As you’d expect, growth was a spin-cycle for most restaurants during the COVID stretch and aftermath. Expansion halted for many and then picked up as cash was horded, sales recovered, and sites became available. The past couple of years haven’t lacked for complexity, either, with access to capital and interest rates leaving development tricky and consolidation taking precedent over concept creation. But amid all those marketplace trends and shifts, there’s been Culver’s.
The 1984-founded brand opened 50 stores in 2019. It proceeded to open the exact same figure in pandemic-strapped 2020. The next year? Fifty-five. And it opened 55 the following calendar as well.
In 2023, Culver’s grew by a net of 52 locations and estimated it would open 51 in 2024. That number, according its recently released FDD, actually ended up at 53, bringing Culver’s to the doorstep of the 1,000-unit club at 997 restaurants as 2025 arrived. That milestone location ended up opening in New Haven, Indiana, 40 years after the first Culver’s in Sauk City, Wisconsin.
So, to put growth in perspective:
- 2019: 50
- 2020: 50
- 2021: 55
- 2022: 55
- 2023: 52
- 2024: 53
Culver’s is doing something few chains in the category can attest to—appreciating steady expansion. It’s lifted by 315 restaurants since 2019.
Most of the development has come on the franchised side. Culver’s was flat on corporate development to exit 2024 at seven venues (it grew by one in 2023, from six to seven). After adding 53 franchised units, 990 of its 997 stores fall into that distinction.
Culver’s remains family owned and operated alongside an investment from Roark Capital, the backer of Inspire Brands, Subway, GoTo Foods, and, allegedly soon, Dave’s Hot Chicken. Roark provided Culver’s its first capital infusion in 2017 as a minority stakeholder.
While steadily rising now, Culver’s began franchising in the 1980s with the opening of a restaurant in Baraboo, Wisconsin, and brought fewer than 100 units to market in the first decade. The Culver family was adamant from the outset franchisees would serve as owner-operators (like the Chick-fil-A and Texas Roadhouse approach, among others), actively working in restaurants and local communities. That owner-operator model still exists today.
And despite the recent ramp up, Culver’s has closed just three franchised restaurants (one in 2023 and none last year) in 37 years. It transferred 23 to new owners in 2024 after 16 a year earlier and 37 in 2022.
The brand is expecting—unsurprisingly—to bring 55 restaurants to market in 2025. It had 55 agreements signed year-end 2024 on unopened units.
Last year’s expansion threaded through 26 states, broken down year-end totals as:
- Alabama: 16
- Arizona: 36
- Arkansas: 2
- Colorado: 24
- Florida: 119
- Georgia: 22
- Idaho: 4
- Illinois: 136
- Indiana: 87
- Iowa: 37
- Kansas: 12
- Kentucky: 16
- Michigan: 98
- Minnesota: 65
- Missouri: 43
- Nebraska: 13
- North Carolina: 17
- North Dakota: 7
- Ohio: 26
- South Carolina: 10
- South Dakota: 14
- Texas: 15
- Tennessee: 9
- Utah: 15
- Wisconsin (home state): 145
- Wyoming: 2
The fastest-growing market is, far and away, Florida, where Culver’s lifted by 17 units, year-over-year. Since 2021, Culver’s has expanded from 81 restaurants to 119 for a net hike of 38. Indiana was next with year-over-year growth of nine locations to 87 total.
As for how these stores are performing, Culver’s financial data covered 935 franchised locations and the seven corporate ones (open for the full 12-month period ending December 31, 2024).
This included non-typical units—four Culver’s that don’t have a drive-thru, five sharing a building with a c-store, and four occuping an endcap of a multi-tenant building. It did not include the 53 franchises that opened in 2024 or two that closed for a period of time last year due to a “substantial remodel, rebuild, or relocation,” meaning there weren’t 12 months of data to comp accordingly.
The corporate Culver’s are located in Sauk City, Spring Green, Richland Center, Baraboo, Middleton, Madison, and Oregon, Wisconsin, and are single-purpose, one story, and freestanding, seating 88 to 120 guests, which is comparable to the typical franchise.
The highest sales franchised Culver’s in 2024 made $8.733 million. The lowest, $1.188 million. Average sales across stores were $3.79 million and median sales $3.693 million. That $3.79 million AUV was well higher than 2023’s $3.489 million. It’s climbed 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.
Of the 935 locations, 429 (or 46 percent) met or exceeded average sales.
Culver’s nearly $3.8 million AUV in 2024 would place it, going by last year’s QSR 50 data (an update is coming in August) just behind Shake Shack and sixth overall of the top 50 grossing chains in quick service.
Below is a look at company results:
Also noted in the corporate pool, Culver’s said manager wages at company-owned stores ranged from $17.50 to $29.50 last year. Salaried managers from $73,000 to $90,697 per year. Crew made $10–$23.09 per hour.
Additionally, Culver’s unpacked data on 922 franchises sans last year’s openings, the two stores that were temporarily closed, and 13 non-typical restaurants. Essentially, this is a look at drive-thru locations.
These averaged $3.794 million in sales and $3.694 in median sales. The range scaled from $1.318 million to $8.733 million.
The most lucrative state in Culver’s fleet (there are just eight restaurants counted there) was Kansas at average sales of $4.436 million. North Carolina (15 units) trailed at $4.282 million, followed by Culver’s backyard of Wisconsin ($4.185 million 135 restaurants).
Looking ahead to how this might evolve, when there were nine or fewer Culver’s in a DMA, AUV clocked in at $3.724 million (279 stores fell into this definition). When there were 10 or more, it was $3.824 million (643 franchises). The observation being there’s plenty of room for Culver’s to infill and raise awareness. It has sub-20 restaurants in all but 11 of its 26 states.
There were 896 franchised stores in “metropolitan statistical areas” averaging $3.803 million in sales. The 26 outside recorded $3.484 million. Culver’s defines this as being a county or counties of equivalent entities associated with at least one core (urbanized area or unban cluster) of at least 10,000 population.
Culver’s within a half mile of an interstate enter or exit ramp (there were 254 of these) averaged $4.003 million. Those not (668 units), clocked $3.714 million.
Some population results below:
And median household incomes:
Culver’s showed the correlation to number of employees to sales as well:
And competition:
Lastly, a combination of factors:
Culver’s more broadly closed 2024 with cash and cash equivalents of $76 million and total assets of $110.3 million. Cash and cash equivalents in 2023 was $52.3 million and $46.2 million the prior year.
Culver’s generated total operating revenues of $298.6 million ($269 million from franchises). The revenue result was a step-up from 2023, when it was $264 million. Revenue was $222 million in 2022.
Net income last year dipped slightly, year-over-year, from $106.3 million to $104.16 million. That was $75.6 million in 2022.
Culver’s history dates back four decades to when Craig and Lea Culver, along with Craig’s parents George and Ruth, opened the restaurant as a single family-owned spot in Sauk City, Wisconsin. Craig wanted to bring the frozen custard he tried in college to fresh audiences. Culver’s then used an ice cream scoop to place fresh, never frozen beef on a griddle, which it smashed with a spatula and placed atop a buttered toasted bun (what it calls ButterBurgers). That’s the method still used today—everything made fresh to order— alongside a wide-ranging menu that includes cheese curds sourced from a Wisconsin family farm.
The brand is currently searching for a CEO as Rick Silva retired in February. He joined Culver’s in March 2021 after first retiring from Checker’s & Rally’s after 13 years.
