{"id":248108,"date":"2026-05-29T20:02:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T20:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/248108\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T20:02:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T20:02:10","slug":"dairy-queen-is-giving-cash-to-franchisees-that-open-new-locations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/248108\/","title":{"rendered":"Dairy Queen is giving cash to franchisees that open new locations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Want to open a Dairy Queen? The brand will give you cash.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Minneapolis-based treat chain said on Wednesday announced a new incentive program, giving franchisees who open one of the brand\u2019s Grill & Chill fast-food units a $150,000, lump-sum payment, provided they open the location on time.<\/p>\n

Each subsequent freestanding restaurant they open within 18 months of the first unit will yield a bigger, $200,000 cash incentive. The program applies to franchise agreements approved in the U.S. and Canada.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis initiative is designed to support franchisees who are ready to grow with the brand and have a solid development strategy in place,\u201d Gregg Benvenuto, VP, franchise development in the U.S. and Canada, said in a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dairy Queen is one of a number of chains that have started offering incentives<\/a> to encourage franchisees to open new units, including some, such as Firehouse Subs, offering direct cash.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Related:Jersey Mike\u2019s leases space for new headquarters<\/a><\/p>\n

Dairy Queen\u2019s is more generous than many others, though the initial investment on a Grill & Chill location ranges from $1.5 million to $2.6 million, according to the company\u2019s franchise website.<\/a><\/p>\n

The fast-food chain has been shifting away from its more traditional, treats-only locations toward full-fledged fast-food restaurants. That can be seen in the numbers: Average-unit volumes increased 4.5% to $1.2 million. But the chain closed more than 2% of its U.S. locations and finished 2025 with just over 4,100 restaurants, according to Technomic Ignite data.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Want to open a Dairy Queen? The brand will give you cash.\u00a0 The Minneapolis-based treat chain said on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248109,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-248108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}