Verified — real FDD extraction
Not found in the SBA Franchise Directory under this name — though SBA loans to its franchisees exist; verify eligibility with your lender
DING TEA
Food & Dining · independent · est. —
Ding Tea is a bubble tea (boba) chain serving milk teas, fruit teas, and other specialty drinks with tapioca pearls and toppings. A franchisee runs a tea shop, training staff to make drinks to order and managing the counter and inventory.
DING TEA net unit count declined -12.9% from 2021–2025 per its FDD Item 20.
New to franchising? Start here
A franchise is a business where you (the franchisee) pay a company (the franchisor) for the right to open and run a location using their brand and system — think a local Anytime Fitness or Taco John's owned by a small-business owner, not the corporation.
Before you can buy in, U.S. law requires the franchisor to give you a Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) — a long legal filing covering its fees, finances, and history. The numbers on this page come straight from that document:
- Franchise fee — the one-time cost to buy in.
- Royalty — the ongoing cut of your sales you pay the franchisor.
- Item 20 — how many locations opened and closed, the basis for our verdict (from Proven & strong down to Distressed — or Too new to judge).
The verdict
Showing strain
Distress
The disclosed record shows weakness — shrinking units, elevated exits, or churn — worth reading closely before going further.
Exit rate · latest year
20.0%
vs 8.6% across 137 food & dining systems
Cost to open
$195K–$324K
Item 7 total investment range
SBA loan defaults
Too few resolved
2 loans exist; too few resolved to rate
Behind the verdict
the record, factor by factor · Item 20
3-yr trend · Item 20 Table 1
terminations + ceased-ops vs. all exits · Table 3
transfers vs. base · Table 3
actual vs. projected openings · Table 5
Item 19 disclosure + completeness
Systemwide units
2021–2025
Survival record
FDD Item 20 · outlet status by year
In fiscal 2025, 24 of 120 franchised outlets left the system — a 20.0% annualized exit rate, vs 8.6% across 137 food & dining systems. Not every exit is a failure — but this is the measurable floor.
Show the outlet tables ↓Hide the evidence ↑
| Status (FTC) | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Outlets at start | 96 | 116 | 122 | 137 | 120 |
| Opened | 22 | 34 | 31 | 4 | 5 |
| Transfers | 1 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 0 |
| Terminations | 1 | 27 | 9 | 6 | 5 |
| Non-renewals | 1 | 1 | 7 | 15 | 19 |
| Reacquired by franchisor | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Ceased — other reasons | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Outlets at end | 116 | 122 | 137 | 120 | 101 |
| Net change | +20 | +6 | +15 | -17 | -19 |
The lender's view
SBA 7(a)/504 loan performance · FY1991–present
Banks have made 2 SBA-backed loans to DING TEA franchisees since 2022. Most are still open, so there is not yet a resolved cohort large enough to rate.
—
1 resolved · too thin to rate
—
avg. charged-off $ ÷ approved $
—
default rate × loss severity
$249,500
what recent franchisees borrowed
—
approval → charge-off, defaulted loans
—
distinct banks lending
Charge-off rate by loan approval year (%)
SOURCE: SBA 7(a)/504 FOIA LOAN DATA (DATA.SBA.GOV), FY1991–PRESENT · MATCHED TO DING TEA BY FRANCHISE NAME · RESOLVED = CHARGED-OFF + PAID-IN-FULL
What it costs — and what it drags
FDD Items 5–7 · fees, investment, royalty
Buying in means a $30K franchise fee (Item 5) and a total investment of $195K–$324K (Item 7). The franchisor publishes no earnings claim (Item 19) — ask current and former franchisees for real numbers.
To open (Item 7)
$195K–$324K
all-in investment range
Franchise fee (Item 5)
$30K
upfront, one-time
Royalty (Item 6)
—
of sales, ongoing
Your figure — this brand discloses no Item 19 earnings; validate with current & former owners.
Royalty you'd pay / yr
$0
0% of sales, before profit
Over a 10-yr term
$0
royalties alone, excl. ad fund
This is not profit. It's the only money the FDD actually pins down — what you put in, and the royalty you owe on every dollar of sales. Your real take-home depends on labor, rent, food cost, and ramp-to-breakeven, none of which any FDD discloses.
Build a real pro-forma for DING TEA with an independent CPALabor record
US Dept. of Labor enforcement · franchisee-level · FY2005–present
Federal investigators have concluded 1 wage case against operators of this system, recovering $0 in back wages for 0 workers. Some of these cases are recent, not ancient history. These cases name franchisee-owned locations, not the franchisor itself.
Concluded cases
1
Back wages owed
$0
Employees affected
0
Since 2020
1
Read this carefully. The employers in these cases are individual DING TEA franchisees — separately owned businesses operating under the brand name — not DING TEA itself. The franchisor is not the respondent and in most cases is not a party. What the record shows is how this system's operators run their payrolls, which is worth knowing before you become one of them. Counts rise with system size and with age: a 20-year-old, 10,000-unit system will out-count a young one regardless of conduct. Source: DOL Wage and Hour Division concluded compliance actions, FY2005–present, most recent finding 2022.
Modeled risk
FDD Risk Score · modeled from the public record
The public record puts this brand toward the riskier end of the systems we score — but the evidence is thin, so treat it as a range, not a number.
Risk percentile (range)
61–85 / 100
Directional
Modeled SBA charge-off
16.1%
Observed SBA charge-off
no resolved cohort
Top drivers: Item 20 exit rate (raises) · Net unit growth (raises) · System size (log units) (raises) · Item 3 litigation (log) (lowers). Thin loan history — treat this as a range, not a number. A linear scorecard built from this brand's own disclosure figures plus the federal loan record behind its franchisees; full spec and cross-validated accuracy on the methodology page. A score is context, not a verdict.
Distress signals
news-sourced · bankruptcies, closures, lawsuits
No recent closures, bankruptcies, or major lawsuits found in the news for DING TEA. That's a good sign — but it reflects news coverage, not a guarantee.
A broker is paid by the franchisor to place you. An independent CPA is paid by you — and the job is pressure-testing DING TEA's numbers, including talking you out of a bad deal.
Talk to an independent CPA before you buy →DING TEA franchise questions, answered from the filings
What percentage of DING TEA franchises closed last year?
In DING TEA's latest FDD Item 20 (fiscal 2025), 24 of 120 franchised outlets left the system — an annualized exit rate of 20.0% — compared with 8.6% across 137 food & dining systems tracked here. That counts terminations, non-renewals, and "ceased operations — other reasons." There is no official failure rate, and not every exit is a failure, but this is the measurable floor.
How much does a DING TEA franchise cost?
Per DING TEA's 2025 FDD, buying in requires an initial franchise fee of $30K (Item 5) and a total initial investment of $195K–$324K (Item 7).
Does DING TEA disclose earnings (Item 19)?
No — DING TEA's 2025 FDD makes no financial performance representation in Item 19. That is legal and common, but it means the franchisor publishes no earnings claim; ask current franchisees for real numbers.