How Fosters Freeze’s New Ownership is Reviving the Iconic Franchise Brand Through a Commitment to Franchise Owner Support

Fosters Freeze, the 65-plus unit ice cream franchise out of California, has been a beloved West Coast institution for more than 70 years, but until recently, the franchise’s corporate team had done little to encourage the growth of the brand. Now Fosters Freeze’s new owners, brothers Neal and Nimesh Dahya, are reinvigorating the iconic franchise and reinvesting in its Franchise Owners with a broad and robust suite of supports and resources to spur growth.

At its height, the Fosters Freeze franchise system included more than 300 locations across the West Coast. In the decades since, the franchise has languished, but the brand has remained beloved by consumers. When the Dahyas purchased Fosters Freeze from its previous owners just five years ago, they saw an opportunity to leverage that positive brand awareness and revive the once-great franchise, and they are already making significant progress.

Across the system, sales have increased every year since the Dahyas took over, including a dramatic 20% jump from ‘19 to ‘20, on top of five previous years of growth.

How did they do it? According to Neal Dahya, the system’s rapid growth over the previous half-decade can be attributed almost entirely to a renewed commitment to Franchise Owner support.

“This is a franchise that for many years just wasn’t treated as a franchise,” Neal said. “Every franchisee owned and managed their store pretty much independently, without any support from the corporate team, and the corporate team put virtually no investment into growing the brand.”

The Dahyas have instituted a range of effective new resources for Franchise Owners, including marketing support, technology, site-selection for new stores and a streamlined new menu that reduced food costs, just to name a few.

But perhaps the most effective support system the brothers have offered is the franchisee network itself, which the Dahyas have reconnected, allowing Fosters Freeze owners to engage with each other and share best practices.

“The beauty of a franchise network is that no one is ever left to run the business alone,” Nimesh said. “In addition to all the new supports we’ve built out on the corporate level, every one of our franchisees has dozens of other franchisees who are facing the same challenges and opportunities, and they all have great ideas to share. We’re making this franchise network a true community again.”

And Franchise Owners are already seeing the results.

“Since Sanjay Patel and Neal bought Fosters Freeze and took over corporate management, sales have been up 10–15% each year for each of my stores. That’s almost an 80% increase in sales across my stores,” said Hafed Alwajih, a Fosters Freeze Franchise Owner since 2012.

With the full support of a re-engaged corporate team and a reunited franchise system, Fosters Freeze is beginning to grow once again.

In 2020, one of Fosters Freeze’s most tenured Franchise Owners, a five-unit owner whose family has been with the brand for more than 50 years, decided to take advantage of the heightened support by opening a new store in Salinas, California.

And that’s just the beginning. Fosters Freeze is currently seeking new owners in markets across the U.S., starting with locations in California, Arizona and Nevada.

“The question we’re constantly hearing is, ‘When are you coming to my state?’” Neal said. “So we know the demand is everywhere, but we’re being very careful to grow out strategically. Right now, we’re looking for qualified candidates across the United States. There’s no limit to how far we can take this.”

The initial investment to begin operation of a single, stand-alone Fosters Freeze restaurant ranges from $611,500 and $1,009,000. The total investment necessary to begin operation of a single confections restaurant is $178,000 to $331,500. The initial investment needed to open a single co-located restaurant is $329,500 to $658,500. For more information on franchising with Fosters Freeze, please visit https://www.fostersfreeze.com/franchise/.