Cold Stone Franchise Getting Creamed in the Press

June 19, 2008 by Sean Kelly
Filed under COLD STONE CREAM., xBuyer Beware

(Franchise Pick Franchise Blog) Things have gotten chilly for Cold Stone Creamery. It started with Richard Gibson’s The Inside Scoop article in the Wall Street Journal:

Earlier in this decade, Cold Stone Creamery was one of the hottest franchises around. The super-premium ice-cream stores attracted scores of franchisees hungry for a piece of the “Ultimate Ice Cream Experience.”

Now many franchisees are selling their stores, overwhelmed by soaring bills and shrinking profits. Some have lost their homes, broken their retirement nest eggs or filed for bankruptcy…

A number of franchisees… contend the company misled them, giving them promises of profit potential that proved unrealistic or inaccurate revenue numbers from existing stores. And some say that they got little help from the company as their stores went under…

Cold Stone says more than 100 of its stores closed last year. That’s up from 60 in 2006. One list on a Cold Stone Web site recently had 303 stores for sale — more than 20% of the company’s 1,384 as of last December

Blue Mau Mau reported that the WSJ article left the franchise company president cold. President Chris Prasifka fired off a quick, reassuring letter Cold Stone Creamery franchisees. It didn’t seem to have worked.

Meanwhile, on the WSJ site and on franchise expose site Unhappy Franchisee, struggling and failed Cold Stone Creamery franchise owners took the opportunity to both vent and share their perspectives on the failings of the Cold Stone Creamery franchise, the franchise organization, and effects both have had on their lives.

ARE YOU FAMILIAR WITH KAHALA & THE COLD STONE CREAMERY FRANCHISE? WHAT DO YOU THINK? SHARE A COMMENT BELOW.

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