Franchises · 2026 FDD · Wisconsin DFI filing 640458
Cold Stone Creamery franchise cost, unit revenue and closures
Opening a Cold Stone Creamery cost $390,675 to $680,775 in the 2026 FDD; the median unit sold $573,674 in the franchisor's 2024-12-01 to 2025-11-30 figures; 2.4% of franchised units closed over three years.
Franchisor: Kahala Franchising, L.L.C.. FDD issued 2026-03-27. Fiscal year end 2025-11-30. Figures re-found on the cited page 2026-11-04.
What a unit costs to open
traditional restaurant, excluding real estate, building construction and rent; a non-traditional restaurant totals $255,700 to $533,275.
What a unit pays the franchisor
| Initial franchise fee | $27,000 | Item 5, p. 31 |
|---|---|---|
| Royalty | Royalty Fee 6% of Gross Sales plus a surcharge of up to $10 a week, weekly | Item 6, p. 34 |
| Advertising fund | Advertising Fees 3% of weekly Gross Sales (2% to the National Fund, 1% to the Regional Fund) | Item 6, p. 34 |
first traditional restaurant; $15,000 for each later one and $12,000 to $20,000 for a non-traditional restaurant.
What a unit sells
Item 19 is optional and is the franchisor's own representation. It is shown here as filed, with the franchisor's measure, sample and period, and nothing is estimated where it is missing.
| Measure | gross sales, 2024-12-01 to 2025-11-30, all U.S. franchised stores that were not new in the year | |
|---|---|---|
| Sample | 978 units: 978 of the 1,052 U.S. franchised stores at 2025-11-30: existing stores that did not open during the fiscal year, excluding Guam and stores temporarily closed; the top 20% averaged $964,900 and the bottom 20% $332,501 | |
| Period | 2024-12-01 to 2025-11-30 | |
Revenue to investment
Formula: Item 19 median / Item 7 traditional total (midpoint, low, high). A ratio of 1.00 means one year of median unit revenue equals the investment; it says nothing about profit.
How many units open and close
| Franchised units | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Start of year | 908 | 952 | 992 |
| Opened | 49 | 52 | 63 |
| Terminated | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Not renewed | 5 | 3 | 2 |
| Reacquired by franchisor | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Ceased, other reasons | 3 | 8 | 1 |
| End of year | 952 | 992 | 1,052 |
| Company-owned, end of year | 1 | 2 | 2 |
Item 20, Table 1 p. 86; Table 3 totals p. 96.
Closures are the franchisor's Item 20 counts of units terminated, not renewed, or ceased for other reasons, summed over 2023–2025 and divided by franchised units at the start of 2023. Units the franchisor reacquired are not closures. This is an Item 20 count, not a failure rate.
fiscal years ending November 30.
As filed: the 2023 U.S. total row sums to 949, not the 952 printed; the 2024 and 2025 rows sum.
Source and method
Every figure above comes from the Cold Stone Creamery Franchise Disclosure Document issued 2026-03-27, as filed with the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions (filing 640458, registry record). The PDF is the franchisor's and is not hosted here; the item and page beside each figure is where to check it. Item 7 and Item 20 tables were read cell by cell; Item 19 was read by hand; each Item 20 year was checked to sum (start + opened − exits = end) before it was recorded.
The filed PDF carries no printed page numbers, so the page citations below are positions in the PDF file. The fiscal year ends November 30..
Informational only, not professional, legal or investment advice. Unitnomics computes from the filing and does not advise on, rank, or refer to any franchise. Last reviewed: November 2026.