FRANCHISE·WATCH·DESK

From the filed FDD — automated extraction, check the source

2026 FDD

Melt N Dip

Crepes, cobbler & specialty desserts · parent company: not identified

Melt N Dip is a dessert and sweets concept centered on chocolate, with offerings like chocolate-dipped treats, fondue-style items, and similar indulgent snacks. A franchisee operates a small dessert shop or kiosk preparing and serving chocolate-based treats. (Details are limited, so this is a general description based on the brand's name and category.)

Melt N Dip went from 4 → 16 units over 2022–2025 — too small a starting base for a meaningful percentage 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

Too new to judge

13 franchised units over 4 disclosed years of Item 20 is too little history for a rating — a young system's record hasn't had time to show how units perform over a full loan term. Judge the disclosures, not a rating.

Exit rate · fiscal 2025

0.0%

vs 4.6% median across 133 comparable systems (food & dining)

Cost to open

$395K–$631K

Item 7 total investment range

SBA loan losses

No loan record

no SBA 7(a)/504 loans found for this brand

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Data as of 2026-10-29. Figures come from Melt N Dip's public FDD filings (latest: MN 2026, extracted 2026-07-22) 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

Our answer: Too new to judge

The Item 20 record is too short or too small to rate; the loan record and model are context, not a verdict.

FDD record · Item 20

Too little history

Units went from 4 to 16 (2022–2025); exit rate 0.0% (fiscal 2025) vs 4.6% median.

SBA loans · vs same-year loans

No SBA loans found

No 7(a)/504 loans matched to this brand.

Modeled risk

Not scored

Too little evidence for the model.

Auditor opinion · Item 21

Clean opinion

Unqualified audit, 2026 FDD. Says nothing about franchisee results.

Behind the verdict

the record, factor by factor · Item 20

hi-1.0.0
Net unit growth41%

latest consecutive years · Item 20 Table 1

Fair
Exit quality29%

terminations + ceased-ops vs. all exits · Table 3

Strong
Transfer / churn18%

transfers vs. base · Table 3

Strong
Promise-keeping12%

actual vs. projected openings · Table 5

Weak
Transparencynot in verdict

Item 19 disclosure + completeness · shown, not counted in the verdict

Weak

Systemwide units

2022–2025

4 → 16 units
4202282023112024162025

Survival record

FDD Item 20 · outlet status by year

In fiscal 2025, 0 of 8 franchised outlets left the system — an exit rate of 0.0% (fiscal 2025), 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 ↓
Status (FTC)2022202320242025
Outlets at start34811
Opened2425
Transfers0001
Terminations0000
Non-renewals0000
Reacquired by franchisor0000
Ceased — other reasons0000
Outlets at end481116
Net change+1+4+3+5

The franchisor's own finances

FDD ITEM 21 · AUDITED STATEMENTS · 2026 FDD

Full read →

Kezos & Dunlavy gave an unmodified (clean) opinion on the statements in the 2026 FDD; revenue rose 249% from FY2023 to FY2025.

This is the company selling the franchise, not any franchisee. A clean opinion means the statements are fairly presented — not that the business is healthy.

Audit opinion

Unmodified (clean) opinion

Kezos & Dunlavy · p. 51

Revenue · FY2025

$8.2M

p. 54 · matched to statement

Net income · FY2025

$1.6M

p. 54 · matched to statement

Where FY2025 revenue came from

16% royalties

1% initial / development fees

Show the statement figures ↓
Fiscal yearFY2023FY2024FY2025
Total revenue$2.4Mp. 54 · matched to statement$3.7Mp. 54 · matched to statement$8.2Mp. 54 · matched to statement
Royalty revenue$366Kextracted · not cross-checked$591Kextracted · not cross-checked$1.3Mextracted · not cross-checked
Initial / development feesline: Initial franchise fees$120Kp. 54$55Kp. 54$40Kp. 54
Net income (loss)$83Kp. 54 · matched to statement$534Kp. 54 · matched to statement$1.6Mp. 54 · matched to statement
Cash at year end$100Kp. 53$94Kp. 53$213Kp. 53

What it costs — and what it drags

FDD Items 5–7 · fees, investment, royalty

Buying in means a $50,000 franchise fee (Item 5) and a total investment of $395K–$631K (Item 7). The franchisor publishes no earnings claim (Item 19) — ask current and former franchisees for real numbers.

To open (Item 7)

$395K–$631K

all-in investment range

Franchise fee (Item 5)

$50,000

upfront, one-time

Royalty (Item 6)

5%

of sales, ongoing

If a unit does this in annual sales…$900K/yr

Starts at a placeholder of $900K — a round figure for the sector, not from Melt N Dip’s filings. This brand's FDD makes no Item 19 earnings claim; set your own figure and check it with current and former owners.

Royalty you'd pay / yr

$45K

5% of sales, before profit

Over a 10-yr term

$450K

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 Melt N Dip with a buyer-paid CPA

Public records

Bankruptcy, closure & federal court records · coverage is selective · dockets are not scored

We have no verified public-record signals published for Melt N Dip. This is not evidence that no events exist. Check PACER, the FDD's Item 3 (litigation) and Item 4 (bankruptcy), and recent news yourself.

7 questions to ask a Melt N Dip 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 Melt N Dip has disclosed. Each one carries the number it came from, so you can check the answer against the record.

  1. 01

    1 units transferred to new owners in fiscal 2025. 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 · FY2025

  2. 02

    You pay 5.0% 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

  3. 03

    Melt N Dip’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 · 2026

  4. 04

    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

  5. 05

    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

  6. 06

    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

  7. 07

    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?

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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.

Melt N Dip franchise questions, answered from the filings

How many Melt N Dip franchised outlets left the system last year?

In Melt N Dip's latest FDD Item 20 (fiscal 2025), 0 of 8 franchised outlets left the system — an exit rate of 0.0% — 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 Melt N Dip franchise cost?

Per Melt N Dip's 2026 FDD, buying in requires an initial franchise fee of $50,000 (Item 5) and a total initial investment of $395K–$631K (Item 7).

What royalty does Melt N Dip charge?

Melt N Dip charges an ongoing royalty of 5.0% of gross sales, per Item 6 of its 2026 FDD.

Does Melt N Dip disclose earnings (Item 19)?

No — Melt N Dip's 2026 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.