Cold Stone Creamery franchise in Alaska: what the public record shows

Source: SBA 7(a)/504 FOIA files (data.sba.gov), borrower state = AK. Loss ratio = charge-offs among loans approved through FY2020 ÷ the charge-offs expected if each had defaulted at the national rate for franchise loans approved the same year; 1.0× is the same. Only charged-off and paid-in-full loans count. A ratio is shown at 30+ such loans; “not clear” marks a ratio chance alone could produce. The all-years count mixes every era and is evidence, not a rate to compare. Borrowers are matched to the brand by name and SBA franchise code; some matches may be wrong or missing.

Every business in Cold Stone Creamery's industry operating in Alaska — franchised and independent — from the Census Bureau's County Business Patterns (2023), against 2024 population estimates. Counter-intuitively, density is not a warning: across the brand-state cells in the loan data, denser markets have historically charged off less often than the thinnest (see the research page). A crowded market is usually proven demand; an empty one is often empty for a reason.

What Cold Stone Creamery's industry actually pays workers in Alaska, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (2025), employment-weighted across counties. This cost signal is independent of the FDD: a market can look demand-rich above and still carry a margin headwind here if local wages run hot for the sector.

Other systems in Cold Stone Creamery's sector whose franchisees borrowed in Alaska. A loss ratio appears only where at least 30 loans approved through FY2020 have resolved; “—” means too few.