Food & Beverage · registry year 2024 · HQ AZ
Cold Stone Creamery Franchise
A Kahala Brands brand operating in the food & beverage sector, franchising since 1994. According to the 2024 FDD filing for Cold Stone Creamery, this is an editorial comparison record; it does not reproduce the brand's current FDD.
- $50K – $467K
- Initial investment · Lower entry cost
- 6.0%
- Royalty rate · Above-average royalty
- 1,500
- Total locations · Large network
- $600K
- Avg unit revenue · Below-average unit revenue
FDD outlay schedule
Registry cold-stone-creamery Cold Stone Creamery
Cold Stone Creamery needs $50K–$467K to open and charges a 6.0% royalty - an entry cost below the typical food & beverage franchise.
- LO $50K
- HI $467K
- FEE $42K
- ROY 6.0%
- UNT 1,500
- I19 Disclosed
- INV# #196/223
- UNT# #74/223
Same-sector Item 7 peers
Nearest Item 7 peer: Quiznos ($93K)
Same-sector Item 7 neighbourhood for Cold Stone Creamery (registry year 2024). Listed lows only - not a profit, cost-of-living, or suitability claim. Verify the current FDD before relying on these figures. How we place brands →
Franchise Opportunity Health Score
How healthy and transparent Cold Stone Creamery's franchise system looks, from 2 of 2 tracked dimensions.
- Network momentum -0.7% net unit growth (YoY) 13/100 · F
- Financial disclosure Item 19 disclosed 100/100 · A
Benchmarked against the 223-brand tracked corpus (p10-p90 range per dimension); a higher score means a growing unit count and a disclosed Item 19. See how we place brands.
Where Cold Stone Creamery's investment ranks nationally
Cold Stone Creamery's listed Item 7 low of $50K against every one of the 218 tracked franchise brands with a disclosed initial investment. Listed figures only, verify in the current FDD before relying on them.
Cold Stone Creamery vs all tracked franchise brands by listed investment
Initial investment low (FDD Item 7), PlainFranchise brand corpus
$49,700 Among the lowest lower than 89% of 218 franchise brands
Franchise brands, banded by listed Item 7 low
Each bar is a $0.001K-wide band; taller bars hold more franchise brands. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count and share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source PlainFranchise editorial comparison registry · 2024-12-31
Investment Overview
- Franchise Fee
- $42K
- Ad Fund Rate
- 3.0%
Revenue Data (Item 19)
- Average Revenue
- $600K
- gross revenue per location
* Revenue figures are gross revenue (sales), not profit. This registry does not report operating costs or profit.
Network Size & Growth
Net Growth Rate
Year-over-year unit change
60 locations closed in the last reporting year
Quick Facts
- Sector
- Food & Beverage
- Subsector
- desserts
- Founded
- 1988
- Franchising Since
- 1994
- Headquarters
- AZ
- FDD Year
- 2024
- Item 19
- Disclosed
Important Notice · Cold Stone Creamery
This Cold Stone Creamery page is a registry comparison record, not a verified FDD extract. It does not establish suitability, operating costs, profitability, or expected results for Cold Stone Creamery.
National footprint registry read for Cold Stone Creamery
Signature read: 1,500 locations · Item 7 low $50K
Cold Stone Creamery, a Kahala Brands franchise, has been franchising since 1994 - 6 years after the concept was founded in 1988 , currently with 1,500 total locations (1,500 franchised, 0 company-owned; 100% of the recorded total is franchised) in the food & beverage sector, headquartered in AZ. The registry records a total initial investment between $50K and $467K, using the registry's listed low and high fields. The registry separately records a franchise-fee field of $42K; its summary does not reproduce every Item 7 line item.
Ongoing royalties run 6.0% of gross sales; the registry also records a 3.0% advertising-fund field, for a 9.0% arithmetic total. The registry records an Item 19 field for Cold Stone Creamery. Financial-performance disclosure in Item 19 is voluntary under the FTC Franchise Rule. The reported average gross revenue per location is $600K; multiplying the reported average by the listed royalty rate gives $36K as an arithmetic illustration only. Revenue is distinct from profit, and the registry does not provide a complete operating-cost record.
Unit count is trending down for Cold Stone Creamery: a 0.7% net contraction year-over-year with 60 closures on the record. The percentage does not identify why the count changed or what it means for a specific location.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does a Cold Stone Creamery franchise cost?
How many Cold Stone Creamery locations are there?
What are the ongoing fees for a Cold Stone Creamery franchise?
Related reading for Cold Stone Creamery: Understanding FDDs , Cold Stone Creamery lists Item 19 revenue here, how Item 19 fits the 23-item FDD.
Snapshot uses the registry's listed Item 7 initial-investment low and Item 20 location-count fields. It is a descriptive comparison, not a ranking or investment recommendation.
How Cold Stone Creamery's Item 7 and Item 19 fields are labeled (expand)
Nationwide brands with similar investment or network size
Two data-derived peer sets for Cold Stone Creamery , both outside HQ state AZ : nearest Item 7 lows and nearest total-location counts, not the same-sector roster below.
Similar listed investment
Nearest Item 7 lows ($50K here).
Similar network size
Nearest total location counts (1,500 here).
What to do with this
Cold Stone Creamery at a glance, drawn from the same figures above.
- Cold Stone Creamery scores 57/100 (F) on our composite opportunity read, combining net unit growth and Item 19 financial-disclosure transparency.
- Its $50K – $467K entry cost runs below the typical food & beverage franchise.
- Ranks #196 of 223 listed franchises by initial investment. See rankings
- Quiznos sits at a comparable investment level ($93K) in the same sector. Compare
Editorial comparison registry, not a source-linked FDD record. Verify the current FDD before relying on any figure.
Read our methodology - what this registry can and cannot establish.
Source: PlainFranchise editorial registry Record-level FDD source link and retrieval date pending
| Publisher | PlainFranchise |
| Sources | Public state franchise disclosure registries and FDD filings |