Verified — real FDD extraction
Not found in the SBA Franchise Directory under this name — though SBA loans to its franchisees exist; verify eligibility with your lender
TCBY
Food & Dining · independent · est. —
TCBY ('The Country's Best Yogurt') is a frozen yogurt chain selling soft-serve and self-serve frozen yogurt with toppings, plus smoothies and related treats. Locations are typically small dessert shops in retail or mall settings. A franchisee runs a frozen-yogurt shop, managing the machines, toppings bar, and counter staff.
TCBY net unit count declined -15.7% from 2021–2023 per its FDD Item 20.
New to franchising? Start here
A franchise is a business where you (the franchisee) pay a company (the franchisor) for the right to open and run a location using their brand and system — think a local Anytime Fitness or Taco John's owned by a small-business owner, not the corporation.
Before you can buy in, U.S. law requires the franchisor to give you a Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) — a long legal filing covering its fees, finances, and history. The numbers on this page come straight from that document:
- Franchise fee — the one-time cost to buy in.
- Royalty — the ongoing cut of your sales you pay the franchisor.
- Item 20 — how many locations opened and closed, the basis for our verdict (from Proven & strong down to Distressed — or Too new to judge).
The verdict
Showing strain
Distress
The disclosed record shows weakness — shrinking units, elevated exits, or churn — worth reading closely before going further.
Exit rate · latest year
6.0%
vs 8.6% across 137 food & dining systems
Cost to open
$141K–$699K
Item 7 total investment range
SBA loan defaults
21.9%
vs 14.8% avg across rated brands
Behind the verdict
the record, factor by factor · Item 20
3-yr trend · Item 20 Table 1
terminations + ceased-ops vs. all exits · Table 3
transfers vs. base · Table 3
actual vs. projected openings · Table 5
Item 19 disclosure + completeness
Systemwide units
2021–2023
Survival record
FDD Item 20 · outlet status by year
In fiscal 2023, 9 of 151 franchised outlets left the system — a 6.0% annualized exit rate, vs 8.6% across 137 food & dining systems. Not every exit is a failure — but this is the measurable floor.
Show the outlet tables ↓Hide the evidence ↑
| Status (FTC) | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Outlets at start | 202 | 172 | 151 |
| Opened | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| Transfers | 6 | 8 | 6 |
| Terminations | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Non-renewals | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Reacquired by franchisor | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Ceased — other reasons | 32 | 7 | 9 |
| Outlets at end | 172 | 168 | 145 |
| Net change | -30 | -4 | -6 |
The lender's view
SBA 7(a)/504 loan performance · FY1991–present
Banks have made 254 SBA-backed loans to TCBY franchisees since 1991. Of the 215 that have resolved, 21.9% were charged off (defaulted) rather than paid in full, versus 14.8% across 576 rated brands.
21.9%
47 of 215 resolved defaulted
64.2%
avg. charged-off $ ÷ approved $
14.0%
default rate × loss severity
$150,000
what recent franchisees borrowed
66 mo
approval → charge-off, defaulted loans
1 vs 3
distinct banks — pulling back
Charge-off rate by loan approval year (%)
SOURCE: SBA 7(a)/504 FOIA LOAN DATA (DATA.SBA.GOV), FY1991–PRESENT · MATCHED TO TCBY BY FRANCHISE NAME · RESOLVED = CHARGED-OFF + PAID-IN-FULL
The owner's side of the deal
FDD × federal loan record
Who finances it
Wells Fargo Bank National Association
9.7% of this brand's loans
That lender charges off 15.6% of its loans to other franchise brands, vs 14.8% nationally.
Who buys it
78.7%
first-time franchise owners
The rest already owned at least one other franchise. Across the corpus, brands bought mostly by repeat operators charge off at roughly 10% versus 17% for brands sold mostly to newcomers.
Does experience help here?
−9.8pp
multi-unit vs single-unit owners
Owners of multiple units default at 11.8%; single-unit owners at 21.6%.
Computed from 254 SBA 7(a)/504 loans to TCBY franchisees joined to the brand's own FDD. Debt service assumes level amortization at the average disclosed term and rate. A lender's rate excludes its loans to this brand, so it reads the lender, not the brand.
What it costs — and what it drags
FDD Items 5–7 · fees, investment, royalty
Buying in means a $35K franchise fee (Item 5) and a total investment of $141K–$699K (Item 7). The franchisor publishes an earnings claim (Item 19) — read its methodology closely.
To open (Item 7)
$141K–$699K
all-in investment range
Franchise fee (Item 5)
$35K
upfront, one-time
Royalty (Item 6)
6%
of sales, ongoing
Your figure — cross-check against this brand's Item 19 and current-owner validation.
Royalty you'd pay / yr
$60K
6% of sales, before profit
Over a 10-yr term
$600K
royalties alone, excl. ad fund
This is not profit. It's the only money the FDD actually pins down — what you put in, and the royalty you owe on every dollar of sales. Your real take-home depends on labor, rent, food cost, and ramp-to-breakeven, none of which any FDD discloses.
Build a real pro-forma for TCBY with an independent CPALabor record
US Dept. of Labor enforcement · franchisee-level · FY2005–present
Federal investigators have concluded 6 wage cases against operators of this system, recovering $3K in back wages for 23 workers, including 1 child-labor case. These cases name franchisee-owned locations, not the franchisor itself.
Concluded cases
6
Back wages owed
$3K
Employees affected
23
Since 2020
0
1 of these cases involved child-labor violations, covering 2 minors across the system's franchised locations.
Read this carefully. The employers in these cases are individual TCBY franchisees — separately owned businesses operating under the brand name — not TCBY itself. The franchisor is not the respondent and in most cases is not a party. What the record shows is how this system's operators run their payrolls, which is worth knowing before you become one of them. Counts rise with system size and with age: a 20-year-old, 10,000-unit system will out-count a young one regardless of conduct. Source: DOL Wage and Hour Division concluded compliance actions, FY2005–present, most recent finding 2017.
Modeled risk
FDD Risk Score · modeled from the public record
Modeled from the public record, this brand sits mid-pack: riskier than 59% of systems we score.
Risk percentile
59 / 100
Loan-corroborated
Modeled SBA charge-off
14.0%
Observed SBA charge-off
21.9%
Top drivers: Single-lender dependence (raises) · Share financed by high-loss lenders (lowers) · Net unit growth (raises) · Investment ceiling (log) (lowers). 15+ resolved loans stand behind this estimate. A linear scorecard built from this brand's own disclosure figures plus the federal loan record behind its franchisees; full spec and cross-validated accuracy on the methodology page. A score is context, not a verdict.
Distress signals
news-sourced · bankruptcies, closures, lawsuits
No recent closures, bankruptcies, or major lawsuits found in the news for TCBY. That's a good sign — but it reflects news coverage, not a guarantee.
A broker is paid by the franchisor to place you. An independent CPA is paid by you — and the job is pressure-testing TCBY's numbers, including talking you out of a bad deal.
Talk to an independent CPA before you buy →TCBY franchise questions, answered from the filings
What percentage of TCBY franchises closed last year?
In TCBY's latest FDD Item 20 (fiscal 2023), 9 of 151 franchised outlets left the system — an annualized exit rate of 6.0% — compared with 8.6% across 137 food & dining systems tracked here. That counts terminations, non-renewals, and "ceased operations — other reasons." There is no official failure rate, and not every exit is a failure, but this is the measurable floor.
How much does a TCBY franchise cost?
Per TCBY's 2024 FDD, buying in requires an initial franchise fee of $35K (Item 5) and a total initial investment of $141K–$699K (Item 7).
What royalty does TCBY charge?
TCBY charges an ongoing royalty of 6.0% of gross sales, per Item 6 of its 2024 FDD.
Does TCBY disclose earnings (Item 19)?
Yes — TCBY makes a financial performance representation in Item 19 of its 2024 FDD. Read it closely: franchisors choose which units and which metrics to include.
How often do SBA loans for TCBY franchises default?
Across 254 SBA-backed loans to TCBY franchisees since 1991, 47 of the 215 that have resolved were charged off — a 21.9% default rate, versus about 14.8% across all rated franchise brands. This is the lender's-eye view of franchisee failure, drawn from public SBA 7(a)/504 FOIA data and independent of the franchisor's own disclosures.