{"id":34107,"date":"2023-05-08T23:28:30","date_gmt":"2023-05-09T05:28:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/rocky-mountain-chocolate-factory-sells-frozen-yogurt-franchise\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:16:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:16:16","slug":"rocky-mountain-chocolate-factory-sells-frozen-yogurt-franchise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/rocky-mountain-chocolate-factory-sells-frozen-yogurt-franchise\/","title":{"rendered":"Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory sells frozen yogurt franchise"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Rocky
Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory dismissed its lawsuit seeking more than $1 million in reimbursement from AB Value\/Radoff Group. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory sold the franchise rights of U-Swirl Inc., a frozen yogurt franchise headquartered in Durango on May 1.<\/p>\n

The move comes as part RMCF\u2019s attempt to focus on its core operations in manufacturing and marketing.<\/p>\n

U-Swirl originated in Henderson, Nevada, but after the company was acquired by RMCF in 2013, it was headquartered in Durango. The frozen yogurt company was sold to Foster\u2019s Freeze, a California based company with over 60 locations.<\/p>\n

Rocky Mountain\u2019s sale of all remaining U-Swirl franchise-related assets represents the company\u2019s exit from frozen yogurt operations completely. This includes its own Aspen Leaf frozen yogurt franchise with locations in Farmington and St. Joseph, Missouri.<\/p>\n

In total, U-Swirl has 10 locations across the United States. In Fiscal Year 2022, the RMCF\u2019s frozen yogurt operations segment generated about $2.9 million of revenue and $700,000 of adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.<\/p>\n

Between Fiscal Year 2017 and Fiscal Year 2022, revenue and adjusted EBITDA for the company\u2019s frozen yogurt operations segment declined 45% and 60%, respectively, according to a news release from RMCF last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe yogurt business has been a part of the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory family for over a decade, beginning with the launch of Aspen Leaf in 2010 and then our acquisition of U-Swirl in 2013,\u201d said CEO Rob Sarlls.<\/p>\n

Sarlls said the divestiture enabled the company to focus on manufacturing and marketing its chocolate products for a consistently growing marketplace.<\/p>\n

The proceeds from the sale will be reinvested into RMCF\u2019s factory and equipment to drive operational efficiencies, product development, and improve product quality and consistency, he said.<\/p>\n

It will also allow the company to strengthen its relationship with its existing Rocky Mountain franchisees, something that was a primary focus for the company which was part of the company\u2019s strategic plan.<\/p>\n

The company has attempted to recommit itself to its Durango roots as part of the strategic plan. This included adding a Durango-based senior director of manufacturing and a director of research and development in February.<\/p>\n

tbrown@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Company says sale was made to help implement company strategic plan <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27309,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[431,28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-34107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-business-general","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34107"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82475,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34107\/revisions\/82475"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34107"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=34107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}