Food & Beverage

Cinnabon Franchise

A cinnamon-roll and baked-goods bakery brand sold across several formats -- Full Bakery, Express Bakery, Concession Bakery, and Co-Branded Bakery (paired with sibling brands Auntie Anne's or Carvel) -- with predecessor entity Cinnabon LLC franchising since 1990. Now an indirect subsidiary of GoTo Foods LLC (formerly Focus Brands), which also owns Auntie Anne's, Carvel, Schlotzsky's, Moe's, Jamba, and McAlister's. Franchised unit growth accelerated sharply through the FDD's three-year window, from +23 in 2023 to +308 in 2025.

Opening more locationsFounded 1990HQ: Atlanta, GA

Every franchisor has to file a document called an FDD before they can legally sell you a franchise. Buried in it are the two things a sales rep won't volunteer: what you'll actually spend to open, and whether existing locations are opening or closing. That's what's below, pulled straight from Cinnabon's own filing.

What it costs to open

From the filing's investment breakdown -- not a "starting at" number a sales rep quoted you.

Franchise fee

$35,500

Total to open

$256,950–$703,500

Ongoing royalty

6% of gross sales

What you'd actually spend, over time

The upfront cost is only part of it. Plug in what you expect a location to bring in, and see the real total once royalties over a few years are added on top.

Your estimated annual revenue

Defaulted to a rough food & beverage industry average, not a figure from Cinnabon's own FDD -- change it to your own estimate.

Years of ownership

Total cost of ownership over 5 years

$556,950 – $1,003,500

Startup investment

$256,950–$703,500

Royalty per year (6%)

$60,000

Total royalty, 5yr

$300,000

When would you break even?

Revenue alone doesn't tell you this -- it depends on what's left after rent, labor, and everything else. Cinnabon's FDD doesn't disclose a reliable profit figure (most franchisors don't), so this starts from a typical food & beverage profit margin (~8%) and applies it to the revenue you entered above -- adjust the percentage to your own realistic estimate.

Estimated profit margin (% of revenue)

%≈ $80,000/year

Defaulted to a general food & beverage industry benchmark, not a figure from Cinnabon's own filing -- this is a starting point to adjust, not a promise about what franchisees actually make.

At that profit, you'd break even in about

3.2–8.8 years

Weigh that payback period against what you already know: Cinnabon is opening more locations. A long payback period on a shrinking brand is a very different bet than the same payback period on a growing one.

Is Cinnabon actually growing?

Franchisors have to report, every year, how many locations opened, closed, or changed hands. Most franchise sites never show you this. Here it is:

Locations opened vs. closed, by year

Growing

From Item 20 of Cinnabon's FDD, the section franchisors use to disclose real openings and closings.

+23

+50

+308

202320242025

Year	Franchised units, start	Franchised units, end	Net change
2023	929	952	+23
2024	952	1,002	+50
2025	1,002	1,310	+308

Most recent year (2025): gained 308 franchised units, ending the year at 1,310 total.

What you're actually signing up for

The cost and growth numbers above are only part of the picture. These three FDD items are the ones a prospective franchisee tends to weigh most heavily once they're past the sticker price.

Training & ongoing support (Item 11)

Management Training is free for a franchisee's first two Bakeries (including affiliate-owned ones); a third or later Bakery costs a then-current Management Training Program fee, currently $3,000 (more for co-branded formats). On-site opening training and assistance is likewise included free for the first two Bakeries, then billed at $500/day per trainer plus travel expenses -- estimated at $5,550-$6,100 for a third-and-later Full Bakery.

Territory protection (Item 12)

You will NOT receive an exclusive territory, and for most formats there's no protected territory at all -- Cinnabon licenses you only to sell from your specific Accepted Location, nothing more. The one exception is a Co-Branded Bakery in a Streetside Location, which gets a negotiated "Area of Protection" against a same-format competitor, capped at a one-block radius in a major city's downtown or a one-mile radius elsewhere -- and even that can be reduced or eliminated if you default and don't cure in time.

Renewal & termination terms (Item 17)

20-year term for a Full Bakery or Express Bakery (5 years, no renewal option, for a Concession Bakery), with one 20-year successor term available if requirements are met, including a mandatory remodel and a then-current agreement that may carry materially different terms. Disputes are arbitrated in Atlanta, GA under Georgia law. Non-compete after termination is 24 months, covering the Accepted Location itself plus a 3-mile radius around it or around any other Cinnabon Bakery.

How Cinnabon compares to other Food & Beverage franchises

Across the 52 food & beverage franchises we've hand-verified so far, the typical range to open runs $860,899–$2,165,095, with royalties averaging around 5.6% of gross sales (based on the 48 of them that charge a flat %-of-revenue royalty).

Dave's Hot Chicken

$617,800–$2,170,000 · 6% royalty

Slim Chickens

$1,188,900–$4,944,000 · 5% royalty

Ziggi's Coffee

$315,830–$2,093,361 · 6% royalty

Crumbl

$848,566–$1,472,533 · 8% royalty

Little Caesars

$376,500–$1,769,200 · 6% royalty

Jamba

$480,850–$941,300 · 6% royalty

Tropical Smoothie Cafe

$300,000–$720,500 · 6% royalty

Playa Bowls

$188,675–$636,458 · 6% royalty

Kona Ice

$114,730–$228,601 · non-%-of-revenue royalty

Firehouse Subs

$166,671–$950,351 · 6% royalty

Wingstop

$310,400–$1,048,500 · 6% royalty

Jersey Mike's Subs

$436,176–$1,162,228 · 6.5% royalty

Dunkin'

$532,400–$1,832,500 · 5.9% royalty

Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen

$1,222,045–$3,923,245 · 5% royalty

Del Taco

$1,461,200–$3,313,500 · 5% royalty

Blaze Pizza

$757,000–$1,297,100 · 5% royalty

Church's Texas Chicken

$1,202,400–$1,886,300 · 5% royalty

MOD Pizza

$924,732–$1,220,633 · 5% royalty

Twin Peaks

$2,959,000–$5,734,000 · 5% royalty

McDonald's

$1,470,500–$2,642,000 · 5% royalty

Subway

$263,000–$630,000 · 8% royalty

Taco Bell

$1,859,750–$4,312,200 · 5.5% royalty

Domino's Pizza

$231,450–$743,500 · 5.5% royalty

KFC

$2,107,575–$4,155,000 · 5% royalty

Burger King

$2,039,200–$4,730,600 · 4.5% royalty

Chick-fil-A

$317,521–$3,463,155 · non-%-of-revenue royalty

Penn Station

$507,500–$858,750 · non-%-of-revenue royalty

Nekter Juice Bar

$243,155–$647,160 · 6% royalty

Jimmy John's

$366,200–$733,500 · 6% royalty

Sonic Drive-In

$1,485,200–$2,522,900 · 5% royalty

Papa John's

$281,485–$890,267 · 5% royalty

Hungry Howie's Pizza & Subs

$238,982–$697,322 · 5.5% royalty

Jack in the Box

$1,909,500–$4,041,500 · 5% royalty

Wendy's

$1,523,957–$2,992,000 · 4% royalty

Marco's Pizza

$286,477–$811,186 · 5.5% royalty

Pizza Hut

$846,000–$2,130,000 · 6% royalty

Chicken Salad Chick

$777,000–$998,500 · 5% royalty

Teriyaki Madness

$392,667–$1,121,405 · 6% royalty

Cold Stone Creamery

$390,675–$680,775 · 6% royalty

Scooter's Coffee

$1,163,650–$1,345,750 · 6% royalty

Nothing Bundt Cakes

$475,200–$994,100 · 6% royalty

Five Guys

$977,850–$1,375,750 · 6% royalty

Tim Hortons

$427,500–$3,312,500 · 6% royalty

7 Brew

$940,500–$2,283,500 · non-%-of-revenue royalty

Swig

$608,400–$1,718,000 · 7% royalty

Culver's

$3,406,350–$10,294,100 · 4% royalty

Dairy Queen

$1,516,200–$2,543,050 · 4% royalty

Paris Baguette

$727,515–$1,860,550 · 5% royalty

Jollibee

$1,614,568–$4,589,057 · 5% royalty

Smoothie King

$329,850–$683,215 · 6% royalty

IHOP

$380,550–$3,735,850 · 4.5% royalty

Keep going

Cinnabon and Subway are both food & beverage franchises; Cinnabon's total investment starts about $6,050 lower than Subway's. Subway Franchise
Cinnabon and Nekter Juice Bar are both food & beverage franchises; Nekter Juice Bar's total investment starts about $13,795 lower than Cinnabon's. Nekter Juice Bar Franchise

Where this came from: Cinnabon only files Net Worth/Experience Exemption notices with California DFPI (dfpi id 396174), so this entry is sourced from Minnesota's CARDS registry instead: MN File No. 8190, Clean FDD issued March 27, 2026, filed with MN 4/1/2026, effective 5/27/2026. hqLocation is corrected from a TODO the automated parser left blank -- Item 1 gives the real principal business address as 5620 Glenridge Drive NE, Atlanta, GA. franchiseFee is also corrected from a parser miss (Item 5 has no single stated fee -- it varies by format: $35,500 Full Bakery, $8,000 Express Bakery, $5,500 Concession Bakery, $71,000 for either co-branded format) -- $35,500 (Full Bakery) used here, matching the Item 7 table selected below. Item 6: royalty is 6% of Net Sales for a standalone Full Bakery (co-branded and Schlotzsky's-Express formats have separate structures not used here); a Streetside/Other-Location-dependent Advertising Contribution currently runs 2.5%-3% of Net Sales, capped together with any Local Marketing Obligation at 5% of Net Sales combined. Item 7 has 8 separate TOTAL rows for its different formats and locations; the "Full Bakery Located in a Traditional Location" table ($256,950-$703,500) is used here as the standard single-unit figure. Item 20 Table No. 1 confirmed -- the +308 net franchised unit change in 2025 is the FDD's own reported figure, not a parsing artifact. You can pull the same filing yourself from the California DFPI's public franchise search. Filed 2026-05-27. None of this is investment advice -- get the franchisor's current FDD and talk to a real attorney or accountant before you sign anything.

If you see a different unit count elsewhere: franchisors only have to refile their FDD annually, so the numbers here can run 6–18 months behind a franchisor's own real-time marketing claims -- which often aren't independently verified, and sometimes count signed-but-not-yet-open locations. A gap isn't necessarily an error on either side; it's two different snapshots in time from two different sources.