Naz’s Halal Food

The question every serious franchise investor asks before writing a six-figure check is deceptively simple: is this brand building something real, or riding a trend? For Nazs Halal Food franchise, the answer begins on a single food cart in Queens, New York in 2009, where two public school teachers named Mohammad Nasir Mashriqi and Kareem Mohmend decided their family's restaurant heritage was worth more than a side hustle. Both cousins were educators by day, entrepreneurs by necessity, and within roughly nine years that single cart evolved into a brick-and-mortar operation when the first restaurant opened in January 2018 in North Babylon, New York. The company's corporate headquarters are anchored on Long Island, with operations in both Brentwood and Hicksville, New York. What began as a regional food cart concept has grown to over 60 locations across more than 16 states as of early 2026, spanning from the East Coast to the West Coast — a national footprint assembled at remarkable speed. The broader halal food market in the United States is not a niche phenomenon; it represents a multi-billion-dollar consumer segment growing faster than the conventional fast-casual category, driven by both Muslim-American purchasing power estimated at over $170 billion annually and a rapidly expanding non-Muslim consumer base that associates halal certification with higher quality, cleaner preparation, and ethical sourcing. Nazs Halal Food has positioned itself as the accessible, scalable, franchise-ready operator within that market — moving from licensee-based growth into a formalized franchise system in 2025, adding a layer of structural discipline that serious investors recognize as a maturation signal. This analysis is produced independently by the PeerSense research team and contains no promotional consideration from the franchisor.

The United States halal food market represents one of the most compelling secular growth stories in the food service industry. The global halal food and beverage market was valued at approximately $2.0 trillion and is projected to exceed $3.9 trillion by 2030, representing a compound annual growth rate above 10%. Within the United States specifically, halal-certified restaurant sales have grown at rates that consistently outpace the broader $950 billion domestic restaurant industry, fueled by demographic tailwinds that are structural rather than cyclical. The Muslim-American population has grown to an estimated 3.45 million adults, making it one of the fastest-growing religious demographics in the country, and that consumer segment skews younger, more urban, and more digitally engaged than the general population — precisely the profile that drives sustained fast-casual traffic. Beyond the Muslim consumer base, mainstream adoption of halal food has accelerated sharply; surveys consistently show that a significant share of halal restaurant customers in urban markets are non-Muslim consumers who associate the certification with freshness, quality animal welfare standards, and clean ingredient sourcing. The fast-casual segment, where Nazs Halal Food competes directly, accounts for roughly $67 billion in U.S. annual revenue and has grown at approximately 8% annually over the past five years — outperforming both quick-service and full-service dining. The halal fast-casual subcategory remains highly fragmented at the national level, with no single dominant chain commanding more than 3% to 4% market share nationally, which means a well-capitalized, systematically franchised brand entering now faces a land-grab window that will not remain open indefinitely. College towns, high-density urban corridors, and diverse suburban markets represent the highest-velocity growth environments for this category, and Nazs Halal Food has explicitly prioritized all three territory types in its expansion strategy.

The Nazs Halal Food franchise cost structure is designed to be accessible relative to the broader fast-casual franchise category while still requiring meaningful capital commitment from prospective owners. The initial franchise fee for a single unit is $40,000, which aligns almost precisely with the fast-casual franchise industry median of $35,000 to $45,000 and compares favorably to premium burger, chicken, or bowl concepts that charge $50,000 to $75,000 for a single-unit fee. Multi-unit operators benefit from a tiered fee structure that reduces costs at scale: the franchise fee drops to $30,000 for units two through five and to $25,000 for units six through ten, creating a meaningful economic incentive for investors with the capital and operational capacity to develop multiple locations. The total estimated initial investment for a single Nazs Halal Food franchise unit ranges from approximately $269,220 to $576,000 depending on location size, lease terms, equipment configuration, and build-out complexity — a spread that reflects the brand's flexibility across urban inline formats, suburban strip centers, and non-traditional venues. A more conservative 2026 estimate places the range at $299,220 to $576,000, while some larger-format builds have been modeled as high as $1,187,300 in markets with premium construction costs. Prospective single-unit franchisees must demonstrate a minimum of $300,000 in liquid capital and a minimum net worth of $650,000 — requirements that position this as a mid-tier franchise investment accessible to serious individual investors without requiring institutional capital. Multi-unit developers face higher thresholds: $450,000 in liquid capital and $1.2 million in net worth, reflecting the additional operational and financial complexity of managing multiple units simultaneously. The franchise is SBA approved, which meaningfully expands financing access for qualified buyers and typically allows investors to leverage 80% to 90% of their total project cost through SBA 7(a) or 504 loan programs. Veterans of the U.S. armed forces who have been honorably discharged receive a 10% discount on the initial franchise fee for their first unit, reducing that fee from $40,000 to $36,000. The ongoing royalty structure reported in most sources is 6% of gross sales, with a 2% brand fund contribution and a 2% local advertising requirement — a total ongoing fee burden of approximately 10% of gross sales, which is consistent with the fast-casual franchise category norm of 8% to 12%. A technology fee of $11 per month represents a negligible additional cost. The initial franchise agreement term is 10 years, with one successive 10-year renewal option available to franchisees who remain in compliance.

Nazs Halal Food is structured around an owner-operator model that emphasizes hands-on management, particularly during the critical first 12 to 24 months of operation. The brand operates across multiple formats, with its roots in food cart service providing operational DNA that translates to lean, high-throughput kitchen systems capable of generating strong revenue per square foot. Corporate and franchised locations are currently present across more than 16 states, with the corporate unit portfolio numbering approximately 13 locations and the broader system including over 40 licensees. Staffing requirements for a fast-casual halal concept of this type typically range from 8 to 15 employees per location depending on volume and operating hours, with labor costs in the fast-casual segment averaging 28% to 33% of gross sales nationally. Nazs Halal Food's leadership team includes Gerry Henley as President of Franchise Operations, Kristina Centnere as CMO, and Elizabeth Sandoz as Director of Franchise Development — a professional franchise infrastructure team assembled specifically to support the brand's transition from a licensee model into a full franchise system beginning in 2025. Training programs for new franchisees are provided through the corporate support infrastructure, covering food preparation protocols, supply chain sourcing requirements, point-of-sale technology, and brand standards compliance. Territory structure provides franchisees with defined geographic boundaries, and the brand's national expansion strategy explicitly targets priority markets including key metro areas, high-density suburban corridors, and college towns — a three-tier geographic focus that maps directly onto the highest-concentration halal food demand markets in the country. The brand's expansion is actively targeting available territories in virtually every U.S. state, with markets across Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Texas, Virginia, and Washington among those explicitly listed as open for development.

Item 19 financial performance data is not disclosed in the current Franchise Disclosure Document for Nazs Halal Food. This is a material consideration for any investor conducting rigorous due diligence, and it means prospective franchisees cannot rely on franchisor-provided average revenue or earnings figures when building their investment models. That said, the absence of Item 19 disclosure is not uncommon among early-stage franchise systems — many brands with fewer than 100 units choose not to disclose performance data in their first FDD cycles as they work to build a statistically meaningful dataset across diverse markets and formats. What the available evidence does suggest is a brand with strong unit-level demand characteristics. The halal fast-casual category generates average unit volumes that industry analysts estimate between $600,000 and $1.2 million annually for well-positioned urban and suburban locations, depending on format, traffic patterns, and market density. The fact that Nazs Halal Food grew from a single food cart in 2009 to over 60 locations by early 2026 — including 13 corporate locations that the founders have operated directly — provides indirect evidence of unit-level viability; a concept with chronic underperformance at the unit level does not typically sustain corporate investment in owned locations or attract multi-unit developers. The brand's SBA approval status is a particularly significant proxy signal: SBA lenders conduct independent underwriting reviews that include analysis of franchisee historical performance data, and SBA approval indicates that institutional lenders have assessed the brand's financial track record as sufficient to support loan guarantees. Investors should request audited corporate unit financials directly from the franchisor during the validation process and speak with existing franchisees — whose contact information must be provided in the FDD — to gather first-person revenue and profitability data. A 10-year franchise term provides sufficient runway for a patient investor to achieve full capital recovery even at conservative revenue assumptions, particularly given the brand's low $11 monthly technology fee and the tiered franchise fee structure that rewards multi-unit developers.

The growth trajectory of the Nazs Halal Food franchise system over the past several years reflects a disciplined acceleration rather than a speculative land rush. The brand operated as a licensee-based model for its first several years following the January 2018 brick-and-mortar launch, accumulating more than 40 licensees before transitioning to a formal franchise structure in 2025 — a sequencing that allowed founders to stress-test the operating model, refine supply chain protocols, and build brand recognition before attaching the legal and financial obligations of an FDD. By the end of 2025 the system was tracking to reach 60 total locations, and as of early March 2026 that target had been achieved with over 60 units operating across more than 16 states. The decision to launch franchising in 2025 rather than 2020 or 2021 reflects a deliberate patience that aligns with the interests of prospective franchisees — investors are buying into a concept that has been market-tested for nearly seven years, not a theoretical model with a single prototype location. Key leadership hires including a President of Franchise Operations and a dedicated Director of Franchise Development signal corporate investment in the infrastructure required to support multi-hundred-unit growth. The brand's competitive moat draws on several reinforcing elements: an authentic founding story with genuine cultural roots that resonates with both Muslim-American consumers and the broader mainstream audience, a menu developed from family restaurant heritage rather than focus-group engineering, a food cart origin that embedded operational efficiency into the brand's DNA, and a first-mover advantage in building a nationally franchised halal fast-casual system at scale. The halal food category remains fragmented enough that a brand reaching 200 to 300 locations within the next five to seven years would establish meaningful national recognition and pricing power — a trajectory that the current growth rate makes plausible rather than aspirational.

The ideal Nazs Halal Food franchise candidate is an owner-operator with prior management experience, strong community ties in their target market, and the financial capacity to meet both the single-unit requirements of $300,000 in liquid capital and $650,000 net worth or the multi-unit thresholds of $450,000 liquid and $1.2 million net worth. Prior restaurant or food service experience is valuable but not necessarily a prerequisite given the brand's structured training and operational support infrastructure. Multi-unit development is explicitly encouraged through the tiered franchise fee structure — $30,000 per unit for units two through five and $25,000 for units six through ten — making the economics of a three-to-five-unit development agreement materially more attractive on a per-unit basis than single-unit ownership. Available territories span virtually every U.S. state, with the brand's geographic expansion prioritizing metro markets with large Muslim-American populations, diverse college towns with high food-service traffic, and high-density suburban corridors in the Southeast, Midwest, and Southwest where halal food access has historically been limited. The 10-year initial franchise agreement with one 10-year renewal option provides 20 years of potential operating history — a full investment lifecycle that allows franchisees to build genuine enterprise value in their location. Investors in states where franchise registration is required should confirm market availability with the franchisor's development team, as registration timelines can affect territory access in states including California, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New York, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Virginia, and Washington.

Synthesizing the full picture, the Nazs Halal Food franchise opportunity warrants serious due diligence from investors targeting the fast-casual food service sector with an appetite for early-positioning advantage in a high-growth, underpenetrated category. The brand's founding story — two Queens teachers building from a single food cart to 60-plus locations in under 17 years — is not marketing mythology; it is a documented operational progression that demonstrates both concept viability and founder commitment. The halal food market's 10%-plus annual growth rate, the fast-casual segment's $67 billion in annual U.S. revenue, and the continued fragmentation of national halal restaurant brands collectively create the market conditions in which a systematically franchised operator can achieve disproportionate growth over the next decade. The investment entry point of $269,220 to $576,000, combined with SBA approval and veteran discounts, makes this one of the more accessible franchise opportunities in the food service category relative to the size of the market opportunity. PeerSense provides exclusive due diligence data including SBA lending history, FPI score, location maps with Google ratings, FDD financial data, and side-by-side comparison tools that allow investors to benchmark Nazs Halal Food against competing concepts across investment level, royalty structure, unit count growth, and franchisee satisfaction indicators. Explore the complete Nazs Halal Food franchise profile on PeerSense to access the full suite of independent franchise intelligence data and make your investment decision with institutional-grade research behind it.