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
GREAT HARVEST BREAD CO.
Food & Dining · independent · est. —
Great Harvest Bread Co. is a bakery-café brand built around fresh-milled whole-wheat breads baked from scratch daily, plus sandwiches, sweets, and other baked goods. A franchisee runs a neighborhood bakery, milling flour, baking, and serving customers, with unusual freedom to customize the menu.
GREAT HARVEST BREAD CO. net unit count declined -7.7% from 2021–2023 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
6.8%
vs 8.6% across 137 food & dining systems
Cost to open
$168K–$984K
Item 7 total investment range
SBA loan defaults
13.3%
vs 14.8% avg across rated brands
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
2021–2023
Survival record
FDD Item 20 · outlet status by year
In fiscal 2023, 11 of 161 franchised outlets left the system — a 6.8% 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Outlets at start | 172 | 169 | 162 |
| Opened | 6 | 5 | 5 |
| Transfers | 12 | 11 | 12 |
| Terminations | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Non-renewals | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Reacquired by franchisor | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Ceased — other reasons | 8 | 12 | 11 |
| Outlets at end | 169 | 162 | 156 |
| Net change | -3 | -7 | -6 |
The lender's view
SBA 7(a)/504 loan performance · FY1991–present
Banks have made 200 SBA-backed loans to GREAT HARVEST BREAD CO. franchisees since 1991. Of the 158 that have resolved, 13.3% were charged off (defaulted) rather than paid in full, versus 14.8% across 576 rated brands.
13.3%
21 of 158 resolved defaulted
63.3%
avg. charged-off $ ÷ approved $
8.4%
default rate × loss severity
$403,757
what recent franchisees borrowed
53 mo
approval → charge-off, defaulted loans
19 vs 19
distinct banks still lending
Charge-off rate by loan approval year (%)
SOURCE: SBA 7(a)/504 FOIA LOAN DATA (DATA.SBA.GOV), FY1991–PRESENT · MATCHED TO GREAT HARVEST BREAD CO. BY FRANCHISE NAME · RESOLVED = CHARGED-OFF + PAID-IN-FULL
The owner's side of the deal
FDD × federal loan record
Who finances it
Zions Bank, A Division of
6.8% of this brand's loans
That lender charges off 15.2% of its loans to other franchise brands, vs 14.8% nationally.
Who buys it
77.5%
first-time franchise owners
The rest already owned at least one other franchise. Across the corpus, brands bought mostly by repeat operators charge off at roughly 10% versus 17% for brands sold mostly to newcomers.
Does experience help here?
+1.8pp
multi-unit vs single-unit owners
Owners of multiple units default at 17.6%; single-unit owners at 15.8%.
Computed from 200 SBA 7(a)/504 loans to GREAT HARVEST BREAD CO. 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 $35K franchise fee (Item 5) and a total investment of $168K–$984K (Item 7). The franchisor publishes an earnings claim (Item 19) — read its methodology closely.
To open (Item 7)
$168K–$984K
all-in investment range
Franchise fee (Item 5)
$35K
upfront, one-time
Royalty (Item 6)
5%
of sales, ongoing
Your figure — cross-check against this brand's Item 19 and current-owner validation.
Royalty you'd pay / yr
$50K
5% of sales, before profit
Over a 10-yr term
$500K
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 GREAT HARVEST BREAD CO. with an independent CPAModeled risk
FDD Risk Score · modeled from the public record
Modeled from the public record, this brand sits mid-pack: riskier than 55% of systems we score.
Risk percentile
55 / 100
Loan-corroborated
Modeled SBA charge-off
13.3%
Observed SBA charge-off
13.3%
Top drivers: Single-lender dependence (raises) · Share financed by high-loss lenders (lowers) · Investment ceiling (log) (lowers) · Net unit growth (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 GREAT HARVEST BREAD CO.. 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 GREAT HARVEST BREAD CO.'s numbers, including talking you out of a bad deal.
Talk to an independent CPA before you buy →GREAT HARVEST BREAD CO. franchise questions, answered from the filings
What percentage of GREAT HARVEST BREAD CO. franchises closed last year?
In GREAT HARVEST BREAD CO.'s latest FDD Item 20 (fiscal 2023), 11 of 161 franchised outlets left the system — an annualized exit rate of 6.8% — 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 GREAT HARVEST BREAD CO. franchise cost?
Per GREAT HARVEST BREAD CO.'s 2024 FDD, buying in requires an initial franchise fee of $35K (Item 5) and a total initial investment of $168K–$984K (Item 7).
What royalty does GREAT HARVEST BREAD CO. charge?
GREAT HARVEST BREAD CO. charges an ongoing royalty of 5.0% of gross sales, per Item 6 of its 2024 FDD.
Does GREAT HARVEST BREAD CO. disclose earnings (Item 19)?
Yes — GREAT HARVEST BREAD CO. makes a financial performance representation in Item 19 of its 2024 FDD. Read it closely: franchisors choose which units and which metrics to include.
How often do SBA loans for GREAT HARVEST BREAD CO. franchises default?
Across 200 SBA-backed loans to GREAT HARVEST BREAD CO. franchisees since 1991, 21 of the 158 that have resolved were charged off — a 13.3% 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.