Franchise Facts Report → brands → 16 Handles
16 Handles franchise — is it worth it?
Medium risk Stable network Item 19 disclosed
16 Handles is a frozen dessert franchise with a moderate initial investment.
Everything below is free, read straight off 16 Handles's registered filing, with where the numbers land against food & beverage peers. Weighing 16 Handles against other options? Get a free shortlist of franchises that fit your budget.
Figures above are as disclosed in 16 Handles's most recent FDD (registered 2024). Source: California Dept. of Financial Protection and Innovation — Franchise Registration · filing app-28403 — check it yourself. See every other California-registered franchise.
Considering 16 Handles? See what else fits your budget
Tell us your budget and the industries you're open to. We'll match you with 5–10 franchises whose own FDDs fit — ranked by earnings disclosure, growth and closure rate — and email you the list. 16 Handles will be on it if it fits.
How much does a 16 Handles franchise make?
16 Handles is one of the franchisors that answers this on the record: its most recent FDD makes an Item 19 financial performance representation — actual unit earnings figures, disclosed by the franchisor itself. The headline figure is $660,136 in average unit revenue — read it alongside what Item 19 says about which units it covers (often only mature or top-performing locations). See every food & beverage brand that discloses earnings in the Food & beverage franchises with disclosed Item 19 earnings ranking.
16 Handles franchise profit vs. revenue
Revenue is not profit. An Item 19 almost always reports sales — what a location takes in — not what an owner keeps. Out of that number come 16 Handles's 6% royalty, the ad fund, rent, payroll, supplies and debt service. No FDD tells you a 16 Handles franchise's profit, because profit depends on your site, your rent and how you run it — so treat any "16 Handles franchise profit" figure quoted elsewhere as someone's estimate, not a disclosure. On $660,136 of revenue, a 6% royalty alone is about $39,608 a year before any other cost.
16 Handles lawsuits & legal history (FDD Item 3)
We do not publish a litigation answer for 16 Handles. Item 3 could not be read reliably from this particular filing, and a claim that a company has no legal history is not one to make on a failed parse — so we say we do not know instead. Item 3 of the FDD itself is the place to check; the methodology page explains what we do and do not machine-read.
16 Handles closures & failure rate
Before you sign, 16 Handles will hand you a list of current owners to call as references — and they choose who's on that list. It won't include the owners who quit, got bought out, or were forced out last year. The FDD does report that number, even though the reference list leaves those people off. Below is what 16 Handles's most recent filing shows, and whether it's normal for a food & beverage of this kind.
The closest thing an FDD has to a failure rate is Item 20 — outlet openings, closures, terminations and non-renewals, reported by the franchisor. 16 Handles's latest tables show a stable franchised network. Its franchised-outlet closure rate — closures, terminations and non-renewals against outlets — is 6.9%, against a food & beverage median of 3.3% — worse than the category. Net franchised outlets moved 0 to 29 in the latest reported year.
Who owns 16 Handles?
16 Handles's franchise is offered by 16 Handles Franchising, LLC — the franchisor named on the cover of its most recently filed Franchise Disclosure Document (2024), and the entity a franchisee actually signs with. That name comes straight off the filing at CA DFPI; it identifies the franchisor, not necessarily the ultimate parent company behind it.
Food & beverage franchises at a similar investment level
Anyone weighing 16 Handles is really weighing it against the other brands their money could go into. These are the closest by total initial investment (FDD Item 7), each with its own FDD-based page.
16 Handles franchise — frequently asked
Who owns 16 Handles — who is the franchisor?
16 Handles's most recently filed FDD (2024) names 16 Handles Franchising, LLC as the franchisor — the entity you would actually sign the franchise agreement with, as stated on the disclosure document itself. A registry filing names the franchisor, not necessarily its ultimate parent company.
How much does a 16 Handles franchise cost?
16 Handles's most recently filed FDD (Item 7) puts the total estimated initial investment at $242,500 – $553,000, with an initial franchise fee of $30,000 and a 6% royalty. That price is the franchisor's own estimate of what it takes to open, not a quote. Against food & beverage peers it sits in the lower quartile (median $379,725).
How much profit does a 16 Handles franchise make?
16 Handles discloses unit earnings in Item 19, but that figure is revenue — sales — not profit. Royalties (6% of gross for 16 Handles), the ad fund, rent, payroll and supplies all come out of it, and no FDD discloses what an owner nets. Any 16 Handles franchise profit number quoted elsewhere is an estimate. The headline figure 16 Handles discloses is $660,136 in average unit revenue.
Does 16 Handles disclose financial performance (Item 19)?
Yes — 16 Handles reports unit-level earnings in Item 19. The headline figure is $660,136 in average unit revenue, as the franchisor states it.
Are there lawsuits against 16 Handles?
We do not publish a litigation answer for 16 Handles: Item 3 could not be read reliably from this filing, and we would rather say so than assert a clean record we have not verified. Item 3 of the FDD itself is the place to check.
Is 16 Handles a good franchise to buy?
Nobody can answer that from 16 Handles's numbers alone — it comes down to how its investment, earnings, litigation and franchisee churn stack up against food & beverage peers and against your own budget. Our read on this filing is medium risk. Every figure behind that read is on this page for free. If you're comparing options, the free shortlist on this page matches you with 5–10 franchises that fit your budget and industry.
Get a free email when something changes on 16 Handles or food & beverage: a new FDD registration, a new lawsuit, an outlet count that shifts, or Item 19 earnings going from undisclosed to disclosed. Pulled straight from the same state registries this page is built on.