What are the specific requirements for site selection for a Checkers franchise, considering both Item 9 and the franchisor's guidance in Item 11?
Checkers Franchise · 2025 FDDAnswer from 2025 FDD Document
assistance.
Pre-Opening Obligations
We will provide the following pre-opening assistance:
- We will provide guidance to you in locating and developing the Franchised Restaurant as we deem appropriate. (Franchise Agreement, Sections 3.02 and 3.03);
If you have suggested a location for the Franchised Restaurant which we approve before or concurrently with the execution of the Franchise Agreement, the location will be identified in the Franchise Agreement. If we and you have not agreed upon an approved location for the Franchised Restaurant before signing the Franchise Agreement, then you must select a site for the Franchised Restaurant within the geographic area we designate ("Designated Area"). You must, within 180 days after the date of the Franchise Agreement, locate and submit for our approval a site acceptable to us within the Designated Area for the Franchised Restaurant. We will approve or disapprove each site that you propose according to our general criteria for selection of a Checkers Restaurant or Rally's Restaurant site. The site must meet our criteria for demographic characteristics; traffic patterns; parking; character of neighborhood; competition from, proximity to, and nature of other businesses; size; appearance; and other physical and commercial characteristics. We will use reasonable efforts to help analyze your market area, to help determine site feasibility, and to assist in designating the location, although we will not conduct site selection activities for you. We will provide you with our standard site selection criteria and on-site evaluations of sites, as we deem appropriate. If you enter into a Development Agreement with us, you must select sites within your specified Development Area and we will approve them in accordance with our then current criteria for selection of a Checkers Restaurant or Rally's Restaurant site.
Before you acquire, by lease or purchase, any site for your Restaurant, you must submit a franchise site package to us in the form, content and substance as we then require. We will review each site package and determine whether to accept or reject the site after considering factors we deem appropriate, including the general location and neighborhood, demographic information, traffic patterns, access, visibility, location of other restaurants and food establishments, and size, configuration, appearance and other physical characteristics of the site. We will use reasonable efforts to approve or disapprove the proposed site within 30 days after receiving your written proposal. Upon our approval of a site, we will insert the address into Exhibit B of the Franchise Agreement, and it will be the Premises. Within 60 days after our approval of a site for the Premises, you agree to deliver a copy of the fully signed lease, sublease or purchase contract and the franchise addendum to lease agreement. In some cases, we may sublease the Premises to you, but we do not typically do so.
What This Means (2025 FDD)
According to Checkers' 2025 Franchise Disclosure Document, franchisees are responsible for site development, as outlined in Sections 3.01, 3.02, 3.03, 3.04, 3.05, and 3.06 of the Franchise Agreement, and detailed further in Items 6, 7, 8, and 11. Checkers provides guidance in locating and developing the franchised restaurant as they deem appropriate. If a location is approved before signing the Franchise Agreement, it will be specified in the agreement.
If a location isn't agreed upon before signing, the franchisee must select a site within a designated geographic area within 180 days of the Franchise Agreement date. Checkers must approve this site, and it must meet their criteria for demographic characteristics, traffic patterns, parking, neighborhood character, competition, proximity to other businesses, size, appearance, and other physical and commercial characteristics. Checkers will offer standard site selection criteria and on-site evaluations as they deem appropriate but will not conduct site selection activities for the franchisee.
For franchisees entering into a Development Agreement, site selection must occur within the specified Development Area, with Checkers approving sites based on their then-current criteria. The Franchise Agreement grants the right to operate at a specific location, and relocation requires Checkers' prior written consent, considering factors like general location, demographics, traffic, access, visibility, nearby establishments, and site characteristics. Checkers retains rights and discretion regarding the System and Restaurants, and franchisees must select sites conforming to Checkers' standard criteria, as detailed in Item 11.
Checkers also has the right to approve the terms of any lease, sublease, or purchase contract for the premises. Any lease or sublease must include specific provisions detailed in Checkers' required form of franchise addendum to lease agreement. If Checkers subleases the premises to the franchisee, the franchisee is required to pay rent and related occupancy costs directly to the landlord. This subleasing arrangement generates revenue for Checkers, as detailed in Item 6.