Verified — real FDD extraction
SBA-eligible · directory code S0681 since 2017
Frullati Cafe & Bakery
Food & Dining · independent · est. —
Frullati Cafe & Bakery is a quick-service concept serving smoothies, sandwiches, salads, and baked goods. A franchisee operates a counter-service cafe, often in a mall or other high-traffic venue, serving shoppers and lunch customers.
Frullati Cafe & Bakery net unit count grew 0.0% from 2016–2018 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
Too new to judge
Distress
14 franchised units over 3 disclosed years is not a track record — systems this early have realized only a fraction of their eventual failures. Judge the disclosures, not a verdict.
Exit rate · latest year
7.1%
vs 8.2% across 146 food & dining systems
Cost to open
$134K–$516K
Item 7 total investment range
SBA loan defaults
25.7%
vs 14.8% avg across rated brands
Market density · Texas
Typical density
-7% thinner than the national average
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
2016–2018
Survival record
FDD Item 20 · outlet status by year
In fiscal 2018, 1 of 14 franchised outlets left the system — a 7.1% annualized exit rate, vs 8.2% across 146 food & dining systems. Not every exit is a failure — but this is the measurable floor.
Show the outlet tables ↓Hide the evidence ↑
| Status (FTC) | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Outlets at start | 16 | 14 | 14 |
| Opened | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Transfers | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Terminations | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Non-renewals | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Reacquired by franchisor | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Ceased — other reasons | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Outlets at end | 14 | 14 | 14 |
| Net change | -2 | 0 | 0 |
The lender's view
SBA 7(a)/504 loan performance · FY1991–present
Banks have made 42 SBA-backed loans to Frullati Cafe & Bakery franchisees since 1995. Of the 35 that have resolved, 25.7% were charged off (defaulted) rather than paid in full, versus 14.8% across 570 rated brands.
25.7%
9 of 35 resolved defaulted
73.2%
avg. charged-off $ ÷ approved $
18.8%
default rate × loss severity
$143,867
what recent franchisees borrowed
70 mo
approval → charge-off, defaulted loans
—
distinct banks lending
Charge-off rate by loan approval year (%)
Loan performance by state
SOURCE: SBA 7(a)/504 FOIA LOAN DATA (DATA.SBA.GOV), FY1991–PRESENT · MATCHED TO FRULLATI CAFE & BAKERY BY FRANCHISE NAME · RESOLVED = CHARGED-OFF + PAID-IN-FULL
The owner's side of the deal
FDD × federal loan record
Who finances it
Jpmorgan Chase Bank, National Association
14.6% of this brand's loans
That lender charges off 12.2% of its loans to other franchise brands, vs 14.8% nationally.
Who buys it
Too few identified operators
Does experience help here?
Not enough resolved loans to split
Computed from 42 SBA 7(a)/504 loans to Frullati Cafe & Bakery franchisees joined to the brand's own FDD. Debt service assumes level amortization at the average disclosed term and rate. A lender's rate excludes its loans to this brand, so it reads the lender, not the brand.
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 $134K–$516K (Item 7). The franchisor publishes no earnings claim (Item 19) — ask current and former franchisees for real numbers.
To open (Item 7)
$134K–$516K
all-in investment range
Franchise fee (Item 5)
$30K
upfront, one-time
Royalty (Item 6)
6%
of sales, ongoing
Your figure — this brand discloses no Item 19 earnings; validate with current & former owners.
Royalty you'd pay / yr
$60K
6% of sales, before profit
Over a 10-yr term
$600K
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 Frullati Cafe & Bakery 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, including 1 child-labor case. These cases name franchisee-owned locations, not the franchisor itself.
Concluded cases
1
Back wages owed
$0
Employees affected
0
Since 2020
0
1 of these cases involved child-labor violations, covering 4 minors across the system's franchised locations.
Read this carefully. The employers in these cases are individual Frullati Cafe & Bakery franchisees — separately owned businesses operating under the brand name — not Frullati Cafe & Bakery 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 2008.
Modeled risk
FDD Risk Score · modeled from the public record
Modeled from the public record, this brand looks riskier than 82% of systems we score.
Risk percentile
82 / 100
Loan-corroborated
Modeled SBA charge-off
17.8%
Observed SBA charge-off
25.7%
Top drivers: System size (log units) (raises) · Item 3 litigation (log) (lowers) · Share financed by high-loss lenders (raises) · Single-lender dependence (raises). 15+ resolved loans stand behind this estimate. 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 Frullati Cafe & Bakery. That's a good sign — but it reflects news coverage, not a guarantee.
9 questions to ask a Frullati Cafe & Bakery franchisee
Built from this brand's own disclosures · take it to your validation calls
The franchisor will give you a list of owners to call. Most buyers ask whether they like it. These are the questions built from what Frullati Cafe & Bakery has actually disclosed — each one carries the number it came from, so you can tell whether the answer squares with the record.
- 01
Frullati Cafe & Bakery’s own Item 20 shows 1 of 14 franchised outlets left the system in fiscal 2018 — about 7.1%. Do you know any of those owners, and do you know why they left?
A franchisor will call these “transitions.” An owner three doors down usually knows whether they sold at a profit or handed the keys back.
FDD Item 20 · FY2018
- 02
Of 35 SBA loans to Frullati Cafe & Bakery franchisees that have finished, 25.7% were charged off — the borrower didn't repay. Did you finance with an SBA loan, and how close did your first two years come to trouble?
This is the lender's view of failure, from public federal records, and it is independent of anything the franchisor discloses.
SBA 7(a)/504 loan record, FY1991–present
- 03
You pay 6.0% royalty on gross sales, plus the ad fund, before any of your own costs. On your actual revenue last year, what did you take home as the owner — not revenue, take-home?
Royalty is charged on sales, not profit. This is the number the brochure never shows and the one your life actually runs on.
FDD Item 6
- 04
Frullati Cafe & Bakery’s FDD makes no financial performance representation at all — legally, they've told buyers nothing about earnings. What did your first 24 months actually look like, month by month?
When a franchisor won't publish numbers, existing owners are the only source. Silence in Item 19 is a choice, not a requirement.
FDD Item 19 · 2019
- 05
How many months did it take to cover your own costs, and how much cash did you burn getting there?
Ramp-to-breakeven working capital is the most underestimated line in any franchise purchase, and the most common reason otherwise-good units fail.
Not disclosed in any FDD — ask an owner
- 06
Item 3 discloses 52 legal matters. Do you know what those were about, and were any brought by franchisees?
Franchisee-brought suits over territory, fees or support tell you how the franchisor behaves when there's a disagreement.
FDD Item 3 · 2019
- 07
What does the franchisor charge for that you didn't expect — required tech fees, mandatory remodels, approved-supplier pricing?
Required spending appears across Items 6, 8 and 11 rather than in one place, so buyers routinely miss the total.
FDD Items 6, 8, 11
- 08
If your agreement came up for renewal tomorrow at current terms, would you sign again?
The single most predictive question you can ask. A hesitation is the answer.
Ask every owner you speak to
- 09
Who else should I call — including someone who left?
The franchisor's list is curated by definition. Former franchisees are where the unflattering truth lives, and current owners usually know how to reach them.
Ask every owner you speak to
Want this as a checklist you can take to the calls?
I'll email you the printable version, and tell you if Frullati Cafe & Bakery’s numbers move — a new filing, a rising exit rate, a distress signal. Unsubscribe in one click.
A broker is paid by the franchisor to place you. I'm paid by you — and the job is pressure-testing Frullati Cafe & Bakery's numbers, including talking you out of a bad deal.
This page is what buyers see before they call you for validation. If the record above is wrong — or right in a way the numbers can't show — say so. Corrections are checked against the filings; nothing you write is published with your name unless you agree to it.
Frullati Cafe & Bakery franchise questions, answered from the filings
What percentage of Frullati Cafe & Bakery franchises closed last year?
In Frullati Cafe & Bakery's latest FDD Item 20 (fiscal 2018), 1 of 14 franchised outlets left the system — an annualized exit rate of 7.1% — compared with 8.2% across 146 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 Frullati Cafe & Bakery franchise cost?
Per Frullati Cafe & Bakery's 2019 FDD, buying in requires an initial franchise fee of $30K (Item 5) and a total initial investment of $134K–$516K (Item 7).
What royalty does Frullati Cafe & Bakery charge?
Frullati Cafe & Bakery charges an ongoing royalty of 6.0% of gross sales, per Item 6 of its 2019 FDD.
Does Frullati Cafe & Bakery disclose earnings (Item 19)?
No — Frullati Cafe & Bakery's 2019 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.
How often do SBA loans for Frullati Cafe & Bakery franchises default?
Across 42 SBA-backed loans to Frullati Cafe & Bakery franchisees since 1995, 9 of the 35 that have resolved were charged off — a 25.7% default rate, versus about 14.8% across all rated franchise brands. This is the lender's-eye view of franchisee failure, drawn from public SBA 7(a)/504 FOIA data and independent of the franchisor's own disclosures.