Krispy Kreme Franchise Cost: There Are Zero US Franchises

Most pages on this site answer what a franchise costs. This one answers a prior question that turns out to settle the matter: as of its most recent annual report, Krispy Kreme has no franchised shops in the United States at all.

Not expensive ones. Not restricted ones. Zero.

The table that answers the question

Annual reports are written for investors under securities-law liability rather than for recruitment, which is exactly why they are worth reading. Krispy Kreme’s shop-count table, as of December 28, 2025:

Segment	Company-owned	Franchised	Total
US	303	0	303
International	579	0	579
Market Development	0	1,243	1,243
Total	882	1,243	2,125

2,125 shops across 42 countries, and the franchised column for the US reads zero.

The filing’s own segment definitions close the loop. Its US segment “includes all Company-owned operations in the U.S.” Its Market Development segment “includes franchise operations across the globe.” Franchising is not how Krispy Kreme grows in America right now.

What the company says it is doing instead

The 10-K is direct about the model: in 2025 it implemented a turnaround plan focused on “profitable U.S. expansion and our capital-light international franchise model.”

Read those as two separate tracks, because that is how the filing treats them. US growth is company-operated. Franchising is the international vehicle, and the company states it “intends to refranchise certain international Company-owned markets and the Company’s joint venture in the western U.S.”

That western US joint venture is worth understanding correctly. It is an existing operator with an existing footprint, described in the filing as accounting for roughly 15 percent of US segment revenues, being restructured to a minority Krispy Kreme stake. It is not a route for a single-shop buyer.

Internationally, trade press reported Krispy Kreme seeking master franchisees for markets including the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico and Canada. Master franchising a country means committing to develop and often sub-franchise an entire market. It is a different category of transaction from buying one location, and it is the category currently on offer.

The detail worth stealing for every other brand

Buried in the revenue accounting is something that matters far beyond Krispy Kreme. Royalties are “based upon a percentage of franchisee gross sales.” Advertising fees are “based on a percentage of franchisee net sales.”

Two fees in the same relationship, on two different bases.

That is a trap for anyone who compares brands by adding percentages together. A 5 percent royalty on gross plus a 2 percent ad fee on net is not 7 percent of anything. Krispy Kreme goes one further than the brands that simply charge on net, such as Robeks and Jamba: here a single franchisor uses both bases in the same relationship. Find the basis for every line before you total anything. Our FDD walkthrough covers where those definitions live.

The filing also gives the term: domestic franchise agreements run “typically 15 years”, international ones “typically 10 to 15 years”, with a renewal fee payable on renewal.

The corporate year, stated plainly

A prospective franchisee anywhere in the system should know what the filing reports about fiscal 2025. These are facts from the document, not a view on the company’s prospects, and this site does not give investment advice.

• A net loss of $523.8 million, against net income of $3.8 million the prior year.
• A $356.0 million non-cash goodwill impairment, recorded in the second quarter, tied in part to the McDonald’s termination and a decline in market capitalisation.
• The McDonald’s USA partnership ended, jointly, effective July 2, 2025, removing approximately 2,400 fresh delivery doors. Its chief executive told Restaurant Dive that efforts to bring costs in line with unit demand were unsuccessful, making the partnership unsustainable.
• Global Points of Access fell 13.5 percent to 15,194, driven by strategic closure of underperforming fresh delivery doors. The company also added more than 1,100 profitable doors and closed roughly 1,400 underperforming US doors beyond the McDonald’s exit.
• A material weakness in internal control over financial reporting was identified during fiscal 2025 and reported as remediated by the time of the filing.
• Japan was sold on March 2, 2026.

One tension we noticed and are flagging rather than resolving: the filing describes taking “steps towards refranchising our business in Canada,” while its subsequent-events note describes Krispy Kreme moving from 56.52 percent to 100 percent ownership of its Canadian subsidiary after the minority holders exercised a redemption right. Those point in opposite directions. We did not read all 122 pages, so it may be reconciled elsewhere.

What we will not tell you

The franchise fee, the investment range, and the liquid-capital and net-worth requirements.

Krispy Kreme’s own franchise page returns a 404. Third-party directories fill that vacuum with figures that disagree wildly: across the sets we found, the highest total-investment ceiling was more than four times the lowest, and the ranges did not overlap in any consistent way. We are not reprinting those numbers, because repeating an uncited figure lends it a credibility none of them earned. A fourfold spread is not a range, it is an absence of information.

So none of them are here. Every brand this site has checked against its franchisor contained at least one wrong figure, and that was with a franchisor page to check against. With no primary source and sources conflicting this badly, publishing a number would be inventing one.

Questions to ask before you rely on any figure

• Is single-unit franchising available in any market, or is the offer master franchising only?
• What territory, development schedule and minimum unit commitment does a master franchise require?
• What are the actual royalty and advertising percentages, and confirm which is on gross and which on net?
• What does the current Item 20 show for openings, closures and transfers over the last three years?
• How does the refranchising programme affect a new franchisee’s territory and support?
• What is the renewal fee at the end of a 15-year term?
• Given the fiscal 2025 results, what changes are planned to franchisee support and supply terms?
• Will a franchise attorney and an accountant review the full FDD with me before I commit?