Blame it on an increasingly volatile economy, unrealistic expectations or high operating costs, but the bottom line is Cold Stone Creamery franchises aren’t delivering returns for franchisees.
One of the main complaints lies with the high cost of operating, which, according to food and beverage industry publication The Ice Cream Reporter, is attributed to location, corporate pressures and expansive coupon and rebate programs distributed by the corporation.
According to former Cold Stone Creamery franchisee Bruce Hodgkins, Cold Stone allowed the Tejon franchisee to open too close to his store, and they forced him to remodel shortly after opening. He also said that corporate Cold Stone didn’t let him to do his own advertising and forced him to honor $40,000 worth of corporate coupons in his last year of business.
After just three years of operation, Hodgkins relinquished control of his franchise back to corporate.
Unfortunately Bruce Hodgkins’ story is not an isolated case; some 100 Cold Stone Creameries closed in the last year, up from just 60 in 2006, according to the Wall Street Journal. 303 stores in all are now for sale around the country. That’s more than 20 percent of the company’s 1,384 total franchises as of December 2007.
Cold Stone Creamery Franchises Cooling Off
June 30, 2008 by Cris | 2 Comments
In Basic Guidelines, Law & Agreements, Franchisees, Franchises, Negatives and/or Positives, Restaurants
danakeith on June 30th, 2008 at 11:27 pm
too bad to hear such thing, why the world they did that to there franchiser?
Franchise Business Opportunities | A Cold Shoulder For A Once - Hot Franchise on July 1st, 2008 at 2:01 pm
[...] Earlier in this decade, Cold Stone Creamery was one of the hottest franchises around. The super-premium ice-cream stores attracted scores of [...]