Quick answer Yes. Ben & Jerry's has franchised scoop shops since 1981, and Item 20 of the Scoop Shop Program disclosure document issued May 29, 2026 counts 155 franchised Scoop Shops, 16 Satellite Shops, and 17 Special Venue shops against 2 company-owned shops at December 31, 2025. The main program sets a $39,500 initial franchise fee, a current 3% royalty, and $188,300 to $631,300 of initial investment depending on format.
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Key Takeaways
- ✓The main offering is the Scoop Shop Program, disclosed May 29, 2026. Item 20 counts 155 franchised Scoop Shops, 16 franchised Satellite Shops, and 17 franchised Special Venue shops at December 31, 2025, against 2 company shops in Vermont.
- ✓Scoop Shop terms: a $39,500 initial fee, halved to $19,750 for an existing franchisee's additional shop or a prorated shorter term, an $8,000 satellite fee, a 10-year term with one 10-year renewal, and a royalty capped at 5% and currently set at 3%.
- ✓Item 7 prices three formats: $280,300 to $631,300 for a full-sized shop, $228,300 to $435,300 in-line, and $188,300 to $402,300 for a kiosk. No franchisor financing, and no real estate purchase included.
- ✓Item 19 covers 126 scoop shops open all twelve months of 2025. Median gross sales of $583,767, an average of $664,862, a low of $154,592, and a high of $2,411,194, with no costs deducted.
- ✓A separate chart covers 17 seasonal shops, median $261,664, and the 16 Satellite Shops are listed apart at a $304,678 median with a $12,688 to $954,451 range.
- ✓The Special Venue program is a second, older document issued April 25, 2025: an $18,000 fee, 11 reporting shops at a $463,407 median, and a count that fell from 38 franchised units in 2022 to 17.
The franchisor’s parent is suing the company that owns it
Item 3 of the Ben & Jerry’s Scoop Shop Program disclosure document, issued May 29, 2026, lists a pending case in which the plaintiff is the franchisor’s own parent. On November 13, 2024, the Class I Directors of the Ben & Jerry’s board sued Conopco, Inc. and Unilever PLC in the Southern District of New York, case number 1:24-cv-08641-PKC, alleging breaches of the 2000 acquisition agreement and a later settlement. Four amended complaints have followed. The April 10, 2026 version added The Magnum Ice Cream Company and Ben & Jerry’s Holdco, LLC as defendants, the court denied the plaintiffs’ request for injunctive relief on April 14, 2026, and on May 18, 2026 the defendants moved to dismiss all but two narrow claims.
Most Item 3 sections list slip-and-falls and franchisee disputes. This one is a fight over who controls the brand.
The status question still has a short answer. Yes, this is a franchise. Franchising began in August 1981, and Item 20 counts 155 franchised Scoop Shops, 16 franchised Satellite Shops, and 17 franchised Special Venue Scoop Shops at December 31, 2025, against 2 company-owned locations in Vermont, across 31 states plus Canada, the Bahamas, Puerto Rico, and DC.
Two programs, two documents, two sets of numbers
Ben & Jerry’s Franchising, Inc. is a Vermont corporation incorporated December 3, 1997 and a subsidiary of Ben & Jerry’s Homemade, Inc. It became the franchisor on December 29, 2000, when a restructuring moved the system over from the parent. It sells under two separate disclosure documents, and mixing their figures produces nonsense.
- Scoop Shop Program, issued May 29, 2026. The main offering: street-level shops in full-sized, in-line, and kiosk formats, plus Satellite Shops sold only to existing franchisees. The next three sections come from it.
- Special Venue Scoop Shop Program, issued April 25, 2025. An older, separate filing for contract feeders running counters inside airports, stadiums, hospitals, and similar captive-audience buildings. Its own section is below.
With a retail site and no institutional food service contract, you would be sold the main program.
What a Ben & Jerry’s scoop shop costs
Item 5 sets the initial franchise fee at $39,500, halved to $19,750 for an existing franchisee’s additional location or any term shorter than ten years, since the fee is prorated across the years in the term. A Satellite Shop carries an $8,000 fee and a Test Shop $2,500. Fees actually collected during the year ended December 31, 2025 ranged from $0 to $39,500, because the Manager-to-Franchisee Pathways Program waives the fee for a store manager buying full ownership and adds up to two years of royalty relief.
Item 7 prices three formats.
| Format | Approximate size | Total initial investment |
|---|---|---|
| Full-sized shop | 750 to 1,200 sq ft | $280,300 to $631,300 |
| In-line shop | 450 to 650 sq ft | $228,300 to $435,300 |
| Kiosk | 100 to 200 sq ft | $188,300 to $402,300 |
No total includes buying real estate, and the franchisor finances none of it. Construction runs an estimated $135 to $185 per square foot, more in large metros, tourist areas, and union markets. All three formats carry the same $50,000 to $75,000 of additional funds for a three-month start-up phase.
The recurring load has headroom written into it. Item 6 caps the royalty at 5% of gross sales and states the current rate is 3%, changeable “upon reasonable notice to you.” Advertising obligations are capped at 4% and run at the full 4% today, 2% spent locally and 2% contributed to the national fund. You commit 7% now, and the agreement permits 9% without a renegotiation. Underwrite the 9%.
Add the smaller items: $100 a month for the point-of-sale system, $7,000 to transfer, $12,000 to renew, and a $5,000 to $15,000 refurbishment the franchisor may impose once every five years.
Item 17 sets the Scoop Shop term at 10 years with one 10-year renewal, while a Satellite Shop runs 5 plus 5. Item 15 requires full time and best efforts, at least 40 hours a week from you or, for an entity, from someone holding 20% or more of it. This is not a passive investment.
Pull the Ben & Jerry’s Franchising data sheet
What 126 scoop shops reported in 2025
Item 19’s first chart covers shops open all twelve months of 2025 that reported sales every month. There were 126. Median gross sales were $583,767 and the average was $664,862, on a low of $154,592 and a high of $2,411,194.
| 2025 gross sales band | Shops | Share |
|---|---|---|
| $600,000 or more | 61 | 48% |
| $500,000 to $599,999 | 18 | 14% |
| $400,000 to $499,999 | 20 | 16% |
| $300,000 to $399,999 | 12 | 10% |
| $200,000 to $299,999 | 12 | 10% |
| Under $200,000 | 3 | 2% |
The franchisor assigns every location one of three customer profiles, and that split carries more signal than the median. Of the 126, 89 are Community locations, 36 Tourist, and 1 Quick Fix. Among tourist shops 69% cleared $600,000; among community shops 40% did. Ask which profile the franchisor would score your site as before you treat $583,767 as your number.
A second chart handles seasonal locations. Seventeen reported for the months they were open, at a $261,664 median, a $300,031 average, a $107,851 low, and an $812,654 high.
Left out of both charts: 9 shops open less than the full year, 8 closed a month or more for weather, the 16 Satellite Shops (broken out at a $304,678 median on a $12,688 to $954,451 range), 1 test shop, 18 special venue locations, and the 2 company stores. All of it is unverified gross sales, with no product cost, rent, or payroll deducted.
The system is growing again, slowly
Item 20 is the part most coverage of the brand’s turmoil misses.
| Year | Franchised at start | At end | Opened | Ceased, other reasons |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 155 | 149 | 2 | 8 |
| 2024 | 149 | 152 | 10 | 7 |
| 2025 | 152 | 155 | 7 | 4 |
Openings more than tripled while closures halved, so the system spent two years climbing back to where it started 2023. Satellite Shops moved 14 to 15 to 16, the two Vermont company stores never changed, and Table 5 lists 8 signed agreements not yet open plus 3 projected openings next year.
Across all three years the terminations, non-renewals, and franchisor reacquisition columns are all zero. Every departure sits under “ceased operations, other reasons,” the vaguest column on the form, covering lease expirations, failed sales, and quiet walkaways alike. Exhibit M lists the operators who left, and the document warns that some franchisees signed provisions restricting what they can say.
The Special Venue program is a different business
The second document, issued April 25, 2025, sells Special Venue Scoop Shops to contract feeders who already run food inside a captive-audience facility. Its economics are smaller and its trend runs the other way: an $18,000 initial fee, an Item 7 range of $154,200 to $526,300, and an Item 19 covering 11 shops for the 52 weeks ending December 31, 2024 at a $463,407 median against a $635,597 average. Franchised units there fell from 38 at the start of 2022 to 17 by the end of 2024, and the 2026 filing still counts 17 a year later.
It matters to a main-program buyer for one reason. Item 12 grants a Scoop Shop a defined Territory and promises the franchisor will not open or license another shop inside it, then carves out institutional facilities by name. A Ben & Jerry’s counter can open in the airport or hospital inside your territory under the other document, and nothing in yours stops it.
What the ownership fight changes for a buyer
Item 1 has been rewritten since the prior filing. Unilever announced the ice cream separation on March 19, 2024, the demerger took effect December 6, 2025, and on December 8, 2025 The Magnum Ice Cream Company N.V. became a separately listed public company on Euronext Amsterdam, the London Stock Exchange, and the NYSE under MICC, with Unilever keeping about 19.9% for sale within five years. By January 1, 2026, Magnum had removed Ben & Jerry’s independent directors, which Ben & Jerry’s alleges breached the 2000 merger agreement. Blackstone and Clayton Dubilier & Rice have been reported in early-stage talks for The Magnum Ice Cream Company.
Two consequences reach a franchisee, and neither is the politics. Recourse comes first: Item 1 states you must look only to Ben & Jerry’s Franchising, Inc., and not to Homemade, the Magnum companies, or any other affiliate, to fulfill the franchisor obligations in your agreement. That entity is a small Vermont subsidiary, which makes its Item 21 statements more informative than any headline about global sales. Supply is second: product reaches shops through the parent group and independent distributors rather than the franchisor, and a separation is exactly when distribution contracts get rewritten.
A private equity buyer would make three owners in roughly two years, and our guide to what happens when private equity buys your franchisor covers what usually follows: new fees and remodel mandates inside the first two years.
What to ask for before you sign
Request both disclosure documents even though only one matches your site, and ask which customer profile the franchisor would assign your location, because the tourist and community distributions inside Item 19 are not the same business. Häagen-Dazs runs a comparable shop program under a similarly layered ownership chain, and the wider ice cream and frozen yogurt category holds larger Item 19 samples to measure against.
Then read the items that decide the deal: 5 for the fee and its prorations, 7 for your format including the footnotes, 12 for the institutional carve-out inside your territory, 19 for what the franchisor will stand behind, 20 for who left, and 21 for the finances of the small subsidiary that signs your contract, not the parent whose name is on the pint.
We read those items out of the filed document, not a recruitment page. The Ben & Jerry’s Franchising dossier lays out the disclosed fees, investment ranges, and unit counts in one place so you can price the deal before a development rep prices it for you.
FAQ
Can you buy a Ben & Jerry's franchise?
Yes. The main offering is the Scoop Shop Program, disclosed in a document issued May 29, 2026, and it covers the street-level stores most people picture in full-sized, in-line, and kiosk formats, plus Satellite Shops sold only to existing franchisees. A second, separate document covers Special Venue Scoop Shops, which are sold only to operators who already run food service inside an institutional facility such as an airport, stadium, casino, hospital, university, or museum. A general buyer with a retail site is sold the main program.
How much does a Ben & Jerry's franchise cost?
Item 7 of the 2026 Scoop Shop Program document estimates $188,300 to $631,300 depending on format. A kiosk of 100 to 200 square feet runs $188,300 to $402,300, an in-line shop of 450 to 650 square feet runs $228,300 to $435,300, and a full-sized shop of 750 to 1,200 square feet runs $280,300 to $631,300. The initial franchise fee is $39,500, or $19,750 for an existing franchisee adding a shop, and none of the totals include buying real estate.
How much do Ben & Jerry's scoop shops make?
Item 19 reports 126 scoop shops that were open all twelve months of 2025 and reported sales every month. Median gross sales were $583,767 and the average was $664,862, with a low of $154,592 and a high of $2,411,194. Nearly half of those shops cleared $600,000. A separate chart covers 17 seasonal shops at a $261,664 median, and the 16 Satellite Shops are broken out at a $304,678 median. All of it is gross sales reported by franchisees and not independently verified, with no cost of goods, rent, or payroll deducted.
Who owns Ben & Jerry's now?
The brand sits under The Magnum Ice Cream Company N.V., a Dutch public company listed on Euronext Amsterdam, the London Stock Exchange, and the NYSE under MICC. Unilever's demerger took effect December 6, 2025 and the shares began trading separately on December 8, 2025, with Unilever retaining about 19.9% to be sold within five years. Ben & Jerry's Franchising, Inc. is an indirect subsidiary, sitting under Ben & Jerry's Holdco, LLC and Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc. Blackstone and Clayton Dubilier & Rice have been reported in early-stage talks for The Magnum Ice Cream Company, which would put a third owner over the brand inside about two years.
Does the ownership dispute affect franchisees?
It affects who you can hold responsible, which is a question the disclosure document answers directly. Item 1 states that you must look only to Ben & Jerry's Franchising, Inc., and not to Homemade, the Magnum companies, or any other affiliate, to fulfill the franchisor obligations under your agreement. The signing entity is a small Vermont subsidiary, so Item 21 financial statements matter more here than the global brand does. Supply is the second exposure, because product reaches you through the parent group and its distributors rather than the franchisor.