This past year, unsurprisingly, was another steady growth stretch for Culver’s, which lifted by a net of 44 locations, per its latest FDD. That took the 1984-founded brand to 1,041 restaurants as 2026 arrived. Culver’s projects 59 new franchised outlets this year as well.
Impressively, and also par for the recent course, Culver’s began 2025 with 990 restaurants and opened 45. Meaning just one store ceased operations (no reason given). The chain has lifted by 359 restaurants since 2019 and closed just four franchised locations in 38 years.
Culver’s recent net growth:
- 2019: 50
- 2020: 50
- 2021: 55
- 2022: 55
- 2023: 52
- 2024: 53
- 2025: 44
Culver’s footprint today sits at 1,034 franchised restaurants and seven company owned. That corporate number hasn’t moved since it increased by one in 2023.
LOOK BACK: Breaking down Culver’s 2024 FDD
Last year also included 20 transfers (essentially in line with 2024’s 23). The biggest year-over-year growth market was Florida, which rose to 126 stores from 119, and Michigan (107 from 98). All the company restaurants reside in Culver’s home state of Wisconsin.
For 2026, Culver’s appears poised to continue deepening its Florida base, with 14 expected outlets. No other market projects in the double-digits; Ohio is next at six, and Alabama, Indiana, and North Carolina all tout four apiece. Florida was Culver’s fastest-growing state in 2024 as well (17 year-over-year). Since 2021, Culver’s has hiked its Sunshine State count from 81 restaurants to 126.
Culver’s has been franchising since the 1980s, when it opened a store in Baraboo, Wisconsin, and brought fewer than 100 units to market in the first decade. The company today remains family owned and operated alongside an investment from Roark Capital—the backer of Subway, Inspire Brands, GoTo Foods, Dave’s Hot Chicken, and, also, the soon-to-be reported seller of Nothing Bundt Cakes.
Culver’s is among the brands dedicated to an owner-operator model with a deeply vetted selection process (similar to how Chick-fil-A picks leaders after they work in the system and guards expansion until proven out). The goal being, like others, to have franchisees operating in restaurants and local communities.
The brand is, however, under new direction with CEO Julie Fussner elevating from the CMO role in April. It was searching for a CEO when its last FDD released.
Fussner joined Culver’s in 2017 as VP of marketing and was promoted to CMO in January 2023. She replaced Rick Silva, who retired in February 2025 after taking the role (leaving retirement after Checker’s & Rally’s) in March 2021. Chairman Craig Culver was CEO from inception through June 2015.
As for how Culver’s performed amid expansion, the brand presents one of the more robust Item 19s in the business. The following discloses sales from 988 franchised Culver’s and seven corporate open for a 12-month period that ended December 31. This includes information about non-typical restaurants, including four without a drive-thru window, five that share a building with a C-store, and four that occupy an endcap of a multi-tenant building. It excludes stores not open for the fiscal year, including 45 opened in 2025, as well as a franchised restaurant that was closed for a period last year due to a relocation, and the unit that shuttered.
Culver’s sales are climbing alongside its unit count. The $4.142 million average seen in the chart below is well above last year’s $3.790 million. And the median ($4.036 million) sailed a year-ago result of $3.693 million.
Going back further, Culver’s AUV in 2023 was $3.489 million. It’s bumped consistently as well—it was $2.435 million in pre-COVID 2019, $2.624 million in 2020, $3.099 million in 2021, and $3.28 million in 2022.
The highest sales Culver’s in 2025, at $9.030 million, was also ahead of the previous year’s $8.732 million.
Of the 988 franchised locations, 450 (46 percent) met or exceeded the average sales.
And to note in the above, hourly manager wages at company stores (Culver’s cannot set franchisee rates) ranged from $19 an hour to $30.09. Salaried manager wages scaled from $82,400 per year to $97,155 per year. Crew ranges from $10 per hour to $23.55.
In 2024, these numbers were: manager wages at company-owned stores from $17.50 to $29.50. Salaried managers $73,000 to $90,697 per year. Crew $10–$23.09 per hour.
Culver’s has an advertising royalty of 2 percent for all agreements signed prior to March 31, 2012, and 2.5 percent thereafter. Local advertising represents 1 percent. Service royalty 4 percent.
Culver’s also breaks down results by market, a pool encompassing 975 franchised restaurants open the full year. It excludes the non-typical units mentioned before.
Culver’s includes sales as they relate to being off a highway, or not, as well. And how the brand fares dependent on population metrics. A solid crop of Culver’s remain in markets with fewer than 60,000 residents.
This below subset of 693 restaurants separates data by state when there were five or more restaurants in a particular population range. Culver’s did not include if a population range in a state had fewer than five restaurants.
And here’s a look at average sales by median household income. The brand appears to strike a strong proposition among a core QSR demographic.
Here is a look at 782 restaurants that separate data by state for when there were five or more stores in a particular median household income range.
Additionally, Culver’s outlined how employees within a radius of restaurants affects sales. The more, the higher the figure (although there are far fewer locations in that bracket compared to the other side).
Culver’s holds its own among competitors, too.
Overall, Culver’s total operating revenues in 2025 soared to $337.7 million, from $298.6 million the prior year. Again, it continues a step-up from 2023, when it was $264 million. Revenue was $222 million in 2022.
Net income climbed to $125.6 million after dipping a bit in 2024 to $104 million (from $106 million in 2023). That was $75.6 million in 2022.
Culver’s closed the year with $115.3 million in cash and cash equivalents and total assets of $174.8 million—both sizable year-over-year jumps from $76 million and $131 million, respectively. Cash and cash equivalents in 2023 was $52.3 million and $46.2 million the prior year.
Culver’s 2025 also included the launch of its loyalty program, “Delicious Rewards.”
