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
MARBLE SLAB CREAMERY
Food & Dining · independent · est. —
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% from 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. 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
Proven & steady
Distress
A real track record with an unremarkable region of the ledger: neither the growth nor the exits stand out, for better or worse.
Exit rate · latest year
4.8%
vs 8.6% across 137 food & dining systems
Cost to open
$355K–$477K
Item 7 total investment range
SBA loan defaults
29.0%
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
2022–2024
Survival record
FDD Item 20 · outlet status by year
In fiscal 2024, 12 of 248 franchised outlets left the system — a 4.8% 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) | 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 performance · FY1991–present
Banks have made 251 SBA-backed loans to MARBLE SLAB CREAMERY franchisees since 1991. Of the 217 that have resolved, 29.0% were charged off (defaulted) rather than paid in full, versus 14.8% across 576 rated brands.
29.0%
63 of 217 resolved defaulted
63.3%
avg. charged-off $ ÷ approved $
18.4%
default rate × loss severity
$316,188
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 (%)
SOURCE: SBA 7(a)/504 FOIA LOAN DATA (DATA.SBA.GOV), FY1991–PRESENT · MATCHED TO MARBLE SLAB CREAMERY BY FRANCHISE NAME · RESOLVED = CHARGED-OFF + PAID-IN-FULL
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 15.6% of its loans to other franchise brands, vs 14.8% nationally.
Who buys it
79.1%
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?
Not enough resolved loans to split
Computed from 251 SBA 7(a)/504 loans to MARBLE SLAB CREAMERY 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 $25K 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)
$25K
upfront, one-time
Royalty (Item 6)
6%
of sales, ongoing
Your figure — cross-check against this brand's Item 19 and current-owner validation.
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 MARBLE SLAB CREAMERY with an independent CPALabor 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. Source: DOL Wage and Hour Division concluded compliance actions, FY2005–present, most recent finding 2024.
Modeled risk
FDD Risk Score · modeled from the public record
Modeled from the public record, this brand sits mid-pack: riskier than 64% of systems we score.
Risk percentile
64 / 100
Loan-corroborated
Modeled SBA charge-off
14.7%
Observed SBA charge-off
29.0%
Top drivers: Single-lender dependence (raises) · Share financed by high-loss lenders (raises) · System size (log units) (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 MARBLE SLAB CREAMERY. 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 MARBLE SLAB CREAMERY's numbers, including talking you out of a bad deal.
Talk to an independent CPA before you buy →MARBLE SLAB CREAMERY franchise questions, answered from the filings
What percentage of MARBLE SLAB CREAMERY franchises closed last year?
In MARBLE SLAB CREAMERY's latest FDD Item 20 (fiscal 2024), 12 of 248 franchised outlets left the system — an annualized exit rate of 4.8% — 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 MARBLE SLAB CREAMERY franchise cost?
Per MARBLE SLAB CREAMERY's 2025 FDD, buying in requires an initial franchise fee of $25K (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?
Across 251 SBA-backed loans to MARBLE SLAB CREAMERY franchisees since 1991, 63 of the 217 that have resolved were charged off — a 29.0% 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.