Corner Bakery Cafe
Bottom line
- Total investment $1.1M – $2.3M including a $40K franchise fee, 5.0% ongoing royalty.
- No Item 19 financial performance data disclosed — the franchisor chose not to publish revenue figures.
- Rated CAUTION with a risk score of 72/100. SBA loan default rate of 0.0% across 8 loans (below the industry average).
- System contracting at -17.9% CAGR over 3 years. Investigate whether closures are franchisor-driven (consolidation) or franchisee-driven (economics).
Item 1 · who you're contracting with
The Franchisor
Yale framework · single-unit ROIC
Returns Analysis
Pulls Item 7 (investment) and Item 19 (revenue) from this brand's FDD into the Yale unlevered-ROIC formula. Override any input to stress-test it against your own assumptions.
The model · Yale framework
What would one Corner Bakery Cafe unit return on the cash you put in?
Unlevered ROIC · per unit
6%
Below typical band (30–60%)
Overview
About
Corner Bakery Cafe franchisees operate casual fast-casual bakery-cafe concepts serving breakfast, lunch, and baked goods in protected territories. Daily operations include managing front-of-house customer service, overseeing baking/food preparation (or outsourced production), inventory management, staffing, and point-of-sale operations, with typical daypart focus on morning/breakfast revenue.
Item 7 · what it costs
The Vitals
Item 19
Financial Performance
This franchisor did not disclose financial performance representations in Item 19, or our extractor could not parse them.
Item 20 · unit dynamics
The Growth Chart
Year-over-year franchised unit counts and net change. Source: FDD Item 20.
Item 20 · 15 states with active franchisees
The Territory Map
Derived from franchisee contact records. Shows states with at least one current operator — not where the franchisor is registered to sell new units (that data is re-extracting in a future refresh).
States derived from franchisee phone area codes (Item 20). Approximate — ported numbers may show the original state, not the franchisee's current location.
Government records
SBA Loan Data
Aggregated from SBA 7(a) loan disclosures, public data unique to FranchiseVerdict.
FranchiseVerdict rating + FDD Items 3, 5, 6, 12, 17
Risk & Legal
Rapidly shrinking system with litigation history, missing financial disclosures, and fraud-related allegations against franchise development leadership present substantial risk to franchisee capital.
Score breakdown · what drove the 72 / 100 rating
- 01MEDSystem contracting sharply: 13.5% unit decline YoY indicates deteriorating franchisee performance and franchisor support capacity
- 02HIGHPending litigation against VP of Franchise Development involving fraud allegations raises concerns about sales practices and disclosed financial projections to prospective franchisees
- 03MEDNo Item 19 financial performance representations disclosed — prevents validation of franchise profitability claims and suggests franchisor cannot substantiate unit economics
- 04HIGHTwo prior settled litigations involving gift card reporting and unauthorized financial performance representations indicate pattern of regulatory/disclosure issues
- 05MEDHigh capital requirement ($1.09M–$2.34M) combined with undisclosed average net income creates significant downside risk without transparency on returns
- 06MINOR5% royalty on gross sales (not net) reduces margins further and creates franchisor incentive misalignment during low-margin periods
Severity inferred from the FDD text · not a regulatory classification
FDD Items 5, 6, 12, 17 · continued from Risk & Legal
Contract & Territory Detail
Item 11
Training & Operations
Item 20
Franchisee Contacts
Phone numbers extracted directly from this brand's FDD Item 20. After purchase, you'll also receive a list of validation questions tailored to this brand.
Franchisee contacts
39 numbers
One-time purchase · CSV download · Validation questions included
FDD download
Corner Bakery Cafe · FDD (2025) PDF