Point of sale
Must the franchisee use a specific point-of-sale system designated or approved by the franchisor?
YesItem 8
You must purchase a point of sale ("POS") system (see Item11).
Does the franchisor have independent access to the data in the franchisee's POS or computer system?
YesItem 11
In other words, we will have independent access to your sales information and data produced by your POS system.
Training
Can the franchisor charge the franchisee for additional, refresher or remedial training?
YesItem 6
Additionally, we may require you or your manager and other management employees to attend additional or refresher training for which we may charge a fee.
Is attendance at an annual convention or conference mandatory for the franchisee?
YesFranchise agreement
Franchisor may require Franchisee and/or one or more of the operating managers of the Restaurant to attend conferences which may be offered by Franchisor from time to time.
Who buys here
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.
Uncle Maddio's Pizza is a quick-service pizza chain headquartered in Virginia with a small and contracting footprint. The 2024 Franchise Disclosure Document reports just 12 total units, down from a larger base in prior years, with a year-over-year unit growth rate of -21.4%. The system is composed of 11 franchised locations and 1 company-owned store. Operators are concentrated in five states: Georgia (6), North Carolina (4), Florida (3), Virginia (2), and North Dakota (1). All 20 mapped operators are single-unit owners; there are no multi-unit franchisees. For a software vendor, the total addressable market is tiny, but the absence of any mandated tech stack means even a single win could serve as a proof-of-concept for a platform that the brand might eventually roll out system-wide.
The 2024 FDD lists James Smith as President and Chief Executive Officer. Ned Scherer is the Chief Financial Officer. Robert Cuffaro serves as Senior Vice President of Franchise Sales and Operations. With no Chief Information Officer or technology-specific executive on file, the CEO and CFO are the de facto software buying center. In a system this small, a vendor’s path to a deal runs directly through the C-suite in Virginia. There is no parent company or private equity sponsor exerting top-down procurement mandates; the brand appears independently owned. The operator base of 20 single-unit franchisees suggests that, barring any HQ mandate, individual owners could also make their own point-of-sale or operational software decisions, but the lack of multi-unit operators means there are no scaled portfolio buyers to influence the system.
The 2024 FDD does not name a single mandated or recommended technology vendor. There is no required point-of-sale system, online ordering platform, loyalty program, or back-of-house management tool disclosed in the document. This is a genuinely open technology landscape. For a software vendor, this means there is no incumbent to displace. The trade-off is that the brand is small and in contraction, so a long-term, high-volume SaaS contract is unlikely. The opportunity here is tactical: a vendor can point to the missing tech infrastructure as a clear gap and pitch a comprehensive, low-friction platform to HQ without needing to navigate an approved-vendor list.
No Item 8 procurement extract is available in the FDD, so we cannot confirm whether the franchisor maintains a list of designated or approved suppliers. The default inference is an open procurement model where franchisees source their own software or small-scale decisions are made at HQ. The renewal process, described in Item 17, gives a useful timing signal. Franchisees who wish to renew for a successive 10-year term must provide written notice, be in good standing, sign the then-current Franchise Agreement, pay a renewal fee, and complete a large-scale refurbishment of the restaurant if required. That renovation trigger, described as “re-equipping, refurbishing and remodeling,” is a natural moment when a franchisee must re-evaluate every piece of in-store technology. With an initial term of 10 years and the current unit count in decline, the most realistic software-buying windows are tied to those renewal-triggered refurbishments at existing locations, not new unit openings.
The full 2024 Franchise Disclosure Document is the definitive source for contract terms, franchisee lists, and any changes to mandated suppliers. Key sections for software vendors are Item 8 (procurement restrictions), Item 11 (franchisor’s obligations, often listing required technology), and Item 20 (unit tables and operator lists). The embedded PDF below contains the complete filing. Use it to verify the absence of a mandated tech stack and to pull the latest contact data for the buying center. For a ranked, data-driven list of the franchise brands that represent your best-fit targets, chat with FranCloud.
Questions vendors ask
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.
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FDD alert
We’ll email you the moment Uncle Maddio's Pizza files a new annual FDD, usually the freshest signal of a vendor change.
Operator footprint
16 operators run 20 mapped locations. 3 of them are multi-unit. Aggregate counts from the filing; no names.
Operators by units owned
Top states by locations
| GA | 6 |
|---|---|
| NC | 4 |
| FL | 3 |
| VA | 2 |
| ND | 1 |
Related Quick service restaurant brands
Primary franchise filings · updated August 2026. Every figure is source-traceable and QA-checked.