From the filed FDD — automated extraction, check the source
2025 FDD
MARBLE SLAB CREAMERY
Ice cream & frozen custard · parent company: not identified
Marble Slab Creamery is an ice cream shop where staff mix in candies, fruit, and other toppings into ice cream on a frozen stone slab. It also sells cones, shakes, and custom ice cream cakes. A franchisee operates a dessert storefront making and serving made-to-order ice cream.
MARBLE SLAB CREAMERY net unit count declined 0.4% over 2022–2024 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. Most numbers on this page come from that document; others come from federal SBA loan records and labor and census data, each labelled with its source:
- 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, transferred and left the system, the main basis for our verdict, which rates how strong the disclosed record is, or says when the system is too new, the filing too old, or the disclosure too thin to judge.
Our rating · opinion
Proven & steady
A real track record with nothing that stands out either way. Units held flat (2022–2024: 250 → 249); the fiscal 2024 exit rate was 4.8%, in line with the 4.6% median across 133 comparable systems (food & dining). SBA loans to its franchisees approved FY1991–2020 charged off more often than franchise loans of the same years (63 vs about 46 expected, 1.4×).
Exit rate · fiscal 2024
4.8%
vs 4.6% median across 133 comparable systems (food & dining)
Cost to open
$355K–$477K
Item 7 total investment range
SBA loan losses · vs same-year loans
1.4×
63 of 216 charged off vs ~46 expected
Market density · Texas
Typical density
7% thinner than the national average
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Data as of 2026-10-29. Figures come from MARBLE SLAB CREAMERY's public FDD filings (latest: MN 2025, extracted 2026-06-19) and SBA FOIA loan records (through FY2026), extracted by us and possibly containing errors. The rating is our opinion, not investment, legal, or tax advice. Franchisor or owner and see something wrong? Report a correction — we review every request.
What each source says
FDD record · SBA loans · model · auditor
The sources broadly agree, and the verdict follows the FDD's operating record.
FDD record · Item 20
Steady operating record
Units held flat (2022–2024: 250 → 249); exit rate 4.8% (fiscal 2024) vs 4.6% median.
SBA loans · vs same-year loans
More defaults than expected (1.4×)
63 charge-offs among 216 resolved loans approved FY1991–2020; about 46 expected.
Modeled risk
Moderate
Directional only — too few seasoned loans to check it.
Auditor opinion · Item 21
Not extracted
We did not extract the audit opinion.
Behind the verdict
the record, factor by factor · Item 20
latest consecutive years · 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 · shown, not counted in the verdict
Systemwide units
2022–2024
Survival record
FDD Item 20 · outlet status by year
In fiscal 2024, 12 of 248 franchised outlets left the system — an exit rate of 4.8% (fiscal 2024), vs a 4.6% median across 133 comparable systems (food & dining). An exit is not a failure: this counts terminations, non-renewals and "ceased — other reasons" as reported, and excludes transfers to new owners.
Show the outlet tables ↓Hide the evidence ↑
| Status (FTC) | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Outlets at start | 254 | 250 | 248 |
| Opened | 5 | 7 | 13 |
| Transfers | 17 | 20 | 21 |
| Terminations | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Non-renewals | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Reacquired by franchisor | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Ceased — other reasons | 9 | 9 | 12 |
| Outlets at end | 250 | 248 | 249 |
| Net change | -4 | -2 | +1 |
The lender's view
SBA 7(a)/504 loan outcomes · compared with franchise loans of the same years
Banks have made 251 SBA-backed loans to MARBLE SLAB CREAMERY franchisees since 1991. Of the 216 approved FY1991–2020 that have resolved, 63 charged off — where about 46 would be expected for franchise loans made in the same years. That is 1.4× the expected rate: these loans defaulted more often than comparable franchise loans.
All-time, 63 of 217 resolved loans charged off (29.0%). That raw figure mixes every approval year since 1991 — loans made in 2006–08 failed at several times the rate of loans made in 2010–13 across all franchises — so it is shown as evidence, not as the score.
1.4×
63 of 216 resolved (FY1991–2020) vs ~46 expected
29.0%
63 of 217 resolved, every approval year
63.3%
charged-off $ ÷ approved $, defaulted loans
$316,189
what recent franchisees borrowed
66 mo
approval → charge-off, defaulted loans
7 vs 6
distinct banks still lending
Charge-off rate by loan approval year (%) · dashed line = all franchise loans that year
SOURCE: SBA 7(a)/504 FOIA LOAN DATA (DATA.SBA.GOV), FY1991–PRESENT · MATCHED TO MARBLE SLAB CREAMERY BY SBA FRANCHISE NAME/CODE · RESOLVED = CHARGED-OFF + PAID-IN-FULL · EXPECTED = SAME-YEAR RATE ACROSS ALL SBA FRANCHISE LOANS, LOANS ≥ ~6 YEARS OLD
The owner's side of the deal
FDD × federal loan record
Who finances it
Wells Fargo Bank National Association
11.2% of this brand's loans
That lender charges off 15.5% of its resolved SBA loans to other franchise brands in the FOIA file, vs 14.8% nationally — a read on that lender's portfolio mix, not a finding about the bank.
Who buys it
79.1%
borrowers with no other franchise SBA loan on record
The rest already owned at least one other franchise. Across the corpus, brands bought mostly by repeat operators have charged off less often than brands sold mostly to newcomers (see methodology).
Does experience help here?
Not enough resolved loans to split
Computed from 251 SBA 7(a)/504 loans matched to MARBLE SLAB CREAMERY by SBA franchise code in the SBA FOIA file. Debt service assumes level amortization at the average disclosed term and rate. Owner-level splits rely on borrower-name matching and may misclassify. 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 $25,000 franchise fee (Item 5) and a total investment of $355K–$477K (Item 7). The franchisor publishes an earnings claim (Item 19) — read its methodology closely.
To open (Item 7)
$355K–$477K
all-in investment range
Franchise fee (Item 5)
$25,000
upfront, one-time
Royalty (Item 6)
6%
of sales, ongoing
Starts at a placeholder of $900K — a round figure for the sector, not from MARBLE SLAB CREAMERY’s filings. Set your own figure and check it against this brand's Item 19 and what owners tell you.
Royalty you'd pay / yr
$54K
6% of sales, before profit
Over a 10-yr term
$540K
royalties alone, excl. ad fund
This estimate is computed by software from the brand's public filings and any inputs you enter. No CPA prepared it for you and no assurance is provided on it. Actual results will differ, and the differences may be material.
This is not profit. It covers what the FDD fixes: what you put in, and the royalty you owe on sales. Your take-home depends on food and packaging cost, labor, rent, and the months to breakeven, none of which the FDD fixes for your unit (some Item 19s include cost data — read it).
Build a real pro-forma for MARBLE SLAB CREAMERY with a buyer-paid CPAHow the earnings claim is built
FDD ITEM 19 · BASIS · 2025 FDD
The headline figure is Net Sales for Jan 1 - Dec 31, 2024, for 195 of 249 units, leaving out not open entire 12 months, international locations incl. Canada, did not report sales and cost information. The mean is 5% above the median, so a minority of high-volume units pulls the average up.
Graded on three things the filing states: coverage (2 points if the figure covers at least 75% of the units it is compared with, 1 point for 50–75%), centre (2 points if it prints both a median and a mean, 1 for one of them), and costs (2 points for costs through a profit line or full cost detail, 1 for some cost items). 5–6 points = More complete, 3–4 = Partial, 0–2 = Limited. The grade describes the disclosure, not the business.
Show the basis ↓Hide the evidence ↑
| What is measured | Net Sales (net sales) |
| Period | Jan 1 - Dec 31, 2024 |
| Whose results | Franchised outlets |
| Units included | 195 of 249 Marble Slab Creamery-only and co-branded U.S. franchised Restaurants (as stated) |
| Left out |
|
| Average (mean) | $481K |
| Median | $458K |
| Mean vs median | mean 5.1% above median |
| Met or beat the average | 91 / 46.67% |
| Costs shown | Some cost items only |
| Where | p. 88 (Item 19 runs pp. 87–94) |
| The filing's words | “selected historical and unaudited financial and operating data for 195 (out of a total of 249) Marble Slab Creamery only and Marble Slab Creamery restaurants that are co-branded with Great American Cookies U.S. franchised Restaurants” |
Labor record
US Dept. of Labor enforcement · franchisee-level · FY2005–present
Federal investigators have concluded 23 wage cases against operators of this system, recovering $205K in back wages for 242 workers, including 5 child-labor cases. Some of these cases are recent, not ancient history. These cases name franchisee-owned locations, not the franchisor itself.
Concluded cases
23
Back wages owed
$205K
Employees affected
242
Since 2020
3
5 of these cases involved child-labor violations, covering 15 minors across the system's franchised locations.
Read this carefully. The employers in these cases are individual MARBLE SLAB CREAMERY franchisees — separately owned businesses operating under the brand name — not MARBLE SLAB CREAMERY 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. Cases are matched to the brand by trade name and may include misattributed employers. Source: DOL Wage and Hour Division concluded compliance actions, FY2005–present, most recent finding 2024.
Modeled risk
FDD Risk Score · a prediction from disclosure and loan-file features
The model puts this brand in its moderate band — but this brand has too few seasoned SBA loans to check the score against, so read it as a band, not a number.
Observed · vs same-year loans
1.4×
63 of 216 seasoned loans charged off
Risk percentile
Moderate
Directional · no point estimate
Modeled · vs same-year loans
band only
too few seasoned loans to check
Top drivers: Share financed by high-loss lenders (raises) · Item 20 exit rate (lowers) · Share of buyers who are first-time operators (lowers) · System size (log units) (lowers). Too few seasoned SBA loans to check the score — read it as a band. A linear scorecard trained on brands' vintage-adjusted SBA loss records; full spec and cross-validated accuracy on the methodology page. A score is context, not a verdict.
Public records
Bankruptcy, closure & federal court records · coverage is selective · dockets are not scored
We have no verified public-record signals published for MARBLE SLAB CREAMERY. This is not evidence that no events exist. Check PACER, the FDD's Item 3 (litigation) and Item 4 (bankruptcy), and recent news yourself.
10 questions to ask a MARBLE SLAB CREAMERY 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 questions come from what MARBLE SLAB CREAMERY has disclosed. Each one carries the number it came from, so you can check the answer against the record.
- 01
MARBLE SLAB CREAMERY’s own Item 20 shows 12 of 248 franchised outlets left the system in fiscal 2024 — about 4.8%. 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 · FY2024
- 02
21 units transferred to new owners in fiscal 2024. When you look at those, were they people cashing out a good business — or getting out of a bad one?
Item 20 counts transfers as neutral, but a transfer can be a good sale or a reluctant exit — the filing does not say which.
FDD Item 20 · FY2024
- 03
The system went from 250 units to 249 over 3 disclosed years. What's the explanation you've been given, and do you believe it?
A shrinking system means fewer owners funding the ad fund and support staff you're paying for.
FDD Item 20 · FY2022–FY2024
- 04
SBA loans to MARBLE SLAB CREAMERY franchisees approved 1991–2020 defaulted more often than franchise loans made in the same years: 63 charge-offs among 216 resolved loans, where about 46 would be expected (1.4×). 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 how these loans ended, from public federal records matched by SBA franchise code — independent of anything the franchisor discloses — compared with franchise loans made in the same years. A charge-off is a loan outcome, not proof the business closed.
SBA 7(a)/504 loan record, seasoned loans FY1991–FY2020 · 1.4× of same-vintage franchise loans
- 05
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
- 06
MARBLE SLAB CREAMERY makes an earnings claim in Item 19. Does your unit look like that number — and do you know which units they included to build it?
Item 19 is legal to build from a flattering subset. Ask whether they excluded new units, closed units, or company stores.
FDD Item 19 · 2025
- 07
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
- 08
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
- 09
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
- 10
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 MARBLE SLAB CREAMERY’s numbers move — a new filing, a rising exit rate, a distress signal. Unsubscribe in one click.
A broker is usually paid by the franchisor to place you. I'm paid only by you, never by a franchisor you're considering — and the job is pressure-testing MARBLE SLAB CREAMERY’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. Franchisors: send corrections with the page reference and we will review them against the filing and update or annotate the page. Corrections are checked against the filings; nothing you write is published with your name unless you agree to it.
MARBLE SLAB CREAMERY franchise questions, answered from the filings
How many MARBLE SLAB CREAMERY franchised outlets left the system last year?
In MARBLE SLAB CREAMERY's latest FDD Item 20 (fiscal 2024), 12 of 248 franchised outlets left the system — an exit rate of 4.8% — compared with a 4.6% median across 133 comparable systems (food & dining) tracked here. That counts terminations, non-renewals, and "ceased operations — other reasons" as the franchisor reported them; it excludes transfers to new owners. The FDD does not say why each outlet left, and an exit is not the same as a failure.
How much does a MARBLE SLAB CREAMERY franchise cost?
Per MARBLE SLAB CREAMERY's 2025 FDD, buying in requires an initial franchise fee of $25,000 (Item 5) and a total initial investment of $355K–$477K (Item 7).
What royalty does MARBLE SLAB CREAMERY charge?
MARBLE SLAB CREAMERY charges an ongoing royalty of 6.0% of gross sales, per Item 6 of its 2025 FDD.
Does MARBLE SLAB CREAMERY disclose earnings (Item 19)?
Yes — MARBLE SLAB CREAMERY makes a financial performance representation in Item 19 of its 2025 FDD. Read it closely: franchisors choose which units and which metrics to include.
How often do SBA loans for MARBLE SLAB CREAMERY franchises default?
SBA loans to MARBLE SLAB CREAMERY franchisees approved 1991–2020 defaulted more often than franchise loans made in the same years: 63 charge-offs among 216 resolved loans, where about 46 would be expected (1.4×). All-time, 63 of 217 resolved loans since 1991 charged off (29.0%); that raw figure mixes every approval year, so we compare with same-year loans instead. A charge-off is a loan loss, not proof the business closed. Source: public SBA 7(a)/504 FOIA data.