Financing

The largest frozen dessert chains in the U.S.

These are the highest-grossing frozen dessert chains in Technomic’s Top 250.
Cold stone creamy sundaes
Photograph courtesy of Cold Stone Creamery

The frozen dessert segment grew sales 1.8% in 2019. Unit growth declined 1%.

RankChain name2019 U.S. sales ($000,000)Sales stimated2019 U.S. units
21Dairy Queen $3,760  4,381
73Baskin-Robbins $615  2,524
112Cold Stone Creamery $369 *895
143Braum's Ice Cream & Dairy Stores $268 *281
221Menchie's Frozen Yogurt $149 *416
238Yogurtland $133 *267

Source: Technomic Top 500 Chain Restaurant Report; *Technomic estimate

Learn more about Technomic’s Top 500.

See the Top 250 chains.

Members help make our journalism possible. Become a Restaurant Business member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.

Multimedia

Exclusive Content

Financing

Despite their complaints, customers keep flocking to Chipotle

The Bottom Line: The chain continued to be a juggernaut last quarter, with strong sales and traffic growth, despite frequent social media complaints about shrinkflation or other challenges.

Operations

Hitting resistance elsewhere, ghost kitchens and virtual concepts find a happy home in family dining

Reality Check: Old-guard chains are finding the alternative operations to be persistently effective side hustles.

Financing

The Tijuana Flats bankruptcy highlights the dangers of menu miscues

The Bottom Line: The fast-casual chain’s problems following new menu debuts in 2021 and 2022 show that adding new items isn’t always the right idea.

Trending

More from our partners