- Qdoba Mexican Eats is a fast-casual Mexican-themed restaurant. Qdoba offers a wide variety of menu options that range from burritos to Tacos and Quesadillas. All menu items are made to order and are in a tiered pricing structure giving customers flexibility. Most Qdoba locations also offer catering services, which helps expand revenue streams. Customers can also place online mobile ordering through the corporate-operated App and website.
Qdoba is a subsidiary company of Quidditch Acquisition, a Delaware Corporation, that acquires and operates restaurant chains. The Qdoba directors are from a variety of investors and food service professionals. Anthony Miller and Partner Robert Hauser first started Qdoba in 1995 in Denver Colorado. Miller was a financial professional at Merrill Lynch and Hauser was in culinary school. They pooled their resources together to start Zuma Fresh Mexican Grill, which later turned into the Qdoba.
Today, Andrew Jhawar serves as the Chairman of the Board and is a Senior Partner at Apollo Management. He has also served in pivotal roles in other major companies such as Michaels. At the end of 2021, Qdoba had a total of 739 outlets. 333 of these locations are corporate-owned, and 406 are franchises.
Qdoba itself charges a 5% royalty fee, 1.25% marketing fee, and 1.75% local marketing fee. This means that Qdoba’s primary fees are on par with industry trends. To open a Qdoba location you must expect to pay between $252,800 to $816,700 for a non-traditional and $476,800 to $1,096,700 for a traditional. By comparison, the leading competitor Chipotle, which does not franchise, would cost between $800,000 to $2,000,000 if you were to open a franchise. Additionally, Chipotle makes the Mexican fast-casual space very competitive.
While Qdoba is less expensive to open than leading competitor Chipotle it is one of the more expensive Mexican-themed restaurant franchises. Rusty Taco, a smaller chain, costs between $532,000 – $897,000 to open. Meanwhile, Taco Bell, another national competitor, costs between $253,000 – $590,0000 to open. Qdoba, while an expensive franchise, has national brand recognition and is still fairly priced within Food and Beverage.
Based on our analysis, a Qdoba restaurant will take between 4 and 6 years to recover the initial investment with just the profits.
Qdoba Mexican eats while an expensive franchise is an excellent investment opportunity. It competes in a tight space, but already has national distribution and brand recognition. The company itself operates over several hundred locations allowing them to provide the necessary experience to get off the ground.