What Is a Cold Stone Creamery® Franchise?
One of the nation’s premier ice cream franchises is a beloved brand with an even brighter future
The Cold Stone Creamery franchise has captivated the sweet tooth of customers around the world, and it continues to be a bright brand in the $11.3 billion ice cream industry. Doing business for over three decades, Cold Stone has become a national institution, beloved for offering the Ultimate Ice Cream Experience®. Our brand’s super-premium ice cream is made fresh in locations across the United States, and in hundreds of other locations around the world. As one of the pioneers of customization, Cold Stone Creamery allows customers to dream up their own ice cream treats, or choose from our wildly popular Cold Stone Signature Creations™. Better still, our customer service is not only exciting, with songs, cheers and dances, but it creates memories that will last a lifetime.
“Cold Stone Creamery is unique in the ice cream franchise space, because we make our ice cream in-house,” says Cold Stone Creamery Tastemaster™. “When our customers come to us, they’re getting ice cream that has been made for them in that very store. Our product is exceptional, and that is evident in the fact that millions of people around the world love the experience they get at their local Cold Stone Creamery — and that number grows every day. The best part about Cold Stone Creamery is that we get to make people happy. If someone comes in having a bad day, they’re going to leave us with a smile. If someone comes to us on a good day, they’re going to go on and have a better day. That is what Cold Stone Creamery is all about.”
Ice cream is America’s favorite dessert. Ice cream has been an American favorite since George Washington was president. Not only do we spend $11.3 billion a year on ice cream, but the “Real Dish on Ice Cream Survey” also revealed that 87 percent of Americans keep ice cream in their freezer on a regular basis, and the average American enjoys 48 pints of ice cream per year**.
“Our love affair with ice cream appears everywhere in popular culture: in the movies, on television, in songs, in literature — Americans turn to ice cream in good times and bad, to celebrate and to share in order to make life that much sweeter,” says Cold Stone Creamery Tastemaster. “Ice cream is also unique because our love of it, our craving for it, stays with us throughout our entire lives. Cold Stone Creamery is very privileged in that our customers are grandparents with their grandchildren, teenagers on first dates, young families, old families, groups of friends celebrating birthday parties and victorious sporting events. Ice cream brings us together, and because it’s one of the only foods we eat in its frozen state, there’s literally nothing like it!”
Cold Stone is an iconic business model that is easy to run and easy to scale
Fad concepts offering the hot new desserts come and go, but ice cream will always be a part of American life. Not only is Cold Stone Creamery one of the nation’s premier ice cream franchises and a beloved institution around the world, but we are also proud to say that our business model has helped hundreds of entrepreneurs realize their dreams of small business ownership and take control of their own futures for nearly three decades.
Why does Cold Stone Creamery have staying power? For starters, Cold Stone Creamery has been designed to be easy to run and easy to scale. Our franchisees come to us with a passion for ice cream, an enthusiasm for our product and the desire to be a positive, meaningful force in their communities — and we teach them the rest. We provide a total of 120 hours of initial training, and our ongoing training continues throughout a franchisee’s tenure with us. Cold Stone Creamery helps with everything from marketing to PR, to the development of business plans, to new and fresh products, to ongoing coaching and franchisee support.
“The beauty of Cold Stone Creamery is that anyone with business savvy and passion for our brand and the ability to follow our systems can build a bright future,” says John Wuycheck, SVP of Franchise Development with Cold Stone Creamery. “We don’t require any experience in the restaurant industry or the service industry, because our training and support is so involved that we can teach any entrepreneur how to be a Cold Stone Creamery franchisee. Our brand has franchisees who have been with us since the beginning, many of whom have scaled up to multiple locations. New franchisees are welcomed into the Cold Stone Creamery family with open arms, and the culture is inclusive, accessible and encouraging. Cold Stone Creamery is more relevant than ever, and our goal is to open hundreds of locations in North America and internationally in the coming years.”
Ready to bring Cold Stone Creamery franchise to your community?
The total investment estimate for a Cold Stone Creamery ice cream franchise ranges from $57,200 to $627,775. Cold Stone Creamery is an affordable franchise concept, and more importantly, it has a proven business model that has helped hundreds of entrepreneurs realize their potential of small business ownership while bringing the joy of artisanal, premium ice cream to their communities.
