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Crispy Cones franchise — is it worth it?

Medium risk Significant turnover Item 19 disclosed

Crispy Cones is a food and beverage franchise with an initial investment ranging from $373,650 to $581,900.

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

Figures above are as disclosed in Crispy Cones's most recent FDD (registered 2026). Source: Wisconsin Dept. of Financial Institutions — Franchise Registration · filing 640792 — check it yourself. See every other Wisconsin-registered franchise.

How much does a Crispy Cones franchise make?

Crispy Cones 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 did not machine-read cleanly from this filing, so we don't print one; Item 19 of the source FDD has the tables. See every food & beverage brand that discloses earnings in the Food & beverage franchises with disclosed Item 19 earnings ranking.

Crispy Cones 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 Crispy Cones's 5% royalty, the ad fund, rent, payroll, supplies and debt service. No FDD tells you a Crispy Cones franchise's profit, because profit depends on your site, your rent and how you run it — so treat any "Crispy Cones franchise profit" figure quoted elsewhere as someone's estimate, not a disclosure.

Crispy Cones lawsuits & legal history (FDD Item 3)

We do not publish a litigation answer for Crispy Cones. 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.

Crispy Cones closures & failure rate

Before you sign, Crispy Cones 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 Crispy Cones'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. Crispy Cones's latest tables show significant franchisee turnover. Its franchised-outlet closure rate — closures, terminations and non-renewals against outlets — is 20%, against a food & beverage median of 3.3% — worse than the category. Net franchised outlets moved +13 to 18 in the latest reported year.

Who owns Crispy Cones?

Crispy Cones's franchise is offered by Crispy Cones Franchising, LLC — the franchisor named on the cover of its most recently filed Franchise Disclosure Document (2026), and the entity a franchisee actually signs with. That name comes straight off the filing at WI DFI; it identifies the franchisor, not necessarily the ultimate parent company behind it.

Food & beverage franchises at a similar investment level

Anyone weighing Crispy Cones 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.

Crispy Cones franchise — frequently asked