800 bakeries, one product, and a new $2 billion owner. What it costs to open one, and what 11% of sales going out the door means for you.
Nothing Bundt Cakes is a retail bakery that sells one thing, bundt cakes, in four sizes. Cakes are baked and frosted on site from proprietary mixes. It is the largest bakery franchise in the US by unit count with more than 800 open, and in March 2026 Roark Capital sold it to KKR for about $2 billion. It ranked #99 on Entrepreneur's 2025 Franchise 500.
| Nothing Bundt Cakes | BreadHaus | |
|---|---|---|
| Total initial investment | $667,100 to $1,032,500 | $227,500 to $580,000 |
| Initial franchise fee | $45,000 | $45,000 |
| Royalty | 6% of net revenues | 6% of gross sales |
| Marketing | 5% (production fund + paid media fund) | 1% brand fund + 2% local |
| Liquid capital required | $250,000 per bakery | No minimum |
| Net worth required | $750,000 per bakery | No minimum |
| Typical store | About 1,650 to 2,200 sq ft | 2,500 to 3,000 sq ft |
| US locations | 800+ open, 600+ in development | 2, both in Texas |
| Item 19 (avg unit sales) | $1,480,010 avg net revenue (2024, 459 mature units) | $739,533 (Grapevine, 2025) |
| Ownership | KKR (acquired from Roark, March 2026) | Founder-owned |
About the numbers on this page. BreadHaus figures come from our 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document. Figures for other brands come from their own franchise websites and from published summaries of their FDDs, with the source and date noted. Franchisors update their FDDs every spring, so verify any figure against the brand's current FDD before you rely on it. BreadHaus is not affiliated with any brand named here. Where a brand's FDD includes an Item 19, we report what it says; we make no claim about what you would earn with any brand, including ours. Some BreadHaus outlets have earned the amount shown. Your individual results may differ. There is no assurance that you'll earn as much.
The official investment range is $667,100 to $1,032,500. Franchise Chatter's summary of the 2025 FDD shows $667,100 to $906,500 for the standard format under 1,800 square feet; the higher official ceiling appears to include the larger format. The franchise fee is $45,000, the same as ours.
The ongoing fees are where you should slow down. The royalty is 6% of net revenues, and the marketing contribution is 5%, split between a production fund and a paid media fund. That is 11% of sales leaving the bakery every week before you pay rent or staff. It is the highest combined rate of any brand on our comparison. In exchange you get a national brand with real advertising behind it, which is exactly what a 5% media fund buys.
Financial requirements are $250,000 liquid and $750,000 net worth, per bakery. Multi-unit owners are welcomed, and the "per bakery" wording is deliberate.
The Item 19 is detailed and, for a single-product concept, impressive: average net revenue of $1,480,010 across 459 mature bakeries in 2024, with the top third averaging $2,083,606 and the bottom third $985,034. Restaurant Dive reported four-wall EBITDA of roughly $316,591, or 21.6%, for mature stores. The simplicity of the menu shows up in the cost structure: around 23.5% cost of goods and 27.5% labor.
Two things from 2025 and 2026 worth knowing. Franchisees pushed back publicly against a corporate mandate to open on Sundays. And the KKR acquisition means the brand has changed private equity hands twice; that is normal for a system this size, but it is worth asking how it affects fees and standards over a ten-year agreement.
Nothing Bundt Cakes and BreadHaus share a franchise fee and a royalty rate and not much else.
The obvious difference is scale: 800 bakeries versus 2. If you want a brand people already recognize when the sign goes up, they have it and we do not. That recognition costs 5% of sales in marketing, every week, forever. We charge 1% to the brand fund and ask you to spend 2% in your own town, so 9% versus 11%. On a $1 million bakery that is $20,000 a year.
The product difference matters more than it looks. A bundt cake is an occasion purchase: a birthday, an office party, a thank-you. Bread is a grocery purchase: the same family, every week. Our Grapevine location has been selling to some of the same households since 1996. That is why our model favors residential density over foot traffic and why we can work in a town of 30,000 that a mall-adjacent cake shop cannot.
On investment, our full range sits below their floor. On sales, their mature average is about double our Grapevine number, on about double the investment. On requirements, they screen at $250,000 liquid and $750,000 net worth, and we screen on the whole picture. If you qualify for both, you are choosing between a proven single-product system with a big media fund and a bread bakery you can own for less in a place you actually live. The full BreadHaus cost breakdown is here.
See the full bakery franchise cost comparison for all six brands, or the BreadHaus cost guide for every line of our Item 7.
$667,100 to $1,032,500 in total initial investment per the official franchise site, including a $45,000 franchise fee. The 2025 FDD lists $667,100 to $906,500 for the under-1,800 square foot format.
6% royalty on net revenues plus a 5% marketing contribution (production fund and paid media fund combined), for 11% of sales in total.
The 2025 FDD reported average net revenue of $1,480,010 across 459 mature bakeries in 2024, per Franchise Chatter. Restaurant Dive reported four-wall EBITDA of about $316,591 (21.6%) for mature stores. These are averages; individual results vary.
KKR, which agreed to buy the brand from Roark Capital in March 2026 for about $2 billion, per Restaurant Dive.
Request the full BreadHaus Franchise Disclosure Document, or grab 15 minutes with Bryan. He does every first call himself, including with people who are still comparing brands.
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