Food & Beverage
Jamba Franchise
A smoothie and juice bar franchise founded in San Luis Obispo, California in 1990, now owned by GoTo Foods (formerly Focus Brands) alongside Auntie Anne's, Cinnabon and Carvel, which is why co-branded Jamba and Auntie Anne's stores appear in the FDD. The franchisor entity was formed in 2018 when the brand was acquired; US franchised store count has been drifting down since 2023.
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 Jamba'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
$480,850–$941,300
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.
Defaulted to a rough food & beverage industry average, not a figure from Jamba's own FDD -- change it to your own estimate.
Total cost of ownership over 5 years
$780,850 – $1,241,300
Startup investment
$480,850–$941,300
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. Jamba'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.
Defaulted to a general food & beverage industry benchmark, not a figure from Jamba'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
6.0–11.8 years
Weigh that payback period against what you already know: Jamba is currently losing locations. A long payback period on a shrinking brand is a very different bet than the same payback period on a growing one.
Is Jamba 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
ShrinkingFrom Item 20 of Jamba's FDD, the section franchisors use to disclose real openings and closings.
| Year | Franchised units, start | Franchised units, end | Net change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 735 | 733 | -2 |
| 2024 | 733 | 726 | -7 |
| 2025 | 726 | 709 | -17 |
Most recent year (2025): lost 17 franchised units, ending the year at 709 total.
How Jamba compares to other Food & Beverage franchises
Across the 8 food & beverage franchises we've hand-verified so far, the typical range to open runs $539,640–$1,843,419, with royalties averaging around 6.1% of gross sales (based on the 8 of them that charge a flat %-of-revenue royalty).
$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
Tropical Smoothie Cafe$300,000–$720,500 · 6% royalty
Playa Bowls$188,675–$636,458 · 6% royalty
Where this came from: California DFPI Registration Renewal, App ID APP00004564, filed 3/28/2026, effective 6/5/2026. FDD issued March 27, 2026. Item 5: $35,500 for a traditional or non-traditional store; $71,000 for a co-branded store. Item 6: 6% of net sales royalty for standard stores (7% on the Auntie Anne's portion of co-branded sales). Item 7: traditional store $480,850-$941,300; traditional store with drive-thru $517,000-$960,700; non-traditional $249,025-$825,200; co-branded $472,375-$1,811,400. Item 20 Table 1 franchised outlets. You can pull the same filing yourself from the California DFPI's public franchise search. Filed 2026-03-28. 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.