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Apple Spice franchise — is it worth it?

Low risk Stable network Item 19 disclosed

Apple Spice offers a cafe and bakery concept with a focus on box lunch delivery and catering, requiring an initial investment between $387,440 and $473,940.

Everything below is free, read straight off Apple Spice's registered filing, with where the numbers land against food & beverage peers. Weighing Apple Spice against other options? Get a free shortlist of franchises that fit your budget.

Figures above are as disclosed in Apple Spice's most recent FDD (registered 2024). Source: California Dept. of Financial Protection and Innovation — Franchise Registration · filing app-31861 — check it yourself. See every other California-registered franchise.

How much does a Apple Spice franchise make?

Apple Spice 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 $822,147 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.

Apple Spice 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 Apple Spice's 6% royalty, the ad fund, rent, payroll, supplies and debt service. No FDD tells you a Apple Spice franchise's profit, because profit depends on your site, your rent and how you run it — so treat any "Apple Spice franchise profit" figure quoted elsewhere as someone's estimate, not a disclosure. On $822,147 of revenue, a 6% royalty alone is about $49,329 a year before any other cost.

Apple Spice lawsuits & legal history (FDD Item 3)

Apple Spice's most recently filed Franchise Disclosure Document (2024) discloses no litigation in Item 3. That is a real signal rather than a gap: the FTC Franchise Rule requires a franchisor to disclose material litigation involving itself, its predecessors, parents, affiliates and management, so an empty Item 3 in a current filing means there was nothing it was required to report. It is worth reading alongside the churn numbers — a system can have a clean Item 3 and still be losing franchisees, which is what Item 20 shows.

Apple Spice closures & failure rate

Before you sign, Apple Spice 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 Apple Spice'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. Apple Spice's latest tables show a stable franchised network. Net franchised outlets moved 0 to 32 in the latest reported year.

Who owns Apple Spice?

Apple Spice's franchise is offered by Cafe and Bakery Group, 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 Apple Spice 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.

Apple Spice franchise — frequently asked