Mrs. Fields Kiosk Franchise Cost & 2025 FDD Data
66/100
Second tier
66 this brand51 Quick-Service Restaurants medianlikely 51–81: narrower with more SBA loans (low confidence)
Higher is better · an editorial assessment, not investment advice
#726 of 3,068 graded brands
Why a B: Helped by financial health, scale, legal record and transparency. Held back by unit growth. See all six factors
- Total investment
- $189K – $290K
- Avg gross sales
- $397K
- 6 Kiosks Only - Total outlets; not profit
- SBA charge-off
- Not SBA-matched
Data from the FDD filing. Analysis by FranchiseVerdict · Methodology · Website · Report an error · Franchisor? Claim this listing
FranchiseVerdict summary · 2025 FDD
Per the 2025 FDD, a Mrs. Fields Kiosk franchise requires a total initial investment of $189K – $290K, including a $35K franchise fee. Once open, the ongoing royalty is 6.0%. Per the 2025 FDD, average gross sales were $397K (Item 19: 6 Kiosks Only - Total outlets; gross sales, not profit). Verdict grade: B (Second tier), an editorial assessment, not investment advice.
Sources: 2025 FDD · What one unit could make and lose →
Sources, dates and evidence
FDD issued: · Last cited check: · Staleness risk: medium (issued 12 to 24 months ago; a newer filing is likely on file)
Evidence for the headline figures: partial✓ Investment (Item 7)✓ Item 19 status✗ Units and owners (Item 20)✗ SBA loan coverage✓ Litigation (Item 3)✓ Financial statements (Item 21)✓ Franchisor identityhow this is scored5 of 5 headline figures on this page cite a page of the filing.
Overview
Quick verdict · vs Quick-Service Restaurants median
Top edge: green = better than the Quick-Service Restaurants median by more than 10%, red = worse by more than 10%, gray = within 10% or no benchmark. Source: FDD filings + SBA 7(a).
Data from public FDD filings and SBA records. Methodology
Bottom line
- RETURNSAverage gross sales of $397K/year (Item 19: 6 Kiosks Only - Total outlets; gross sales, not profit).
- GROWTHIn the latest Item 20 year, the number of franchised outlets fell by 8 (5 opened, 13 closed).
- TERMSNo protected territory and the franchisor reserves the right to compete in your area. Clarify territorial boundaries before signing.
AT STAKEOne unit at the Item 7 midpoint: $31K a year in payments on assumed SBA 7(a)-style terms.You put in about $48K of your own cash and personally guarantee a $192K loan. Assumptions are labeled in Sales; not investment advice.See what one unit could make and lose
Things to check before you sign (2)
- The franchisor keeps the right to compete inside your territory (Item 12, territory).
- The franchisor receives rebates or payments from suppliers you buy from (Item 8, required suppliers).
Checked and clear: no auditor doubt that the franchisor can keep operating, no lawsuit naming the franchisor in Item 3, no jury-trial waiver, no rule that the owner must run it personally and the full filing on file, and an Item 19 average from 6 units. Not on file here, so ask: unit trend and SBA charge-off rate against the category median.
What to do next
Step 1: Read the FDD itself.
Free: the franchisor must give it to you at least 14 days before you sign or pay. Or look it up in a state registry (Wisconsin, Minnesota, California). What to read first.
Step 2: Talk to current and former owners.
Free: Item 20 of the FDD lists every current owner and those who left last year, most with a phone number. Questions to ask.
Step 3: Talk to an SBA lender.
Free: the SBA's Lender Match. Ask what you would personally guarantee and what the monthly payment would be. If you plan to use retirement savings, ask a CPA about the rules for that first.
Step 4: Have a franchise attorney review the FDD and agreement.
Free: your state bar's lawyer referral service can name franchise lawyers, and many offer a short first consultation. Bring the checks listed above.
Research steps, not investment or legal advice.
Can you afford it, and what does the money buy?
Entry cost (the Item 7 midpoint) is 51% below the Quick-Service Restaurants median ($487K).
Source: FDD 2025 · Items 5–7 (fees and startup costs)
The filing's Item 7 TOTAL row prints $188,860 to $290,310, shown as printed; the lines are listed exactly as printed. The Real estate lease line prints 'Note 3' in place of an amount and is omitted.
Do you qualify? The filing states no minimum net worth or liquid capital. Ask Mrs. Fields Franchising, LLC (Item 1: 1717 S. 4800 W., Salt Lake City, Utah 84104) and your lender what they require, and keep living costs for the first year outside the deal.
Full Item 7 breakdown12 line items
Initial investment breakdown
| Line item | Low | High | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Initial Franchise Fee | $35K | $35K | |
| Travel and living expenses while training | $2K | $3K | |
| Improvements and Equipment | $107.4K | $184.7K | |
| Opening Product and Soft Goods Inventory | $5K | $10K | |
| Grand opening promotion, if opening a new store | $10K | $10K | |
| Local Store Marketing | $2K | $2K | |
| Deposits and other prepaid expenses | $4K | $5K | |
| Professional fees | $9K | $10K | |
| Insurance (3 months) | $2.5K | $3.5K | |
| Coffee preparation and serving equipment | $2.5K | $10K | |
| Computer hardware and software | $1.5K | $5.15K | |
| Additional funds (3 months) | $8K | $12K | |
| Total initial investment | $189K | $290K |
Line items extracted from FDD Item 7. Ranges reflect the franchisor's stated low and high per line. The total row is the total as printed in Item 7. Actual costs may fall outside this range depending on market and build-out scope.
Item 6 · what you pay once you are open
Ongoing fees
| Fee | Amount |
|---|---|
| Royalty | 6.0% of gross revenues |
| Marketing / ad fund | 3.0% of gross revenues |
| Transfer fee | $17,500 |
| Renewal fee | $7,000 |
| Total fee loadabove the Quick-Service Restaurants median of 7.0% (heavy) | 9.0% of sales |
What do units actually make?
Average gross sales are 58% below the Quick-Service Restaurants median ($950K).
Source: FDD 2025 · Item 19 (sales and earnings)
Items 6 (other fees), 7 (startup costs) and 19 (sales and earnings) · assumptions labeled
What you could make and lose: one unit
What one Mrs. Fields Kiosk unit would ask of you, from the filing's Item 7 total and labeled assumptions.
Average gross sales are $397K (FDD p.42), and the royalty and ad fund take about $36K of that a year (Item 6). This brand's Item 19 does not print cost lines. Enter your own from a lease quote, a payroll plan and calls with current owners. So this box does not estimate a profit. To cover the loan payment alone, one unit has to clear $31K a year after its food, labor, rent and other costs and the franchisor's fees.
How these figures are worked out
- Loan (assumption): 80% of the $240K Item 7 midpoint is a $192K loan, paid over 10 years at 10.5%: $31K a year. SBA 7(a)-style terms on a long-term rate; your lender sets yours.
What you put at risk
Your own cash in: about $48K Assumption (the part the loan does not cover of the $240K Item 7 midpoint), plus whatever anything Item 7 leaves out (its notes say what). The loan is $192K.
Personal guarantee. SBA 7(a) loans require a personal guarantee from anyone who owns 20% or more of the business. If the unit cannot pay, the lender can collect from you personally, which can include your savings and your home. The worst case is losing the cash you put in and still owing the rest of the loan.
Gross sales are not profit, and none of these figures is take-home pay until tax and every operating cost are paid. The assumptions are ours, not the filing's. Not investment advice.
Returns modelOne unit · several units · editable
One unit
One unit: what is left after the loan payment
Gross sales, minus the franchisor's fees and the operating costs, is the unit's EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization). Minus an assumed loan payment, that is what is left for you, before tax. Gross sales are not profit.
This brand's Item 19 does not print cost lines. Enter your own from a lease quote, a payroll plan and calls with current owners. Invested capital is the Item 7 total, which already includes its working-capital (additional funds) line.
Returns model · one unit
What would one Mrs. Fields Kiosk unit leave you each year after the loan payment?
Item 19: $396,695 average for 6 outlets (Kiosks Only - Total). Use a figure for outlets like yours if yours differ.
Gross sales, not profit: the costs below decide what is left.
This brand's Item 19 does not print cost lines. Enter your own from a lease quote, a payroll plan and calls with current owners.
Illustrative category typicals, not sourced to any filing, survey or sample. Replace them with figures from franchisee validation calls before you rely on the output.
Item 7 midpoint of $189K to $290K
Item 7's $8K to $12K additional funds are already in the total
Left after the loan payment · per year
The unit's EBITDA minus the assumed loan payment. Before tax, depreciation and any cost your inputs leave out (insurance, accounting and legal, licenses, technology fees): not take-home pay.
Gross sales are not profit. Neither the filing nor a stated assumption on this page supplies COGS, labor, rent / occupancy and other operating costs. Enter your own (a lease quote, owner calls) and the model runs on it.
Loan of $192K at 10.5% over 10 years, an assumption, not a quote. Return and payback are before tax, depreciation and the costs above. The loan usually needs your personal guarantee.
Buying several existing units? The acquisition scenario
Buying several units
What buying a few existing units could return
Prices an existing operator of a few units off the single-unit EBITDA above, after shared services, and finances it with an SBA 7(a) loan, a conventional loan and a seller note. It shows the yearly return on your cash (IRR), whether year-1 earnings cover the loan payments (DSCR) and how the price is paid for. It starts at 5 units; every deal term is an assumption you can change, and none is from the FDD.
Not modelled yet
Gross sales are not profit. Neither the filing nor a stated assumption on this page supplies COGS, labor, rent / occupancy and other operating costs. Enter your own (a lease quote, owner calls) and the model runs on it.
This scenario starts from a per-unit EBITDA. Fill in the operating costs in the one-unit model above and it runs on that figure, or take it to the full ROI workbench, where the multi-unit and acquisition models accept your own per-unit economics.
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 · filed by Mrs. Fields Franchising, LLC
Financial performance
Percentile ranks within Quick-Service Restaurants
Each rank is among the Quick-Service Restaurants brands that report that figure (the count is under each bar).
vs Quick-Service Restaurants medians
How Mrs. Fields Kiosk compares
Category median of published Quick-Service Restaurants brands that report the figure; the middle half spans the 25th to 75th percentile and n counts the brands behind it. Medians are used because a few very large systems pull an average far from the typical brand. Revenue is disclosed gross sales, not profit.
System figures: see Mrs. Fields
System figures: see Mrs. Fields
Government records
SBA loan data
Matched to this brand from SBA 7(a) and 504 FOIA loan records.
No SBA loan data available for this brand.
What are the risks?
Main risk in the grade: unit growth. The reasons are below.
Source: SBA 7(a) FOIA · FDD Items 3, 21
Verdict grade + FDD Items 3 (litigation), 4 (bankruptcy), 8 (required suppliers), 16 (what you may sell), 21 (audited financials)
Risk and legal
Grade B: Second tier, 66/100 (category median 51); the full grade is at the top of the page.
How the grade is built
Why a B, factor by factor
- Financial health HelpsAudited financials; no going-concern doubt; statements are the parent's, so this stays near neutral
- Unit economics NeutralAvg gross sales $397K on a $240K investment midpoint, 1.7x (gross sales, not profit)
- Unit growth Weighs on it, weakest dimensionTurnover 11.5%
- Scale HelpsFranchising since 2004
- Legal HelpsNo litigation naming the franchisor in Item 3
- Transparency HelpsItem 19 discloses financial performance; audited financials
- Adjustments after the six dimensions (-1 point)Rounding: the score is kept as a whole number, which moved it by 1 point.
From the six scored dimensions, an editorial assessment, not investment advice. How the score is built
Bankruptcy (Item 4)
None disclosed
Audited financials (Item 21)
Yes · Not specified (Cincinnati, Ohio)
Franchisor revenue (Item 21)
The revenue figures are in the Franchisor tab, under The franchisor.
Franchisor entity revenue (not unit-level)
Audited consolidated financials are for Mrs. Fields Franchising Holdco, LLC (MFF Holdco), the parent guarantor, covering only the period from August 1, 2024 (date of formation) to December 31, 2024. Following the October 2023 Transaction the franchisor cannot provide three years of statements. Total revenues of $1,608,571 comprise royalty fees $1,008,872, marketing/advertising fees $256,241, franchise related fees $32,239, and other income $311,219. Net income $216,777; comprehensive income $244,752.
ⓘ 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
Ask what the franchisor earns on the supplies it sells you or the rebates it takes (Item 8).
- Franchisor sells you products: No
- Franchisor takes supplier rebates: Yes
- Must buy proprietary products: Yes
- Restricted to system-approved products: Yes
- Can negotiate own supplier terms: No
System figures: see Mrs. Fields
What are you signing up for?
Ongoing fees run about 9.0% of sales (royalty + ad fund), before your own operating costs.
Source: FDD 2025 · Items 11, 12, 17
FDD Items 12 (territory), 15 (owner participation) and 17 (renewal, termination and disputes)
Contract and territory detail
| Allowed renewals | 1 |
|---|---|
| Protected territory | No |
| Exclusive territory | No |
| Franchisor can compete | Yes |
| Who runs it (Item 15) | Owner-operator not required |
| Non-compete (years) | 2 years |
| Non-compete (miles) | 10 mi |
| Right of first refusal | Yes |
| RoFR response window | 60 days |
| Transfer requires consent | Yes |
| Termination notice | 30 days |
| Curable defaults | 3 |
| Mandatory arbitration | Yes |
| Arbitration location | Wilmington, Delaware |
| Jury trial waiver | No |
| Governing law | DE |
Items 5 (initial fees), 7 (startup costs), 12 (territory) and 20 (outlet counts) · development agreement
Area development (several units)
The filing offers a development agreement for several units. If you miss the schedule, the development agreement can be ended.
Every term, with its page
- Development fee
- Unless you are an existing franchisee (see below), the Development Fee is calculated at the rate of $12,500 for each Store that you are authorized to develop after the first franchise..
2025 FDD p.12
“Unless you are an existing franchisee (see below), the Development Fee is calculated at the rate of $12,500 for each Store that you are authorized to develop after the first franchise.” - If you miss the schedule
- The development agreement can be ended.
2025 FDD p.115
“You will be in default, and we may, at our option, terminate this Agreement if: (1) you fail to meet the Development Schedule stated herein, (2) you violate any other material provision of this Agreement, (3) you violate any material provision of the Initial Franchise Agreement or any Franchise Agreement, (4) you are declared bankrupt or becomes insolvent, or (5)” - Signed, not yet open
- 1 franchises sold but not open at year end (Item 20, Table 5; see Growth). Ask how long they have been waiting and why.
Each unit still needs its own Item 7 investment on top of the development fee. Have a franchise attorney read the schedule and the default terms before you sign.
Items 10 (financing), 11 (training and support)
Training and operations
- On-the-job training
- 17 hrs
- Ongoing training
- Required
- Site selection
- Franchisee with franchisor approval; franchisor-designated real estate broker required
- Franchisor financing
- Not offered
- Item 10
Items 5 (initial fees) & 11 (training and support)
Franchisor support
Franchisee contacts
We hold no owner list for this brand. Item 20 of the FDD lists the current and former owners; the free FDD is the source.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to open a Mrs. Fields Kiosk franchise?
Per the 2025 FDD, the total investment to open a Mrs. Fields Kiosk franchise ranges from $189K to $290K, with an initial franchise fee of $35K. This is the Item 7 total in the Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD): the startup costs the franchisor lists, such as build-out, equipment, inventory and working capital. It usually leaves out buying land or a building; Item 7's notes say what is excluded.
What do Mrs. Fields Kiosk franchise owners earn?
According to Item 19 of the Mrs. Fields Kiosk FDD, average gross sales were $397K (6 Kiosks Only - Total outlets; gross sales, not profit). What an owner keeps depends on location, operating costs and management.
Who owns Mrs. Fields Kiosk?
Mrs. Fields Kiosk is franchised by Mrs. Fields Franchising, LLC. Its parent company is Mrs. Fields Franchising Holdco, LLC. The ultimate parent named in the FDD is Famous Brands International Holdings, LLC. Source: FDD Item 1, 2025 filing.
What is Item 19 in the Mrs. Fields Kiosk 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 Mrs. Fields Kiosk FDD and qualifies whose outlets they describe.
What is Mrs. Fields Kiosk's franchise failure rate?
There is no published franchise failure rate, and Mrs. Fields Kiosk has too few resolved SBA 7(a) loans on file (fewer than 10) to show an SBA charge-off rate that would mean anything. The SBA charge-off rate is the share of a brand's resolved SBA 7(a) loans to its franchisees that the SBA wrote off, including purchased guarantees. Resolved means paid in full or charged off; active loans are excluded because their outcome is not yet known. It is a lending outcome, not a count of closed businesses. Review the turnover and closure figures in Item 20 of the FDD and speak with current and former franchisees.
Is Mrs. Fields Kiosk a good franchise to buy?
FranchiseVerdict gives Mrs. Fields Kiosk a B Verdict grade (Second tier) with a verdict score of 66 out of 100 (higher is better), an editorial assessment, not investment advice. Helped by financial health (audited financials), scale, legal record and transparency. Held back by unit growth (turnover 11.5%). The “Why a B” section on this page lists all six dimensions and any adjustment. Speak with current franchisees before making any investment decision.
Other Quick-Service Restaurants franchises
Similar investment first, then by grade
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.