Highlights
- Opening one unit is estimated at $114,730 to $228,601, including a $15,000 initial fee.p.27
- Kona Ice makes no financial performance representation: the filing gives no unit revenue, cost or profit figures, and no one selling the franchise may quote any.p.59
- The system went from 1,476 outlets at the start of 2023 to 1,933 at the end of 2025, a net gain of 457.p.59
- In 2025, closures of all kinds equalled 1.5% of the outlets open at the start of the year.
- Item 3 discloses 0 matters.
Tools, from this filing's numbers
Cash you would need to open
The filing's Item 7 range, $114,730 to $228,601, is an estimate for one unit including only its first months. Slide between the low and high cases and add the months of runway you want beyond that.
Monthly operating cash is taken as one-twelfth of your weekly-sales figure above times 52 (set to $15,000 a week here), a placeholder for rent, labor and food until you have your own budget.
Where the units went in 2025
Every outlet that opened, and every one that left, drawn from Item 20 Table 3 to scale.p.68
Total outlets, 2022 to 2025
Compare Kona Ice with another brand
Side by side, every figure cited.
Fees (Items 5 and 6)
| Initial franchise fee, standard | $15,000 | p.12 |
| Royalty | $3,000 for years one and two, $4,000 for years three through six, $5,000 for years seven through ten | p.14 |
| Advertising fund | Currently $1,000 per year for KEVs and KEV 2.0 Trucks, and an additional $200 per year for each piece of Additional Equipment you operate | p.15 |
| Technology fee | Then-current fee (currently $600 per year) | p.17 |
The filing lists every recurring and conditional fee in Item 6. The report carries all of them.
Estimated initial investment (Item 7)
| Expenditure | Low | High | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Initial Franchise Fee | $15,000 | $15,000 | p.26 |
| KEV and Installed Equipment | $87,365 | $157,491 | p.26 |
| Training Expenses | $140 | $950 | p.26 |
| KEV Delivery | $0 | $10,000 | p.26 |
| KEV Compliance Fee | $0 | $7,000 | p.26 |
| KEV Insurance for 3 Months | $1,000 | $2,100 | p.26 |
| Tax, Title, and Licensing of KEV | $1,000 | $8,000 | p.26 |
| Initial Inventory | $9,975 | $11,735 | p.26 |
| Optional Inventory | $0 | $225 | p.26 |
| Permits and Licenses | $250 | $1,500 | p.26 |
| Real Estate or KEV Storage | $0 | $4,000 | p.27 |
| Computer System and Software | $0 | $1,000 | p.27 |
| Additional Funds – 3 Months | $0 | $9,600 | p.27 |
| Total | $114,730 | $228,601 | p.27 |
Revenue (Item 19)
Kona Ice makes no financial performance representation in this filing. The franchisor publishes no unit sales, costs or profits in the document, and no one selling you the franchise may quote numbers outside it.p.59
Units (Item 20)
| Type | Year | Start | End | Net | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| franchised | 2023 | 1,476 | 1,670 | 194 | p.59 |
| company owned | 2023 | 0 | 0 | 0 | p.59 |
| total | 2023 | 1,476 | 1,670 | 194 | p.59 |
| franchised | 2024 | 1,670 | 1,816 | 146 | p.59 |
| company owned | 2024 | 0 | 4 | 4 | p.59 |
| total | 2024 | 1,670 | 1,820 | 150 | p.59 |
| franchised | 2025 | 1,816 | 1,929 | 113 | p.59 |
| company owned | 2025 | 4 | 4 | 0 | p.59 |
| total | 2025 | 1,820 | 1,933 | 113 | p.59 |
Openings and closures, system totals (Table 3)
| Year | Start | Opened | Terminated | Non-renewed | Reacquired | Ceased, other | End | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 1,476 | 209 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1,670 | p.68 |
| 2024 | 1,670 | 182 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 36 | 1,816 | p.68 |
| 2025 | 1,816 | 140 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 27 | 1,929 | p.68 |
Arithmetic checks flagged: Item 20 Table 3 does not foot for 2023: start + opened - closures = 1,681, filing states 1670. The figures shown are as filed.
Litigation (Item 3)
The filing states no litigation is required to be disclosed.p.12
Scorecard
Rank among the brands on this site that report the figure, on each list's own direction. No blended grade. How the lists work.
| Cost to open | $114,730 | 2 of 51 |
| Royalty plus ad fund | held | held |
| Three-year unit growth | 31.0% | 8 of 54 |
| Closure rate, 2025 | 1.5% | 36 of 51, 1 = most |
| Discloses unit revenue | no | |
| Litigation disclosed | 0 | 11 of 26, 1 = most |
Source
Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions franchise filing 641104, effective 4/20/2026, expires 4/20/2027. Extracted 2026-09-03 by two independent readers; only figures both agreed on, whose quoted words appear on the cited page, are shown. 3 fields held for review. How this works.