Brand profile

Chick-fil-A

Category leaderchicken sandwichnationalfranchisedgrowing

Single-unit operator model. Operators are selected, pay a $10K franchise fee, do not build multi-unit portfolios, and split profits with the franchisor.

CSW Score

Methodology →

Rank #1 of 15 rated brands
4 of 5 components available

Unit EconomicsFY2025

ExpansionYE2025

Real Estate StrengthFY2025

System MomentumFY2025

2,863¹

U.S. units

YE2025 · Franchised + company-operated outlets; plus 435 licensed venues

$23.92B¹

Systemwide sales

FY2025 · +5.2% YoY

$9.16M¹

Average unit volume

FY2025 · Average for domestic freestanding / drive-thru-only comp stores; median $9.087M

$7.2M²

Blended AUV

FY2025 · Circana blended AUV including licensed locations — 3rd-highest of 50 major brands

179¹

Net unit change

FY2025 · Net new franchised and company-operated units

Headquarters

Atlanta, GA

Founded

1967

Parent / ownership

Chick-fil-A, Inc. (private, family-controlled)

Structure

Private

CSW Analysis

Chick-fil-A is not competing in the same economic universe as the rest of the category. A $9.2M average unit volume on a six-day operating week means a single Chick-fil-A generates roughly what four Popeyes generate, and it does it with the industry's most sought-after operator pipeline. The interesting question is no longer whether Chick-fil-A wins the U.S. chicken sandwich war — it is what happens when unit volumes plateau. Systemwide sales growth of 5.2% in 2025 was driven substantially by the 179-unit build, and Restaurant Business has flagged that AUVs are pressing against a practical throughput ceiling. That is precisely why the $1B international push and the licensed-venue channel matter: they are the two remaining growth vectors that do not require squeezing more cars through the same drive-thru.

Real estate profile

Cap rate
4.20%–4.50% asking on 15-year ground leases; ~4.45% asking in Q2 2026³⁴

The tightest-priced tenant in the QSR net-lease universe alongside McDonald's. Typical structure is a 20-year corporate absolute-NNN ground lease with 10% escalations every five years and multiple five-year options. Recent prototypes run roughly 5,000–6,000 SF on 1.5–2.0 acres, increasingly with dual drive-thru lanes.⁵⁶

Verified transactions

Date	Location	Price	Cap	Terms
2026-07	5979 TN-153, Hixson (Chattanooga), TN⁵	$2.77M	4.15%	15-year corporate absolute-NNN ground lease

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Development pipeline

Announced	Market	Commitment	Timeline
2026	United States⁷	100+ in 2026	2026
2025	United Kingdom / Singapore⁸	5 UK restaurants in first two years; Singapore entry	$100M UK over 10 years; $75M Singapore over 10 years; five international markets by 2030

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Chick-fil-A in the news

2026-07-13Real Estate

New-construction Chick-fil-A ground lease trades at a 4.15% cap — a Tennessee record⁶

What it means for the Chicken Wars: $2.77M for a 6,008 SF relocation store on 1.74 acres in Hixson, on a 15-year corporate absolute-NNN ground lease with 10% bumps. The lowest cap rate ever recorded for a single-tenant Chick-fil-A drive-thru in Tennessee, per CoStar — and it was achieved on a shorter-than-standard term. Chick-fil-A ground leases are now priced closer to bonds than to restaurants.

2026Brands

Chick-fil-A systemwide sales approach $24 billion on a $9.16M average unit volume⁷

What it means for the Chicken Wars: $23.9B, +5.2%, on 2,863 outlets plus 435 licensed venues. Six operating days a week. The growth came from 179 new restaurants rather than same-store volume, which is why the $1B international commitment and the licensed channel are now the strategic priorities — the domestic drive-thru is running out of hours in the day.

Sources

Every figure on this page is attributed. CSW does not publish estimates as facts — where a number is unavailable it is shown as “—”, and where a figure is derived arithmetically from two published figures it is marked as derived.