Melting Pot® Franchise Cost, Revenue & Review 2026
Data from FDD filing + SBA 7(a) records
Analysis by FranchiseVerdict Research · Methodology
The Melting Pot is a full-service fondue franchise where guests cook cheese, entree, and chocolate fondues tableside. Franchisees run upscale-casual restaurants managing kitchen, tableside service, and staff.
FranchiseVerdict summary · 2026
A Melting Pot® franchise requires a total initial investment of $1.6M – $2.7M, including a $45K franchise fee and an ongoing 5.0% royalty[2]. Per the 2025 FDD, average unit revenue was $2.2M[2]. SBA 7(a) loans show a 29.3% charge-off rate across 75 loans[1]. FranchiseVerdict grade: C (Average), an editorial assessment, not investment advice. Run a live ROI scan →
Data last verified · figures per the 2025 FDD issuance
Overview
- Investment
- $1.6M – $2.7M
- 37th pct Service Resta…
- Avg gross sales
- $2.2M
- 10th pct Service Resta…
- Royalty
- 5.0%
- 7th pct Service Resta…
- Units
- 89
- 30th pct Service Resta…
- SBA charge-off
- 29.3%
- % of SBA 7(a) loans not repaid · median varies by category
Quick verdict · Full-Service Restaurants · color = vs category peers
Green = favorable by >10% vs Full-Service Restaurants avg · No shading = within ±10% · Red = unfavorable by >10% · Source: FDD filings + SBA 7(a)
Data from public FDD filings and SBA records. Not financial advice. Methodology
Bottom line
- COSTTotal investment $1.6M – $2.7M including a $45K franchise fee, 5.0% ongoing royalty.
- RETURNSAverage unit revenue of $2.2M/year (median $1.9M).
- RISKVerdict C (Average), verdict score 40/100 (higher is better). SBA loan charge-off rate of 29.3% across 75 loans (well above the 16% franchise average, based on all SBA 7(a) franchise lending, 2010–2025).
Item 1 · who you're contracting with
The Franchisor
Corporate structure & franchisor financials
- Legal entity
- The Melting Pot Restaurants, Inc.
- CEO title
- CEO
- John "JC" Crawford
- Incorporated in
- FL
- HQ
- 7886 Woodland Center Boulevard, Tampa, Florida 33614
- Auditor
- CBIZ CPAs P.C.
- Audited financials
- Franchisor revenue
- $26.5M
- vs $26.2M prior year
Overview
About
- CEO
- John "JC" Crawford
- Headquarters
- FL
- Founded
- 1984
- FDD year
- 2025
- States available
- 29
Can you afford it, and what does the money buy?
Entry cost runs 87% above the typical full-service restaurants franchise.
Source: FDD 2025 · Items 5–7
Full Item 7 breakdown20 line items
Initial investment breakdown
| Line item | Low | High | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Initial Franchise Feenot refundable | $36K | $45K | |
| Real Estate Services Fee | $3K | $3K | |
| Extensions for Securing Site or Opening Restaurant | $0 | $12K | |
| Real Estate (Rent - First 3 months) | $29K | $81K | |
| Security Deposit | $0 | $23K | |
| Leasehold Improvements | $830K | $1.4M | |
| Computer and Point of Sale Hardware/Software | $25K | $32K | |
| Computer Software Installation and Training; First Year Subscription | $9K | $15K | |
| Gift Card Processing and Website Development/Enhancement Fee (3 months) | $677 | $747 | |
| Restaurant Equipment, Furniture, Fixtures and Signage | $439K | $732K | |
| Utility Deposits | $4K | $6K | |
| Opening Inventory and Supplies | $60K | $70K | |
| Grand Opening Advertising | $15K | $20K | |
| Training Expenses | $90K | $170K | |
| Permits, Licenses - Alcoholic Beverages, Business and Health | $6K | $10K | |
| Insurance (3 months) | $750 | $2K | |
| Legal | $2K | $3K | |
| Accounting Firm (3 months) | $2K | $3K | |
| Reservation System (3 months) | $2K | $4K | |
| Additional Funds (3 months) | $65K | $125K | |
| Total initial investment | $1.6M | $2.7M |
Line items extracted from FDD Item 7. Ranges reflect the franchisor's stated low and high per line. Total is the sum of line-item lows / highs — actual costs may fall outside this range depending on market and build-out scope.
Item 7 · what it costs to open + operate
The Vitals
- Total investment
- $1.6M – $2.7M
- Top 40% of category vs category
- Liquid capital req'd
- $65K – $125K
- Top 40% of category vs category
- Franchise fee
- $45K – $45K
- Top 40% of category vs category
- Royalty
- 5.0%
- percentage · typical 6–8%
- Ad fund
- 2.2%
- typical 3–5%
- Total fee load
- 7.2%
- vs 9–13% typical
Ongoing fees · Item 6
| Fee | Amount |
|---|---|
| Royalty | 5.0% of gross sales |
| Marketing / ad fund | 2.2% of gross sales |
| Technology fee | $150 |
| Training fee | $90K |
| Transfer fee | $8K |
| Renewal fee | $23K |
| Inventory (initial) | $60K – $70K |
| Total fee load | 7.2% of rev |
What do units actually make?
Average unit sales run 25% above the full-service restaurants norm.
Source: FDD 2025 · Item 19
Single-unit · estimated
Returns at a glance
Indicative numbers using FDD Item 7 / Item 19 inputs and category-benchmarked cost ratios. Full single-unit, 25-unit portfolio, and LBO models (with every input editable to stress-test your own scenario) live on the financials page.
Store EBITDA · annual
$234K
10.8% margin
Unlevered ROIC
10%
EBITDA / total invested capital
Payback
9.7 yrs
cash-on-cash, unlevered
ROI & LBO modelsSingle-unit · 25-unit portfolio · editable
What one unit earns on your invested capital
Model A · Single-Unit Return
Computes unlevered return on invested capital (ROIC) for a single franchise unit. The target band for an attractive franchise is 30–60% ROIC. Below that and a passive index fund likely outperforms; above that and the franchisor has pricing power you're subsidizing.
Note: Item 19 revenue is what the franchisor discloses. It's the top line only. Operating costs below are category estimates. Override them to match your real lease quote, labor market, and build-out budget.
Returns model · single-unit ROIC
What would one Melting Pot® unit return on the cash you put in?
Unlevered ROIC · per unit
Estimated return on your total franchise investment, before any debt financing.
10%
Below the 30–60% attractive-franchise band
What 25 units return when you use SBA financing
Model B · Return on Equity: Debt-Financed Acquisition
Models a 25-unit portfolio acquisition financed with an SBA 7(a) loan. Shows equity IRR (your return on cash invested), DSCR (how safely the cash flow covers debt service), and the capital stack (SBA + seller + equity breakdown).
This is the “search fund” or “entrepreneurship through acquisition” scenario: you buy an existing multi-unit operator, use leverage to amplify returns, and either operate or hire management. The 25-unit size is the typical minimum for an SBA-backed franchise portfolio acquisition to pencil as a full-time income.
What “return on equity” means here: if you put in $500K of your own cash and the business generates enough EBITDA to pay down debt and grow, your equity IRR is the annual return on that $500K, including the value created when you eventually sell. Target IRR for a search fund is typically 25–35%.
Levered LBO scenario · Yale Crease Capital framing
What would 25 Melting Pot® units return on equity?
Equity IRR · 5-yr
49.9%
7.57× MOIC
Year-1 DSCR
1.88×
EBITDA ÷ debt service
Equity required
$1.7M
on $8.3M purchase
Total debt
$6.6M
SBA $4.1M + senior + seller note
These models are for research and scenario planning only. Not investment advice. Actual results depend on your specific location, management, and market conditions. Consult a franchise attorney and accountant before signing any franchise agreement.
Item 19 · Source: 2025 FDD
Financial Performance
- Avg gross sales
- $2.2M
- Per unit, per year
- Median gross sales
- $1.9M
Gross sales are revenue before expenses — not profit. Actual owner earnings depend on rent, labor, royalties, marketing fees, and debt service.
- Item 19 type
- gross sales
- Sample size
- 85 outlets
- vs category median 18 · large
- Range (low → high)
- $938K→$8.5M
- Cohort dispersion (min → max)
- Quartile band
- $1.4M→$3.2M
- Bottom 25% → top 25%
- Reporting year
- 2025
- Fiscal year the figures cover
- Source filing
- FDD 2025
- The FDD edition these figures were read from
- Transparency
- 6 / 10
- vs category median 3 / 10 · above
Compared against 805 Full-Service Restaurants brands
Revenue is only 1.0x the investment. This means each unit may take 5+ years to recoup the initial outlay at typical margins.
Operator outlook
What the numbers say
Data-driven interpretation of this brand's financial disclosures, fee structure, and system trajectory.
Unit economics
Average unit generates $2.2M/year in gross sales. Revenue-to-investment ratio: 1.0x.
Fee burden
Total ongoing fee load of 7.2% (near the Full-Service Restaurants average).
Disclosure
Transparency score 6/10 — this franchisor discloses detailed breakdowns (quartiles, segments, or cohort data). Buyers can model unit economics with higher confidence.
Operator retention
System contracting at -4.5% CAGR over 3 years. Investigate whether closures are franchisor-driven consolidation or franchisee exits.
Multi-unit rate
Only 13% of franchisees own multiple units. Could indicate challenging economics or a young system where operators haven't had time to expand.
Source: FDD Item 19 financial performance representations and publicly filed FDD data. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Verify all figures with the franchisor and current franchisees before making any investment decision.
vs Full-Service Restaurants averages
How Melting Pot® Compares
Is the system healthy?
Source: FDD 2025 · Item 20
Unit growth
Item 20 · unit dynamics
The Growth Chart
- Total units
- 89
- Opened
- 2
- Last reporting year
- Closed
- 3
- Terminated
- 3
- Franchisor ended the franchise (per Item 20)
- Non-renewed
- 0
- Term expired, not renewed (per Item 20)
- Turnover rate
- 3.5%
- Company-owned
- 4
- Corporate units in the system
- % franchised
- 96%
- vs corporate-owned
- Multi-unit owners
- 12.5%
- Net growth (3-yr)
- -4.5%
- Net unit change over 3 years
- 3-yr CAGR
- -4.5%
- Compounded over last 3 years
3-year detail · Item 20
- Opened (3yr)
- 2
- Closed (3yr)
- 0
- Terminated (3yr)
- 3
- Non-renewed (3yr)
- 0
- Transfers (3yr)
- 3
- Reacquired (3yr)
- 1
- Franchisor bought back
- Transfer rate
- 3.4%
- Owners selling to other franchisees
- Termination rate
- 3.4%
- Franchisor-initiated terminations
- Ceased ops
- 3.4%
- Units that stopped operating
Year-over-year franchised unit counts and net change. Source: FDD Item 20.
Item 20 · 29 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 contact records (FDD Item 20). Shows states with at least one current operator on file. Full state registration data (Item 12) will appear on a future FDD refresh.
SBA loan performance
Government records
SBA Loan Data
Aggregated from SBA 7(a) and 504 loan disclosures, public data unique to FranchiseVerdict.
- Total loans
- 75
- Loan volume
- $48.2M
- Median loan
- $649K
- 50th percentile
- Charge-off rate
- 29.3%
- rates vary by category · see methodology
Historical SBA 7(a) lending data, not predictive of future performance. How SBA charge-off rates are calculated
- Repayment rate (PIF)
- 70.7%
- 5-yr charge-off
- N/A
- Loans approved 2021+
- Active lenders
- 26
- Defaults
- 22
- Typical loan rate
- 6.1%
- avg rate to borrowers
- Franchised industry avg
- 21.6%
- brand above franchise avg ↑
- Jobs supported
- 2,850
- 5.9 per loan
- Lender concentration
- 27%
- top lender's share
Franchise vs independent — in full-service restaurants, franchised businesses charge off at 21.6% vs 22.5% for independents — franchising is associated with 4% lower SBA default risk in this category.
Vintage analysis
Melting Pot® charge-off rate by loan vintage
Top lenders financing Melting Pot® franchisees
Showing 3 of 26 lenders. The full breakdown — every lender, state distribution, interest rates & risk ratings — is in the SBA Lending Report below.
Explore lender portfolios on Bank Reports or regional data on State Reports.
Premium insight
SBA Lending Report
Deep-dive into Melting Pot®'s SBA lending history: lender network, geographic footprint, interest rates, and more.
SBA Lending Report
- Principal loss rate and NAICS industry benchmark
- 10 lenders with concentration factor
- Per-state charge-off rates across 15 states
- Startup risk premium and job creation velocity
- 18-year lending trend
- SBA 504 real estate/equipment data
Instant access. No subscription.
A 29.3% charge-off rate means roughly 1 in 3 franchisees failed to repay their SBA loan. Investigate what changed.
What could kill this investment?
SBA loans charge off at 29.3% — 83% above the 16.0% national norm, i.e. higher lender-observed risk.
Source: SBA 7(a) FOIA · FDD Items 3, 21
Risk analysis
FranchiseVerdict rating + FDD Items 3, 4, 8, 16, 21
Risk & Legal
Melting Pot presents moderate-to-elevated risk due to declining unit growth, undisclosed profitability metrics, and prior employment litigation, though the brand retains revenue scale and protected territories.
Litigation (Item 3)
1 prior action: Washington AG investigation into no-poach franchise agreement provisions; settled via Assurance of Discontinuance in September 2019 with no admission of liability.
Bankruptcy (Item 4)
None disclosed
Audited financials (Item 21)
Yes · CBIZ CPAs P.C.
Franchisor revenue (Item 21)
Franchisor entity revenue (not unit-level)
ⓘ These are the parent company's consolidated financials (the parent guarantees the franchisor), not this brand's standalone results — the figure reflects the whole corporate group, not this brand alone.
Supplier relationship · Items 8 & 16
- Franchisor sells you products: Yes
- Kickbacks from required suppliers: Yes
- Must buy proprietary products: Yes
- Restricted to system-approved products: Yes
- Can negotiate own supplier terms: No
Score breakdown · what drove the 40 / 100 verdict
- 01MINORUnit count declining 2.3% YoY indicates shrinking system despite mature brand
- 02MEDNet income not disclosed in Item 19 prevents ROI analysis and profitability verification
- 03MINOR2019 employment litigation and no-poach agreement removal suggests franchisor compliance issues
- 04HIGHGoing Concern status (True) may indicate financial stability concerns at corporate level
Severity inferred from the FDD text · not a regulatory classification
What are you signing up for?
Ongoing fees run about 7.2% of sales (royalty + ad fund), before rent and labor.
Source: FDD 2025 · Items 11, 12, 17
FDD Items 12, 15, 17 · continued from Risk & Legal
Contract & Territory Detail
| Initial term | 10 years |
|---|---|
| Renewal term | 10 years |
| Allowed renewalsℹ | 1 |
| Territory type | exclusive |
| Protected territory | Yes |
| Exclusive territoryℹ | Yes |
| Territory radius | 8 mi |
| Territory population | 10 |
| Online sales rightsℹ | Restricted |
| Franchisor can compete | Yes |
| Hire a manager? | Allowed |
| Owner-operator | Optional |
| Non-compete (years)ℹ | 2 years |
| Non-compete (miles)ℹ | 30 mi |
| Right of first refusalℹ | Yes |
| Transfer requires consent | Yes |
| Termination notice | 30 days |
| Curable defaultsℹ | 3 |
| Mandatory arbitration | Yes |
| Arbitration location | Florida (county and state where principal headquarters are located) |
| Jury trial waiver | No |
| Governing law | FL |
| Litigation count | 1 |
View Item 3 litigation summary
1 prior action: Washington AG investigation into no-poach franchise agreement provisions; settled via Assurance of Discontinuance in September 2019 with no admission of liability.
Items 10, 11
Training & Operations
- Classroom training
- 15 hrs
- On-the-job training
- 208 hrs
- Training location
- Certified Training Locations (various states) and Restaurant Support Center, Tampa, FL
- Ongoing training
- Required
- Time to open
- 15 mo
- From signing to launch
- Site selection
- franchisor-approved; franchisee identifies site, franchisor must accept
- Franchisor financing
- Not offered
- Item 10
- POS system
- Toast POS
- Operating tech stack
Items 5 & 11
Franchisor Support
Technology: Toast POS
Item 20 · call current owners
Franchisee Contacts
87 owners to call
Name · phone · city · state. Extracted from FDD Item 20
FDD download
Melting Pot® · FDD (2025) PDF
Frequently asked questions
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does it cost to open a Melting Pot® franchise?
The total investment to open a Melting Pot® franchise ranges from $1.6M – $2.7M, with an initial franchise fee of $45K. This includes real estate, equipment, inventory, and working capital as disclosed in their Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD).
What do Melting Pot® franchise owners earn?
According to Item 19 of the Melting Pot® FDD, the average gross sales per unit is $2.2M. The median is $1.9M. Note: this is gross revenue, not profit. Actual owner earnings vary based on location, operating costs, and management.
What is Item 19 in the Melting Pot® FDD?
The FDD section where a franchisor may disclose financial performance of its outlets. Disclosure is optional and formats vary; figures are typically gross sales, which is revenue before expenses, not profit. FranchiseVerdict extracts these figures directly from the Melting Pot® FDD and qualifies whose outlets they describe.
What is Melting Pot®'s franchise failure rate?
Based on SBA 7(a) loan data, Melting Pot® has a charge-off rate of 29.3% across 75 loans, meaning 29.3% of franchise loans were charged off. Charge-off rates are one proxy for franchise risk, though they do not capture all closures. This data comes from FOIA-sourced SBA lending records.
How many Melting Pot® franchise locations are there?
As of their most recent FDD filing, Melting Pot® has 89 total units in the United States, including 85 franchised units and 4 company-owned units. 2 new units were opened in the latest reporting year.
Is Melting Pot® a good franchise to buy?
FranchiseVerdict rates Melting Pot® as a C-grade franchise with a verdict score of 40 out of 100 (higher is better), based on our analysis of investment costs, revenue data, SBA loan performance, and growth trends. Our rating is based solely on publicly available FDD and government data; we recommend speaking with current franchisees before making any investment decision. This is not investment advice.
Data sourced from public FDD filings and SBA 7(a) FOIA records. Not financial advice.
For franchisors
Are you the franchisor?
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Data extracted from public FDD filings and SBA 7(a) loan disclosures (FOIA). This information is provided for research purposes only and does not constitute financial, legal, or investment advice. Verify all figures with the franchisor's current Franchise Disclosure Document before making any investment decision.