When Julie Fussner was called into Craig Culver’s office earlier this year, she was prepared to receive news of who her next boss would be. She did not anticipate walking out of the room as the next CEO of one of the Midwest’s most beloved fast-casual restaurant chains. Culver and his wife, Lea, who together
When Julie Fussner was called into Craig Culver’s office earlier this year, she was prepared to receive news of who her next boss would be. She did not anticipate walking out of the room as the next CEO of one of the Midwest’s most beloved fast-casual restaurant chains.
Culver and his wife, Lea, who together co-founded the namesake restaurant brand along with Craig’s parents in the 1980s, sat across the desk from Fussner and offered her the position. She jokingly replied, “shut up,” and then accepted on the spot.
Prairie du Sac-based Culver Franchising System in April announced the appointment of Fussner to the chief executive role. As the company’s first female CEO and formerly its first-ever chief marketing officer, Fussner is no stranger to trailblazing.
Known for their ButterBurgers and frozen custard, Culver’s has grown dramatically over the past eight years since Fussner joined the company – and has no plans of slowing down anytime soon.
When Fussner was hired in 2017, there were roughly 660 Culver’s locations across the Midwest and several surrounding states. As of July 2025, its footprint has grown to 1,012 locations across 26 states nationwide. Only seven of Culver’s restaurants are company-owned, the rest are owned by the company’s 670-plus franchisees.
While Culver’s footprint has significantly increased in recent years, its growth has been strategic and calculated to avoid closures and oversaturation. Less than 10 locations have closed over the company’s 41-year history, which all began in 1984 when Craig and Lea Culver, along with Craig’s parents, George and Ruth, opened a single restaurant in their hometown of Sauk City.
Culver’s ranks as the 29th largest restaurant chain in the United States, according to Chicago-based Technomic Inc.’s annual Top 500 Chain Restaurant Report, which ranks the highest grossing brands. On that list, Culver’s ranks just ahead of Jersey Mike’s Subs and just behind Buffalo Wild Wings. The largest restaurant chain in the nation is McDonald’s, with more than 13,500 locations in the U.S.
Culver’s does not quantify its long-term anticipated growth, but it does plan to grow from coast to coast, Fussner said. Culver’s attributes its growth to the combination of its franchise mentorship program as well as its family-oriented approach to fast-casual dining. Tapping into the communities that resonate with Culver’s business model has allowed the company to expand both inside and out of its most popular and lucrative markets.
As CEO, Fussner says she plans to lead the company with a focus on maintaining the family-owned business model created by her predecessors, while introducing necessary innovations to grow the brand geographically and technologically.
“It truly is about not losing what got us here and being smart about looking at the future and what innovations make sense for Culver's,” Fussner said. “If I can look back and say that we did that, I’ll feel great.”
Coming up CEO
After graduating from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Fussner took a sales job at Stamford, Connecticut-based Philip Morris International, a tobacco manufacturing company. Roles as territory sales manager and sales unit manager introduced her to the world of marketing, which would inspire her next decision to go back to school to get her master’s degree with a focus on marketing.
While earning an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Fussner secured her first food marketing job at Chicago-based ConAgra Foods, a manufacturer and distributor of various supermarket brands like Hunt’s, Marie Callender’s, Reddi-Wip, Slim Jim and others. Four years into her role as marketing manager, Fussner decided she needed a change and in 2004 took a position at Chicago-based Kraft Foods Group in the Boca/Lunchables division. That role brought Fussner to Wisconsin, where she has lived ever since.
Over the span of 10 years with Kraft, Fussner served in a variety of brand management roles before becoming the senior director of marketing for the company’s Oscar Mayer subsidiary in Madison.
In 2014, Fussner took a new job at Madison-based American Family Insurance, where she led product and consumer marketing initiatives for two years.
Fussner found her way back to the food industry when she joined Culver’s in February 2017. As vice president of marketing, she grew the marketing department from a team of eight to 23 and oversaw several key marketing initiatives, such as the unveiling of the CurderBurger in 2021 and the launch of the Welcome to Delicious integrated marketing campaign in 2022. She was promoted to the newly created role of chief marketing officer in 2023.
Fussner’s time in the C-suite at Culver’s working alongside the CEO and other execs helped prime her to take the helm. She now oversees the company’s 193 corporate employees.
“I still have a lot to learn, but being exposed to it so closely with our CEO is what really helped,” she said.
Following Fussner’s appointment, Craig Culver remarked that he is “as excited about Culver’s future as he has been in some time.”
“I believe Julie is the perfect choice for Culver’s at this time,” he said. “She’s a wonderful leader who knows Culver’s and our culture.”
Culver served as CEO of the company until he retired in 2015, transitioning into his current role as board chairman and a mentor to new franchisees. He remains heavily involved in the company. From board meetings to teaching management classes at the company’s headquarters once a week, “this is still Craig’s baby,” Fussner said.
“I’m sure there will be things that we’ll disagree on, and we’ll work through that,” Fussner said. “But I think we come at it from the same place, we are here to serve people.”
In the years following Culver’s retirement, the company saw several transitions in its top leadership seat. Longtime president and COO Phil Keiser took over as CEO in June 2015 and died in October the following year at age 60. Joseph Koss then took over the post until his retirement in 2020. Fussner’s predecessor, Enrique “Rick” Silva, retired in February of this year.
Craig and Lea, who is also a board director and operates the company’s foundation, remain majority owners of the company with several other member of the Culver family including Culver’s brother Curt Culver (former CEO of Milwaukee-based MGIC Investment Corp.) and his wife, Sue, as well as his sister, Georgia.
In 2017, several individual shareholders sold a minority of their shares in Culver Franchising System to Atlanta-based Roark Capital Group. Culver’s did not share details of the deal, including what percentage of the company is owned by Roark Capital.
“For many years, the Culver family had been discussing ownership succession planning with the desire to remain a family-owned business, stay privately held and proceed with thoughtful estate planning,” Craig Culver said at the time of the deal. “The sale of a minority interest in the company allows us to do so. We want to make sure we set up the next generation of the Culver’s family and the entire franchised system for success.”
Culver’s locations by state - end of 2024
[caption id="attachment_618103" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Source: Culver's Franchise Disclosure Document (2024), submitted to the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions[/caption]
Growth’s ‘secret sauce’
Culver’s has opened roughly 50 new restaurants each year for at least the past five years. It plans to add an additional 55 new locations this year, including 15 in Florida, 10 in Michigan, six in Indiana and two in Wisconsin.
At the end of 2024, Wisconsin had 152 Culver’s locations – the most in the nation – followed closely by Illinois with 136, Florida with 119 and Michigan with 98, according to the company’s annual franchise disclosure document, submitted to the state Department of Financial Institutions.
The company’s operating revenue for fiscal 2024 was up 13.2% year-over-year to $298.6 million. Net earnings for 2024 were $104.2 million, down 2% from 2023, according to the franchise disclosure document.
Among the many areas of growth slated for the company, Culver’s plans to capitalize on new market expansion.
“The secret sauce is the fact that (our food) is delivered with outstanding hospitality every time you walk into a Culver’s,” Fussner said.
Years ago, the company conducted a study surveying its customers on which emotions they felt upon entering a Culver’s restaurant relative to its competitors. Among the nine most common emotions found in the survey, Culver’s customers aligned most with a sense of belonging, Fussner said. The company plans to capitalize on the results of that study to appeal to new markets.
Culver’s Franchise Mentoring Program has proven to be one of the most significant drivers of its recent growth. The 16-week program gives Culver’s managers the opportunity to become owner-operators through guidance and training from existing franchisees. Beyond mentorship, the program aims to alleviate some of the financial burden of opening a new unit.
To begin operating a Culver’s restaurant, a franchisee must be able to commit between $2.6 million to $8.5 million, including a $55,000 initial franchise fee. Mentees in the mentorship program are offered a slightly discounted initial fee of $30,000, according to Culver’s franchise disclosure document.
A majority of new Culver’s restaurants opening now are through the mentorship program. Between 80% and 90% of Culver’s franchisees have worked in some capacity with the company in the past, Fussner said.
Culver's stores by sales performance
[caption id="attachment_618104" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Source: Culver’s Franchise Disclosure Document (2024), submitted to the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions[/caption]
Fussner’s three-year plan
With sights set on continued growth, Fussner has created a three-year plan in which she will introduce several major operational updates.
The largest part of Fussner’s three-year plan involves the reinvention of the Culver’s storefront and interior architecture. The current layout was created when the company was doing roughly a quarter of the business it is doing now. With increased volume in its restaurants and over half of its customers still dining inside the restaurant, the design of the kitchens and dining spaces has caused “major flow challenges,” Fussner said.
“If you work in our custard area and you’re making mixers and shakes and malts, it’s not designed at all like a manufacturing line would be where it’s really efficient,” she said.
The remodel will include an updated kitchen area and dining room but will maintain the standard procedure for ordering. One tool that has become a common sight at other quick-service restaurants but won’t be introduced at Culver’s is self-order kiosks. Face-to-face interactions between customers and staff are core to the overall experience at Culver’s, Fussner said.
Fussner is also spearheading a new loyalty program, set to launch between the end of 2025 and beginning of 2026. The loyalty program stemmed from the company’s growing customer base and guest feedback and follows the adoption of other digital offerings like online ordering and third-party delivery.
Another major part of Fussner’s three-year plan is expansion into new markets. Metro areas like Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Buffalo, New York, as well as states like Virginia and Oklahoma are on the company’s radar thanks to their familiar customer demographics. The company will continue to rely on its mentorship program to encourage promising Culver’s managers to open new locations in its target markets.
[caption id="attachment_618102" align="alignnone" width="1280"] "We happen to be an organization that gets along with our franchisees, and that’s not normal ... Craig has said from the beginning that our only job is to serve them, so as long as we don’t lose that, we’ll all get to be successful together.”[/caption]
All things innovation
While a major part of Fussner’s leadership will be focused on maintaining the legacy established by Culver’s founders, the brand is looking to introduce several modern efficiencies in order to stay ahead in the fast-casual dining scene.
Since its inception, Culver’s has displayed its menus on analog boards that employees update manually each day. To streamline this process, Fussner is planning to implement digital menu boards that will update automatically, saving time and increasing efficiency. The company is piloting its digital menu boards this summer and plans to introduce them permanently by the beginning of next summer.
Fussner and her team are also looking into adding AI-powered cameras to speed up service at Culver’s drive-thrus, which are notably slower than those of its competitors, Fussner said. The company has yet to flush out where the bottlenecks are and where service can be improved. Adding AI technology would help teams identify slowing factors and combat them to serve customers more efficiently.
Both tech-driven innovations being spearheaded by Fussner are part of a larger initiative to decrease the amount of labor needed to operate a restaurant. Each Culver’s location employs between 55 and 75 people. Culver’s is currently operating its restaurants with two to three times the number of staff as that of its competitors, Fussner said.
Fussner is also working on improving the cheese curd recipe to resemble “something you’d get at a regular sit-down Wisconsin restaurant – maybe with beer batter,” she said. Some changes have already been implemented.
In June, Culver’s debuted a new chicken sandwich lineup with new recipes and new ingredients. Its chicken sandwich now features an improved chicken filet prepared grilled or crispy, crunchier pickle slices, mayo, lettuce and tomato, and a new toasted brioche bun – the only Culver’s sandwich served on this bun, according to a press release from the company.
[caption id="attachment_618099" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Culver’s CEO Julie Fussner in front of a mural at its restaurant in Sauk City. Credit: Valerie Hill[/caption]
Leaving a mark
Fussner is Culver’s first female CEO in a short list of its company leaders. Having charted her own course already as the company’s first chief marketing officer, Fussner knew there would be some flack upon her appointment.
“(The response to being appointed CEO) was overwhelmingly positive,” Fussner said. “But there were a couple people that claimed I was a DEI hire. I was like, ‘Wow, we’re still there. Got it.’”
Despite mixed reactions, Fussner did not regard her transition into the top seat as particularly groundbreaking. The time she spent in her other marketing roles exposed her to several high-powered female leaders.
However, she noted that this experience is still somewhat uncommon in the corporate world. Many female peers have expressed appreciation for what Fussner represents in what remains to be a male-dominated industry.
As Culver’s CEO, Fussner wants to emphasize the company’s longstanding culture to staff, franchisees and patrons. The company’s founding family-centric values, including quality food, face-to-face hospitality and a one-restaurant-at-a-time approach, will remain integral to the company under her leadership, she said.
“We happen to be an organization that gets along with our franchisees, and that’s not normal,” Fussner said. “Craig has said from the beginning that our only job is to serve them, so as long as we don’t lose that, we’ll all get to be successful together.”
Her advice to peer CEOs: put their people first. Ensuring employees feel valued for the work they do, understand why they do it and are rewarded accordingly is important to maintaining a healthy business.
Hoping to spend at least a decade with the company, Fussner has big plans for the legacy she will imprint on the brand. Her intention is to lead the company into an era where both the people working in the restaurants as well as the company’s vision for technological growth are prioritized.
While Fussner could eat anything on the menu, her go-to Culver’s order is a single ButterBurger with cheese, mayo, mustard, pickles, lettuce and grilled onions, with onion rings on the side.
“Classic,” she said.
What it costs to run a Culver's
Here's a financial snapshot of Culver's company-owned restaurant at 7206 Mineral Point Road in Madison, based on 2024 data published in Culver's most recent Franchise Disclosure Document.
Metric
$ Amount
Total Revenue
5,742,760
Expenses
Salaries, wages, benefits
2,177,842
Food
1,721,324
General and administrative
294,355
Service royalty
229,710
Advertising
200,997
Paper
173,772
Repairs and maintenance
77,480
Supplies and chemicals
68,861
Utilities
61,660
Direct operating expenses
29,449
Income
707,463
*Income does not include deductions for rent, real estate taxes, personal property taxes, interest costs, depreciation and amortization or income tax.
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