Dairy Queen franchise failure rate and unit turnover: what SBA loan defaults and the FDD show
Dairy Queen franchisees have taken 981 SBA 7(a) and 504 loans since fiscal 2010, totalling $536.4 million disbursed. This page reports how many of those loans failed, how Dairy Queen compares with every other franchise system in the SBA files, and where the failures were.
Charge-offs well below the franchise-wide rate. Ranks at the 33th percentile of 104 brands with 30 or more resolved loans (higher percentile = more charge-offs).
- 12 of 440 resolved loans approved FY2010-2019 were charged off (2.7%), versus 9.5% for all franchise-coded SBA loans in the same cohorts (0.29x).
- Dollars charged off equal 1.1% of dollars disbursed in those cohorts, versus 2.7% franchise-wide.
- 1 charge-offs so far among 162 loans disbursed since FY2022; most of these loans are still open, so this figure will rise.
Dairy Queen SBA lending at a glance
Program split since FY2010: 7(a): 729 loans, 504: 252 loans. Loan status as published by SBA: paid in full 499, charged off 13, still open 344, cancelled before disbursement 104.
Charge-off rate by approval year
How much SBA lending Dairy Queen attracts each year
Unit turnover from the franchise disclosure document
Franchised Dairy Queen outlets went from 1,965 at the start of 2023 to 1,983 at the end of 2025, a net change of +18 (0.9%). Company-owned outlets at the end of 2025: 2. This is the franchisor's own count of units, covering every franchised outlet, not only SBA-financed ones, so it complements the loan data above.
| Year | Franchised at start | Opened | Left the system | Net change | Net change % | Exit rate | Franchised at end |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 1,965 | Not available | Not available | +2 | 0.1% | Not available | 1,967 |
| 2024 | 1,967 | Not available | Not available | +2 | 0.1% | Not available | 1,969 |
| 2025 | 1,969 | Not available | Not available | +14 | 0.7% | Not available | 1,983 |
Source: Item 20 of the American Dairy Queen Corporation franchise disclosure document registered with the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions, effective 3/26/2026, file 640430, filing record. Table 1 (systemwide outlet summary); figures are reproduced only where the published rows reconcile arithmetically.
Where Dairy Queen SBA loans are, and where they failed
Top 8 of 48 states by loan count since FY2010. The top three states hold 21% of the loans.
| Project state | Loans | Charged off | Charge-off rate (resolved) | Approved |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IN | 73 | 1 | 2.3% | $30.9 million |
| IL | 68 | 4 | 13.8% | $35.1 million |
| OH | 64 | 0 | 0.0% | $38.2 million |
| MN | 58 | 4 | 11.8% | $28.7 million |
| TX | 49 | 1 | 3.6% | $44.7 million |
| GA | 47 | 0 | 0.0% | $40.3 million |
| FL | 46 | 0 | 0.0% | $41.9 million |
| WA | 45 | 0 | 0.0% | $24.3 million |
Recent loans, FY2022 to FY2026
196 loans approved since FY2022, $137.0 million disbursed, 1 charged off so far. These loans are young; the rate here will rise as they age and should not be compared with the matured cohorts above.
Among loans that were charged off since FY2010, the median time from approval to charge-off was 94 months, and 8% failed within three years (13 dated charge-offs).
The full Dairy Queen SBA loan report
Everything on this page plus the parts that let you check the numbers yourself: the loan-level file, the lender-by-lender record, and the largest charge-offs by name.
- Every Dairy Queen SBA loan since FY1991: 2,300 records with borrower, city, state, lender, amount, approval date, status, and charge-off amount (CSV)
- Charge-off rate by approval year, 2010 through 2026, in loans and in dollars
- All 215 lenders with their Dairy Queen charge-off record
- All 48 states, with rates
- The 10 largest charge-offs: borrower, city, lender, amount, date
- Median months from approval to charge-off, and the share that failed inside 36 months
- New-business versus existing-business mix, 7(a) versus 504, and loan terms
- Printable PDF plus the source-file citations for every figure
Get the Dairy Queen report, $49 See a sample report
Questions this page answers
What does the Dairy Queen franchise failure rate on this page measure?
The share of SBA 7(a) and 504 loans to Dairy Queen franchisees that were charged off, meaning SBA wrote the loan off as a loss after default. It measures loan failure, which is the closest public, brand-level proxy for business failure: a franchisee who repays the loan generally stayed in business, and a charge-off almost always follows a closure or sale at a loss.
Is a charge-off the same as a Dairy Queen location closing?
No. A charge-off means the lender and SBA took a loss on the loan. Most charge-offs involve a closed or sold unit, but a unit can close with the loan repaid, and a loan can be charged off while the unit changes hands. Treat the rate as a screening signal, not a census of closures.
Does this cover every Dairy Queen location?
No. It covers only units financed with an SBA 7(a) or 504 loan that the lender coded to the Dairy Queen franchise. Units financed with cash, conventional bank loans, or franchisor financing are not in the data. For Dairy Queen that is 2,300 loans since FY1991.
Why compare only loans approved FY2010 to FY2019?
Loans need years to resolve. A loan approved in 2023 has mostly not had time to fail or be repaid, so including it would understate the rate. Cohorts approved FY2010-2019 have had at least six and a half years as of June 30, 2026, which is long enough for most failures to appear. Later cohorts are shown separately and labelled immature.
Where do the numbers come from?
Every figure is computed from the SBA's public 7(a) and 504 FOIA loan files, as of June 30, 2026, downloaded from data.sba.gov. The methodology page lists the exact files, the fields used, and the franchise names matched to Dairy Queen. Nothing is estimated or modelled.
How current is this?
SBA republishes the files quarterly, about a month after each quarter closes. This page was generated on September 3, 2026 from the June 30, 2026 files and is regenerated when SBA publishes the next quarter.
Method, in brief
Failure rate = loans with status charged off divided by loans with status charged off or paid in full, for loans approved FY2010-2019. Loans still open are excluded from the denominator because their outcome is unknown; cancelled and undisbursed loans are excluded because no money moved. The franchise-wide benchmark uses the same formula over every loan in the SBA files that carries a franchise code (39,850 resolved loans). Loans were matched to Dairy Queen by the SBA FranchiseName field, covering these spellings: DAIRY QUEEN (1529); DAIRY QUEEN GRILL & CHILL/TEXAS DQ (206); DQ GRILL & CHILL OPERATING AGREEMENT (AMERICAN DAIRY QUEEN) (145); DAIRY QUEEN OPERATING AGREEMENT (105); DAIRY QUEEN FROZEN TREAT CENTER (97); DAIRY QUEEN/LIMITED BRAZIER OPERATING AGREEMENT (45); DAIRY QUEEN OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST - OPERATING AGREEMENT (37); DQ TREAT (30) and others. Full detail on the methodology page.
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