Crumbl Cookies

Crumbl Cookies has become one of the most talked-about franchise stories of the past decade, growing from a single cookie shop in Logan, Utah, to more than 1,100 locations across the United States and Canada in fewer than seven years. Founded in 2017 by cousins Jason McGowan and Sawyer Hemsley, Crumbl was born out of an obsessive quest to create the perfect chocolate chip cookie, with the founders testing hundreds of recipe combinations before arriving at a formula that would become the foundation of a billion-dollar franchise empire. The brand was incorporated in February 2018 in the state of Utah and began franchising that same year, launching one of the fastest organic expansion cycles in franchise industry history. Today headquartered in Lindon, Utah, Crumbl operates approximately 1,103 domestic locations plus 25 locations in Canada, generating estimated system-wide sales of approximately $1.2 billion annually. The brand's meteoric rise has attracted significant institutional investment, with TSG Consumer Partners acquiring a stake in May 2025 alongside $500 million in financing from Blackstone and Golub Capital, transactions that signal sophisticated investor confidence in the brand's long-term franchise economics. Crumbl has redefined what a bakery franchise can look like in the modern era, combining a rotating menu model, social media mastery, and an instantly recognizable pink box into a cultural phenomenon that transcends the traditional boundaries of the food franchise category.

The specialty dessert and bakery segment has experienced a dramatic evolution over the past five years, driven by social media-fueled consumer demand for visually stunning, shareable food experiences. The broader U.S. bakery market generates over $60 billion in annual revenue, but the franchise bakery subcategory has historically been dominated by legacy brands focused on morning daypart items like donuts and bagels. Crumbl identified and exploited a massive gap in this market: premium, made-fresh-daily cookies positioned as a dessert and gifting experience rather than a commodity bakery item. The brand's rotating weekly menu, which cycles six flavors each week from a library of more than 150 proprietary recipes, creates a scarcity and discovery dynamic more commonly associated with sneaker drops and limited-edition product releases than with food service. This model drives extraordinary repeat visit frequency, as customers return weekly to try new flavors and fear missing their favorites. The competitive landscape has responded with imitators, including Insomnia Cookies and various regional copycat concepts, but Crumbl's first-mover advantage, scale, and social media infrastructure have thus far maintained substantial competitive distance. Consumer trends strongly favor the category: the gifting economy has expanded rapidly, experiential dining continues to outperform traditional food service, and the visual nature of Crumbl's oversized, elaborately decorated cookies is purpose-built for the Instagram and TikTok era.

The initial franchise fee for a Crumbl Cookies location is $50,000, positioning it in the mid-tier range for QSR and specialty food franchise concepts. Total initial investment ranges from $816,066 to $1,442,533 for a single location, with multi-unit development of three locations requiring $2,448,198 to $4,327,599. The ongoing royalty fee is 8 percent of gross sales, higher than the QSR industry average of 5 to 6 percent, reflecting the brand's substantial investment in recipe development, marketing infrastructure, and the weekly menu rotation logistics that differentiate the concept. The advertising and brand fund contribution is 2 percent of gross sales, with some cooperative arrangements potentially bringing total marketing contributions to approximately 3.5 percent. Financial requirements include minimum liquid capital of $150,000 to $200,000 and an estimated net worth of approximately $500,000, thresholds that are accessible relative to the total investment range and reflective of the brand's strategy to attract entrepreneurial operators who may be opening their first franchise. The franchise agreement runs for 10 years with renewal options, providing a reasonable operating horizon for franchisees to recoup their investment and build enterprise value. Crumbl does not offer direct franchisor financing, so franchisees typically pursue SBA loans, conventional bank financing, or private capital to fund their development. SBA lending data available on PeerSense shows how federal lending programs have evaluated Crumbl franchise applications, providing prospective investors with an independent data source on lender confidence in the brand.

The Crumbl operating model is designed around a single product category, which creates both the brand's primary competitive advantage and its operational efficiency. Daily operations center on the production of six rotating cookie flavors from scratch, using proprietary recipes and standardized preparation methods that ensure consistency across more than 1,100 locations. The open-kitchen format, where customers can watch cookies being mixed, formed, and baked in real time, serves as both a quality assurance mechanism and a brand experience differentiator. Staffing requirements are lean relative to full-service restaurant concepts, though the daily production of multiple cookie varieties from scratch requires more culinary skill than typical QSR operations. The training program totals approximately 50 to 60 hours across three phases: 30 to 40 hours of self-guided online coursework, 10 to 12 days of in-person training at Crumbl's facility in Orem, Utah, and 7 to 10 days of on-site training at the franchisee's location with a dedicated field trainer. Annual reviews and mandatory franchisee meetings ensure ongoing alignment with brand standards. While prior food service experience is not required, Crumbl prefers candidates with multi-unit management backgrounds who can effectively lead teams and manage the operational demands of a high-volume, production-focused bakery environment. The weekly menu rotation requires precise supply chain coordination, recipe execution, and staff training on new products every seven days, creating an operational cadence that is unique in the franchise industry.

Crumbl provides Item 19 financial performance disclosure in its Franchise Disclosure Document, and the numbers tell a story of both rapid growth and the maturation challenges that come with it. Based on 2024 fiscal year data covering 858 qualifying stores, average unit volume is approximately $1,303,000 to $1,360,000, representing a 17 percent increase from the approximately $1,160,000 average reported for fiscal 2023. This recovery is significant because it followed a dramatic 37 percent AUV decline from the peak of approximately $1,830,000 in fiscal 2022, a year in which the brand's explosive growth and viral social media momentum drove outsized per-unit revenue that was likely unsustainable as the system rapidly scaled. Third-party estimates suggest median net profit of approximately $223,236, representing a roughly 17 percent margin, with estimated EBITDA of approximately $270,000 and estimated owner earnings of $156,410 to $195,512 per year. The implied payback period of 6.9 to 8.9 years is longer than some competing QSR concepts, though it must be evaluated in the context of a brand that is less than a decade old and still refining its unit economics model. Average net profit approximately doubled from 2023 to 2024, suggesting that the operational improvements and market recalibration implemented during the growth slowdown period are bearing measurable financial fruit. The AUV trend from 2022 through 2024 illustrates a pattern common in hyper-growth franchise concepts: an initial surge driven by novelty and viral demand, followed by a correction as the market adjusts to the expanded unit count, and then a stabilization at sustainable performance levels.

Crumbl's growth trajectory has shifted from breakneck expansion to more disciplined, profitability-focused development. After averaging 276 new location openings per year from 2021 through 2023, with 264 net new units in 2022 and 281 in 2023, the brand opened only 81 to 87 new locations in 2024, a deliberate deceleration that reflected management's recognition that sustainable unit economics must take precedence over unit count growth. Closures increased from 7 in 2023 to 14 in 2024, though this remains a relatively modest closure rate for a franchise system of this size and age. The brand's competitive advantages remain formidable: the weekly rotating menu creates a content generation engine that drives 15 to 20 million weekly social media impressions, largely through organic user-generated content; the 9.7 million TikTok followers and 6.1 million Instagram followers represent one of the largest owned audiences of any restaurant brand in the world; the Crumbl mobile app ranks as the number six most downloaded food and drink application in the Apple App Store, ahead of brands like Domino's, Taco Bell, and Chipotle; and the iconic pink box has become a cultural artifact that functions as an offline marketing asset every time a customer carries one through an office, school, or social gathering. The May 2025 investment from TSG Consumer Partners, combined with $500 million in debt financing, provides the capital infrastructure for the next phase of growth, which includes continued domestic expansion, Canadian market development across 25 existing locations, and exploration of additional international markets including Australia.

The ideal Crumbl Cookies franchisee is an entrepreneurial operator with the financial resources to commit to single or multi-unit development and the management capability to lead a team through the unique operational demands of a weekly menu rotation. Prior food service experience is not required, though multi-unit management or business ownership experience is strongly preferred. The accessible financial requirements of $150,000 to $200,000 in liquid capital make Crumbl one of the more financially approachable franchise opportunities in the specialty food segment, though prospective investors should carefully evaluate the total investment range of $816,000 to $1.44 million against the current AUV of approximately $1.3 million and the brand's AUV volatility history when building their financial projections. Territory availability is a critical consideration for prospective Crumbl franchisees: with more than 1,100 domestic locations, many prime markets have reached or are approaching saturation, and new territory opportunities may be limited in some regions. The brand's growth in Canada, with 25 locations currently open, and its exploration of Australian and other international markets may represent the next frontier for franchisees seeking greenfield development opportunities. The 10-year franchise agreement term provides a reasonable operating window, and the brand's track record of rapid scale suggests that well-operated Crumbl locations in strong markets will carry meaningful resale value as the system continues to mature.

For franchise investors seeking a culturally relevant, social media-dominant dessert brand with proven consumer demand and rapidly improving unit economics, Crumbl Cookies represents one of the most distinctive franchise investment opportunities in the food service industry. The brand occupies a genuinely unique position in the franchise landscape, having created a category-defining concept that generates massive organic consumer engagement, billion-dollar-plus system-wide sales, and a brand recognition level that typically requires decades to build. PeerSense provides comprehensive franchise intelligence for Crumbl Cookies including complete SBA lending history showing how lenders evaluate the brand, FPI scoring with transparent methodology and tier classification, location mapping with Google ratings across more than 1,100 units, FDD-extracted financial performance data including Item 19 revenue trends, and the side-by-side comparison tool that enables investors to benchmark Crumbl against competing franchise concepts across more than 30 data points. Explore the full Crumbl Cookies franchise profile on PeerSense to access the independent, data-driven insights that support informed franchise investment decisions.