Quick Service Restaurant Feasibility Study in New Hampshire

Small, mostly independent New Hampshire counters

New Hampshire's quick-service loans are small. The median is $133,700, only 0.43x the limited-service median nationally, and half of the state's approvals fall between $50,000 and $284,250. The class ranks 2 of 39 in New Hampshire's SBA book, though its location quotient of 0.97x is close to parity, and New Hampshire's 187 approvals over FY2017 to FY2026, worth $45.4 million, rank 30 of 54. On our screen the small median is not enough: distinctness also needs a gap from New Hampshire's all-class record, and the New Hampshire median and outcome floors do not pass on both counts.

Local banks and a 504 habit

Only 20.3% of New Hampshire loans went to franchised units, so most borrowers are independent operators rather than brand units. SBA 504 carried 30 loans against 157 under 7(a), led by Granite State Economic Development Corporation with 19 worth $6.2 million and Capital Regional Development Council with 5. The 7(a) lenders are regional savings and community banks: Primary Bank with 22 loans worth $5.0 million, TD Bank, National Association with 19, Merrimack County Savings Bank with 16, and Kennebunk Savings Bank and Savings Bank of Walpole with 8 each. Rockingham County leads with 58 approvals and Hillsborough has 50, followed by Merrimack with 21 and Carroll and Strafford with 15. FY2025 brought 27 loans.

No charge-offs on record

Among the 76 New Hampshire quick-service loans funded from FY2017 through FY2021, not one has been written off, leaving that floor at 0.00% to date and at five years. Cancellations are the hazard, reaching at least 12.4% of New Hampshire approvals made over FY2017 to FY2024, with 13.8% the ceiling. Every rate here is a floor.

A New Hampshire quick-service feasibility study should be sized to the deal. For a loan near $133,700, it has to verify the seller's or the concept's sales, food and labour cost, and rent, and show New Hampshire cash flow carrying the debt with room to spare in a slow winter or a tourist season that underperforms. Where a 504 loan buys a small building, the appraisal must support that property as real estate. For an independent, the study must also show the trade area can support another counter against the existing ones, because there is no brand to lean on.

No coding limitation is recorded for limited-service restaurants; New Hampshire's figures are built on each loan's industry code as SBA records it.