Verified — real FDD extraction
Not found in the SBA Franchise Directory under this name — though SBA loans to its franchisees exist; verify eligibility with your lender
CANTEEN
Other · independent · est. —
Canteen (part of Compass Group) provides workplace food services through vending machines, micro-markets, office coffee, and pantry programs for businesses and institutions. It stocks and services unattended food and beverage points. A franchisee runs local vending and micro-market routes serving area workplaces.
CANTEEN net unit count declined -0.4% from 2022–2025 per its FDD Item 20.
New to franchising? Start here
A franchise is a business where you (the franchisee) pay a company (the franchisor) for the right to open and run a location using their brand and system — think a local Anytime Fitness or Taco John's owned by a small-business owner, not the corporation.
Before you can buy in, U.S. law requires the franchisor to give you a Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) — a long legal filing covering its fees, finances, and history. The numbers on this page come straight from that document:
- Franchise fee — the one-time cost to buy in.
- Royalty — the ongoing cut of your sales you pay the franchisor.
- Item 20 — how many locations opened and closed, the basis for our verdict (from Proven & strong down to Distressed — or Too new to judge).
The verdict
Proven & steady
Distress
A real track record with an unremarkable region of the ledger: neither the growth nor the exits stand out, for better or worse. The main concern in the record: the system is shrinking.
Exit rate · latest year
5.6%
fiscal 2025, per Item 20
Cost to open
$9K–$2.1M
Item 7 total investment range
SBA loan defaults
7.1%
14 loans resolved — directional only
Behind the verdict
the record, factor by factor · Item 20
3-yr trend · Item 20 Table 1
terminations + ceased-ops vs. all exits · Table 3
transfers vs. base · Table 3
actual vs. projected openings · Table 5
Item 19 disclosure + completeness
Systemwide units
2022–2025
Survival record
FDD Item 20 · outlet status by year
In fiscal 2025, 6 of 108 franchised outlets left the system — a 5.6% annualized exit rate. Not every exit is a failure — but this is the measurable floor.
Show the outlet tables ↓Hide the evidence ↑
| Status (FTC) | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Outlets at start | 300 | 262 | 261 | 264 |
| Opened | 13 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Transfers | 5 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| Terminations | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Non-renewals | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Reacquired by franchisor | 4 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| Ceased — other reasons | 12 | 4 | 2 | 5 |
| Outlets at end | 262 | 261 | 264 | 261 |
| Net change | -38 | -1 | +3 | -3 |
The lender's view
SBA 7(a)/504 loan performance · FY1991–present
Banks have made 20 SBA-backed loans to CANTEEN franchisees since 2007. Only 14 have resolved so far — too thin for a reliable default rate, but 1 of them charged off.
—
14 resolved · too thin to rate
—
avg. charged-off $ ÷ approved $
—
default rate × loss severity
$1,008,557
what recent franchisees borrowed
52 mo
approval → charge-off, defaulted loans
1 vs 4
distinct banks — pulling back
Charge-off rate by loan approval year (%)
Loan performance by state
SOURCE: SBA 7(a)/504 FOIA LOAN DATA (DATA.SBA.GOV), FY1991–PRESENT · MATCHED TO CANTEEN BY FRANCHISE NAME · RESOLVED = CHARGED-OFF + PAID-IN-FULL
What it costs — and what it drags
FDD Items 5–7 · fees, investment, royalty
Buying in means a $3K franchise fee (Item 5) and a total investment of $9K–$2.1M (Item 7). The franchisor publishes an earnings claim (Item 19) — read its methodology closely.
To open (Item 7)
$9K–$2.1M
all-in investment range
Franchise fee (Item 5)
$3K
upfront, one-time
Royalty (Item 6)
5.25%
of sales, ongoing
Your figure — cross-check against this brand's Item 19 and current-owner validation.
Royalty you'd pay / yr
$53K
5.25% of sales, before profit
Over a 10-yr term
$525K
royalties alone, excl. ad fund
This is not profit. It's the only money the FDD actually pins down — what you put in, and the royalty you owe on every dollar of sales. Your real take-home depends on labor, rent, food cost, and ramp-to-breakeven, none of which any FDD discloses.
Build a real pro-forma for CANTEEN with an independent CPALabor record
US Dept. of Labor enforcement · franchisee-level · FY2005–present
Federal investigators have concluded 22 wage cases against operators of this system, recovering $250K in back wages for 117 workers, including 2 child-labor cases. These cases name franchisee-owned locations, not the franchisor itself.
Concluded cases
22
Back wages owed
$250K
Employees affected
117
Since 2020
0
2 of these cases involved child-labor violations, covering 6 minors across the system's franchised locations.
Read this carefully. The employers in these cases are individual CANTEEN franchisees — separately owned businesses operating under the brand name — not CANTEEN itself. The franchisor is not the respondent and in most cases is not a party. What the record shows is how this system's operators run their payrolls, which is worth knowing before you become one of them. Counts rise with system size and with age: a 20-year-old, 10,000-unit system will out-count a young one regardless of conduct. Source: DOL Wage and Hour Division concluded compliance actions, FY2005–present, most recent finding 2020.
Modeled risk
FDD Risk Score · modeled from the public record
The public record puts this brand toward the middle of the systems we score — but the evidence is thin, so treat it as a range, not a number.
Risk percentile (range)
26–50 / 100
Directional
Modeled SBA charge-off
11.1%
Observed SBA charge-off
7.1%
Top drivers: Investment ceiling (log) (lowers) · System size (log units) (raises) · Net unit growth (raises) · Item 3 litigation (log) (lowers). Thin loan history — treat this as a range, not a number. A linear scorecard built from this brand's own disclosure figures plus the federal loan record behind its franchisees; full spec and cross-validated accuracy on the methodology page. A score is context, not a verdict.
Distress signals
news-sourced · bankruptcies, closures, lawsuits
No recent closures, bankruptcies, or major lawsuits found in the news for CANTEEN. That's a good sign — but it reflects news coverage, not a guarantee.
A broker is paid by the franchisor to place you. An independent CPA is paid by you — and the job is pressure-testing CANTEEN's numbers, including talking you out of a bad deal.
Talk to an independent CPA before you buy →CANTEEN franchise questions, answered from the filings
What percentage of CANTEEN franchises closed last year?
In CANTEEN's latest FDD Item 20 (fiscal 2025), 6 of 108 franchised outlets left the system — an annualized exit rate of 5.6%. That counts terminations, non-renewals, and "ceased operations — other reasons." There is no official failure rate, and not every exit is a failure, but this is the measurable floor.
How much does a CANTEEN franchise cost?
Per CANTEEN's 2026 FDD, buying in requires an initial franchise fee of $3K (Item 5) and a total initial investment of $9K–$2.1M (Item 7).
What royalty does CANTEEN charge?
CANTEEN charges an ongoing royalty of 5.3% of gross sales, per Item 6 of its 2026 FDD.
Does CANTEEN disclose earnings (Item 19)?
Yes — CANTEEN makes a financial performance representation in Item 19 of its 2026 FDD. Read it closely: franchisors choose which units and which metrics to include.