Food & Beverage · registry year 2024 · HQ MN
Dairy Queen Franchise
A Berkshire Hathaway brand operating in the food & beverage sector, franchising since 1944. According to the 2024 FDD filing for Dairy Queen, this is an editorial comparison record; it does not reproduce the brand's current FDD.
- $1.1M – $1.8M
- Initial investment · Higher entry cost
- 4.0%
- Royalty rate · Below-average royalty
- 6,800
- Total locations · Large network
- $1.1M
- Avg unit revenue · Mid-range unit revenue
FDD outlay schedule
Registry dairy-queen Dairy Queen
Dairy Queen needs $1.1M–$1.8M to open and charges a 4.0% royalty - an entry cost above the typical food & beverage franchise.
- LO $1.1M
- HI $1.8M
- FEE $45K
- ROY 4.0%
- UNT 6,800
- I19 Disclosed
- INV# #31/223
- UNT# #21/223
Same-sector Item 7 peers
Nearest Item 7 peer: El Pollo Loco ($1.1M)
Same-sector Item 7 neighbourhood for Dairy Queen (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 Dairy Queen's franchise system looks, from 2 of 2 tracked dimensions.
- Network momentum 0.3% net unit growth (YoY) 24/100 · 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 Dairy Queen's investment ranks nationally
Dairy Queen's listed Item 7 low of $1.1M 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.
Dairy Queen vs all tracked franchise brands by listed investment
Initial investment low (FDD Item 7), PlainFranchise brand corpus
$1,076,000 Higher than most higher than 86% 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
- $45K
- Ad Fund Rate
- 5.0%
Revenue Data (Item 19)
- Average Revenue
- $1.1M
- 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
80 locations closed in the last reporting year
Quick Facts
- Sector
- Food & Beverage
- Subsector
- quick service restaurant
- Founded
- 1940
- Franchising Since
- 1944
- Headquarters
- MN
- FDD Year
- 2024
- Item 19
- Disclosed
Important Notice · Dairy Queen
This Dairy Queen page is a registry comparison record, not a verified FDD extract. It does not establish suitability, operating costs, profitability, or expected results for Dairy Queen.
Large-network capital outlay for Dairy Queen
Signature read: 6,800 locations · Item 7 low $1.1M
Dairy Queen, a Berkshire Hathaway franchise, has been franchising since 1944 - 4 years after the concept was founded in 1940 , currently with 6,800 total locations (6,600 franchised, 200 company-owned; 97% of the recorded total is franchised) in the food & beverage sector, headquartered in MN. The listed total initial investment is $1.1M to $1.8M, recorded as a low-to-high range in the registry. The registry records a separate franchise-fee field of $45K and does not list every Item 7 component in this summary.
Royalty payments here are set at 4.0% of gross sales, plus a 5.0% national ad-fund field; the listed percentages sum to 9.0%. Dairy Queen has a recorded Item 19 financial-performance field; Item 19 disclosure is voluntary under the FTC Franchise Rule. The reported average gross revenue per location is $1.1M; applying the listed royalty rate to that reported average yields $44K as a simple arithmetic illustration, not a cost or profit estimate. Revenue is not profit; this registry does not contain a complete operating-cost or profit record.
Dairy Queen's network is expanding: unit count grew at a 0.3% net rate over the past year (100 openings, 80 closures). This is a reported network-size change, not a measure of profitability, demand, or franchisee outcomes.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does a Dairy Queen franchise cost?
How many Dairy Queen locations are there?
What are the ongoing fees for a Dairy Queen franchise?
Related reading for Dairy Queen: Understanding FDDs , Dairy Queen 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 Dairy Queen's Item 7 and Item 19 fields are labeled (expand)
Nationwide brands with similar investment or network size
Two data-derived peer sets for Dairy Queen , both outside HQ state MN : nearest Item 7 lows and nearest total-location counts, not the same-sector roster below.
Similar listed investment
Nearest Item 7 lows ($1.1M here).
Similar network size
Nearest total location counts (6,800 here).
What to do with this
Dairy Queen at a glance, drawn from the same figures above.
- Dairy Queen scores 62/100 (D) on our composite opportunity read, combining net unit growth and Item 19 financial-disclosure transparency.
- Its $1.1M – $1.8M entry cost runs above the typical food & beverage franchise.
- Ranks #31 of 223 listed franchises by initial investment. See rankings
- El Pollo Loco sits at a comparable investment level ($1.1M) 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 |