Bottom line
- Total investment $298K – $980K including a $35K franchise fee, 5.0% ongoing royalty.
- Average unit revenue of $948K/year (median $823K).
- Rated MODERATE with a risk score of 57/100. SBA loan default rate of 0.0% across 217 loans (below the industry average).
- System contracting at -5.9% 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 Great Harvest unit return on the cash you put in?
Unlevered ROIC · per unit
15%
Below typical band (30–60%)
Levered LBO scenario · Yale Crease Capital framing
What would 25 Great Harvest units return on equity?
Equity IRR · 5-yr
49.9%
7.57× MOIC
Year-1 DSCR
1.88×
EBITDA ÷ debt service
Equity required
$664K
on $3.3M purchase
Total debt
$2.7M
SBA $1.7M + senior + seller note
Overview
About
Great Harvest franchisees operate neighborhood bakery-café locations focused on fresh-baked bread, pastries, and café items. Day-to-day operations involve early morning baking, managing a small retail counter, serving walk-in and wholesale customers, managing 5-15 employees, and maintaining inventory and food safety standards.
Item 7 · what it costs
The Vitals
Item 19
Financial Performance
Item 20 · unit dynamics
The Growth Chart
Year-over-year franchised unit counts and net change. Source: FDD Item 20.
Item 20 · 32 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
Great Harvest shows cautionary signals: declining unit growth, undisclosed profitability metrics, active litigation, and an opaque financial model that makes true ROI assessment impossible for prospective franchisees.
Score breakdown · what drove the 57 / 100 rating
- 01MINORDeclining unit count (-0.6% YoY) indicates system contraction despite reasonable average revenues
- 02MEDNet income not disclosed in Item 19 prevents accurate ROI calculation on $298k-$980k investment
- 03HIGHMultiple active litigations (breach of contract, trademark infringement) suggest franchisor enforcement issues and franchisee disputes
- 04MINORWide investment range ($681k spread) creates uncertainty about startup costs and unit economics
- 05MINOR5% royalty on $948k average revenue yields only $47,405 annually, making profitability dependent on cost control
- 06HIGHNo going concern statement absent, which may indicate marginal franchisor financial health
- 07MINORBakery-café model faces intense competition and requires operational excellence in food production and customer service
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
100 numbers
One-time purchase · CSV download · Validation questions included
FDD download
Great Harvest · FDD (2025) PDF