Standard FDD checklists ask one question about Item 19: does the brand disclose financial performance or not?
The assumption behind that question is that "yes" means useful. For an established system with hundreds of operating franchisees, that holds. For an emerging brand, the same "yes" can attach to a single data point that tells you almost nothing about what you will actually earn as a franchisee.
Goodness Bowls, a Pennsylvania-based açaí and smoothie café concept that began franchising in June 2023, is a case in point.
The Item 19 "Yes" With No Franchisee Data Behind It
The brand's 2025 FDD checks yes on Item 19. Financial performance representations are included.
What's disclosed: $1,524,637.95 in gross sales from one company-owned store in Villanova, Pennsylvania. Gross profit after select disclosed expenses: $218,627.11, or 14.34% of gross sales.
What's not disclosed: any franchisee performance data. The FDD states this directly: "We do not have any Operational Franchise Outlets." There are no franchisee AUV figures because no operating franchisee has completed a full year of sales.
The "yes" is technically accurate. The data attached to it cannot be applied to a franchise investment decision.
Why the Company-Owned Store Number Does Not Transfer
The Villanova store's $1.52M in sales comes with explicit caveats embedded in the Item 19 language itself.
The FDD excludes two other company-owned locations from the disclosure. One operates seasonally (May through September only). The other opened in March 2025 and did not complete the full calendar year. The one store used as the benchmark was chosen specifically because it had 12 full months of operating data.
Beyond the exclusions, there are structural differences between that company store and a future franchise location:
- The company store pays no royalties. A franchisee pays 6% of gross sales weekly.
- The company store pays no brand development fees. A franchisee pays 1% of gross sales currently, up to 2%.
- Local marketing spending is mandatory for franchisees at a minimum of 2% of gross sales monthly. The company store operates under different cost assumptions.
- Management experience and local brand recognition, the FDD's own language, contributed to the Villanova store's performance. A franchisee opening in a new market starts from zero on both.
Strip out the royalty and marketing obligations and the $218,627.11 gross profit figure shifts materially downward for a franchisee. The FDD does not provide an adjusted figure.
What the Unit Count Actually Shows
Item 20 shows a total system of 5 open operating locations as of December 31, 2025: 3 company-owned, 2 franchised. Both franchised units are in Pennsylvania, consistent with the brand's home market.
Four additional franchise agreements were signed but not yet open.
Goodness Bowls began offering franchises in June 2023. In two and a half years of active franchising, 2 locations have opened. The pace of execution from signed agreement to open door is not directly addressed in the FDD, but it matters significantly to any buyer evaluating whether the brand's support infrastructure can deliver on its commitments.
Early franchised unit counts for any emerging brand will look thin. What matters is whether the pipeline converts. The 4 signed-not-yet-open agreements will either confirm or complicate that picture over the next 12 months.
The Investment-to-Track-Record Gap
A single-unit franchise investment in Goodness Bowls runs $325,119 to $522,497 according to Item 7. The largest cost category is construction and leasehold improvements: $183,750 to $306,250.
That capital is deployed into a system with 2 operating franchised units, no disclosed franchisee AUV, and no franchisee that has completed a full year of operation as of the FDD's filing date.
This gap is not unique to Goodness Bowls. Build-out costs for a café or service concept do not shrink because the franchisor is new. The distance between capital required and verifiable performance data is widest precisely when the brand is newest.
The Full Fee Math
Item 6 outlines four ongoing financial obligations for a Goodness Bowls franchisee:
| Fee | Rate |
|---|---|
| Royalty | 6% of gross sales (weekly) |
| Brand Development Fund | 1% of gross sales (up to 2%) |
| Local Marketing Minimum | 2% of gross sales monthly |
| Technology Fee | Up to $600/month (not currently charged) |
At current rates, that's 9% of gross sales committed before operating costs.
Applied to the Villanova store's $1.52M annual gross sales: $136,917 in royalty and brand fund obligations alone. The $218,627.11 gross profit disclosed does not reflect these deductions. The company-owned store carries none of them.
The FDD does not provide a pro forma franchisee P&L. No FDD is required to. The absence means any buyer needs to build that model before committing capital.
One Number Worth Scrutinizing
Item 21 discloses audited financial statements for Goodness Bowls Franchising, LLC.
Stockholders' equity as of December 31, 2025: ($62,640). Negative.
For a two-and-a-half-year-old franchise system, this is not unusual. Early-stage operations often carry startup losses before royalties and fees reach a sustainable scale. It does not signal imminent failure.
What it does signal: the franchisor is not yet profitable on its own operations. A brand at this stage depends on continued unit growth to reach financial stability. That creates a different dynamic than an established franchisor with years of system-level profitability behind it.
Franchisees in a young system are not just opening a location. They are also contributing to whether the franchisor reaches the scale it needs to support them over time.
What This FDD Cannot Tell You Yet
Goodness Bowls' disclosures are limited by how new the brand is. The following questions have no answers in the 2025 filing:
- What does a Goodness Bowls franchisee actually earn in year one?
- What does a mature location (3+ years open) produce?
- What is the franchisee exit rate?
- How long does build-out realistically take from signed agreement to opening day?
- How does the brand perform outside its Pennsylvania origin market?
None of these are answerable because the system has not generated enough data yet. The next FDD filing, covering 2026 performance, will be the first document with any franchisee-level financial history attached to it.
How to Evaluate an Emerging Brand's FDD
Item 19 disclosure status matters most for established systems. For an emerging brand, these are the more useful questions:
What does Item 19 actually contain?
One company-owned store's unaudited sales and a 14.34% gross margin tells you something about revenue potential. It does not tell you what a franchisee nets after royalties, marketing obligations, and actual operating costs.
How many franchisees have a full year of operating data?
For Goodness Bowls, zero as of the most recent FDD. That number should change in the next filing. Until it does, no disclosed AUV benchmark exists for buyers to evaluate.
What is the franchisor's financial position?
Negative equity does not automatically disqualify a brand. It changes what a buyer should verify: available capital runway, funding structure, and whether projected growth is realistic given the current balance sheet.
What is the signed-to-open conversion rate?
4 signed agreements, 2 open locations. Tracking that ratio over the next 12 months, either through the next FDD or direct inquiry, gives a clearer picture of whether the system's operational capacity matches its sales pace.
See the Full FDD for Any Franchise Brand
Goodness Bowls' FDD is available in Franchimp's FDD database. Full disclosures for Items 6, 7, 19, 20, and 21 are on file.
Franchimp gives you access to FDD data across hundreds of systems, so you can compare an early-stage brand's investment requirements, royalty structure, and unit trajectory against established systems in the same category before committing capital.