Verified — real FDD extraction
SBA-eligible · directory code S1923 since 2017
Wild Bill's
Other · independent · est. —
Wild Bill's sells old-fashioned, cane-sugar craft sodas in a wide range of nostalgic flavors, often sold from branded stands, stores, and at fairs and events. A franchisee operates a soda shop or kiosk, stocking and pouring the sodas and selling bottles and branded merchandise to customers.
Wild Bill's net unit count grew +71.4% from 2021–2025 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
20 franchised units over 5 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
0.0%
fiscal 2025, per Item 20
Cost to open
$110K–$256K
Item 7 total investment range
SBA loan defaults
Too few resolved
1 loans exist; too few resolved to rate
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
2021–2025
Survival record
FDD Item 20 · outlet status by year
In fiscal 2025, 0 of 14 franchised outlets left the system — a 0.0% annualized exit rate. Not every exit is a failure — but this is the measurable floor.
Show the outlet tables ↓Hide the evidence ↑
| Status (FTC) | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Outlets at start | 13 | 14 | 15 | 20 | 21 |
| Opened | 1 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 7 |
| Transfers | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Terminations | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Non-renewals | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Reacquired by franchisor | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Ceased — other reasons | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Outlets at end | 14 | 15 | 20 | 21 | 24 |
| Net change | +1 | +1 | +5 | +1 | +3 |
The lender's view
SBA 7(a)/504 loan performance · FY1991–present
Banks have made 1 SBA-backed loans to Wild Bill's franchisees since 2016. Most are still open, so there is not yet a resolved cohort large enough to rate.
—
1 resolved · too thin to rate
—
avg. charged-off $ ÷ approved $
—
default rate × loss severity
$63,000
what recent franchisees borrowed
—
approval → charge-off, defaulted loans
0 vs 1
distinct banks — pulling back
Charge-off rate by loan approval year (%)
SOURCE: SBA 7(a)/504 FOIA LOAN DATA (DATA.SBA.GOV), FY1991–PRESENT · MATCHED TO WILD BILL'S BY FRANCHISE NAME · RESOLVED = CHARGED-OFF + PAID-IN-FULL
What it costs — and what it drags
FDD Items 5–7 · fees, investment, royalty
Buying in means a $50K franchise fee (Item 5) and a total investment of $110K–$256K (Item 7). The franchisor publishes an earnings claim (Item 19) — read its methodology closely.
To open (Item 7)
$110K–$256K
all-in investment range
Franchise fee (Item 5)
$50K
upfront, one-time
Royalty (Item 6)
—
of sales, ongoing
Your figure — cross-check against this brand's Item 19 and current-owner validation.
Royalty you'd pay / yr
$0
0% of sales, before profit
Over a 10-yr term
$0
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 Wild Bill's with an independent CPALabor record
US Dept. of Labor enforcement · franchisee-level · FY2005–present
Federal investigators have concluded 6 wage cases against operators of this system, recovering $20K in back wages for 50 workers, including 2 child-labor cases. These cases name franchisee-owned locations, not the franchisor itself.
Concluded cases
6
Back wages owed
$20K
Employees affected
50
Since 2020
0
2 of these cases involved child-labor violations, covering 3 minors across the system's franchised locations.
Read this carefully. The employers in these cases are individual Wild Bill's franchisees — separately owned businesses operating under the brand name — not Wild Bill's 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 2017.
Modeled risk
FDD Risk Score · modeled from the public record
The public record puts this brand toward the middle of the systems we score — but the evidence is thin, so treat it as a range, not a number.
Risk percentile (range)
46–70 / 100
Directional
Modeled SBA charge-off
13.8%
Observed SBA charge-off
no resolved cohort
Top drivers: System size (log units) (raises) · Net unit growth (lowers) · Item 20 exit rate (lowers) · Investment ceiling (log) (raises). Thin loan history — treat this as a range, not a number. 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 Wild Bill's. 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 Wild Bill's's numbers, including talking you out of a bad deal.
Talk to an independent CPA before you buy →Wild Bill's franchise questions, answered from the filings
What percentage of Wild Bill's franchises closed last year?
In Wild Bill's's latest FDD Item 20 (fiscal 2025), 0 of 14 franchised outlets left the system — an annualized exit rate of 0.0%. 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 Wild Bill's franchise cost?
Per Wild Bill's's 2026 FDD, buying in requires an initial franchise fee of $50K (Item 5) and a total initial investment of $110K–$256K (Item 7).
Does Wild Bill's disclose earnings (Item 19)?
Yes — Wild Bill's makes a financial performance representation in Item 19 of its 2026 FDD. Read it closely: franchisors choose which units and which metrics to include.