The Cold Stone and Papa Murphy's parent will stay intact but plans to shed corporate stores and possibly sell brands that would do better elsewhere.
MTY Group has closed the strategic review it opened in November 2025 without selling the company. The board chose to speed up its existing plan instead, with a focus on simplification, efficiency, and tighter capital allocation across roughly 6,966 locations.
CEO Eric Lefebvre told investors that everything is for sale at the right price, and that brands MTY has no growth plan for could move to new owners. He pointed to possible action in 2027. For franchisees in MTY's long tail of concepts, that means a change of franchisor is a real scenario worth planning around.
Corporate stores fell to 2.6% of the system from 3.6% a year ago, and MTY now expects 75 corporate closures, with 50 already done. Many were units it repossessed from struggling franchisees, including a Papa Murphy's portfolio that never recovered. The target is about 1% corporate, with strong units refranchised at fair prices rather than dumped.
Q3 system sales held near $1.5 billion while same-store sales fell 1.9%, led by a 2.7% U.S. decline. MTY opened 72 units and closed 146. Shrinking the footprint while comps slide puts pressure on royalty income, which explains the push to cut corporate overhead and exit drag.
Multi-unit buyers get a pipeline of refranchising deals across dozens of brands. Existing owners should watch which concepts get investment and which get shopped, since Lefebvre said the brands sold may not be the weakest ones.
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