When Neil Hershman, the 30-year-old CEO and majority proprietor of frozen yogurt chain 16 Handles, visits his self-serve dessert retailers, he retains it easy. His go-to order: a plain tart-flavored swirl with strawberries, blueberries, chocolate chips and hazelnut crunch.
And no, he doesn’t eat frozen yogurt daily — just some occasions per week, he says.
In 2024, New York-based 16 Handles introduced in $20.6 million in systemwide gross sales, and in the primary six months of 2025, systemwide gross sales reached $12.5 million, in line with paperwork reviewed by CNBC Make It.
Once crowded with manufacturers like TCBY, Yogurtland and Menchie’s, the self-serve frozen yogurt area has been shrinking since 2016, in line with knowledge from meals service analysis agency Technomic. However, since taking up the corporate in 2022, Hershman says there’s been a “surge” in buyer demand at 16 Handles.
In-store visitors has been on the rise, persons are spending extra in shops and same-store gross sales have elevated by over 10% yr over yr since he took over, he says.
“Everybody thought frozen yogurt was fading … but we revived the category,” Hershman says.
‘There was no vitality’
Solomon Choi based 16 Handles in 2008 in Manhattan’s East Village. Named for the 16 completely different flavors of self-serve frozen yogurt, soft-serve ice cream or sorbet you will discover in every retailer, the chain at the moment has 40 places, totally on the East Coast.
After graduating from faculty and shifting to New York City in 2017 to work in asset administration, Hershman, who not often ate frozen yogurt rising up, says he rapidly turned an everyday on the Murray Hill 16 Handles location down the block from his first condominium.
Two years into his job in finance, he realized the profession wasn’t a match for him, so in 2019, at 23 years previous, Hershman says he stop his job and bought a 16 Handles franchise utilizing “effectively all the cash” he had saved up at that time — $160,000 in financial savings and slightly below $400,000 from a Small Business Administration mortgage and vendor’s notice.
“I was looking for something that was a little bit more hands on, down to earth and in person,” he says. “I worked the register for full shifts days in and days out … Through that, I learned the business from the inside.”
Neil Hershman bought his first 16 Handles retailer when he was 23 years previous.
Valentina Duarte | CNBC Make It
By 2022, the then-27-year-old owned six places and says he had change into the biggest franchise proprietor of 16 Handles — however he wished to do extra. He says he sat down with 16 Handles management to speak about how he might assist develop the model, however realized the corporate had gotten “stale” in its operations.
“There was no energy and spark and innovation,” he says. “That was very exciting to me because it showed that with new energy and new ideas, there was room to push the needle and innovate.”
That yr, he made a bid to buy the complete firm, utilizing all of his present places as collateral to safe the acquisition for an undisclosed value. Today, Hershman says he is almost all proprietor of 16 Handles. YouTube comic Danny Duncan owns a stake in the corporate, together with a number of different minority traders, he says.
Changing client sentiment
To get folks by the door, Hershman has began launching restricted version flavors like French fry, butter beer and black matcha. Behind the scenes, he says he is additionally invested in revamping the corporate’s digital advertising technique.
So far, Hershman says his efforts to revitalize the model have been working. Since he took over, the chain has added about 10 new places. The firm’s company operations are worthwhile, and he says he is working with 18 franchisees trying to open new shops, with an extra 5 to 6 places anticipated to open this yr.
Founded in 2008, 16 Handles has 40 places totally on the East Coast.
Valentina Duarte | CNBC Make It
The determination to take a position in frozen yogurt could also be nicely timed. Nationally, customers look like embracing frozen yogurt as soon as once more, says David Portalatin, a meals service analyst at market analysis agency Circana. As of July 2025, complete frozen yogurt servings consumed elevated by 10% in contrast with the earlier yr — “a big deal in the context of an overall flat to slightly declining food service market,” he says.
People could also be returning to frozen yogurt not simply out of nostalgia, however as half of a bigger development towards well being consciousness, with many customers viewing it as a more healthy different to different frozen treats like ice cream, Portalatin says.
While there’s nothing flawed with having fun with a enjoyable dessert after dinner, registered dietitian Leah Kaufman cautions customers to be cautious of the sugar content material in frozen yogurt, which could be equally as excessive as ranges discovered in soda and ice cream. “If you’re looking for the health benefits of dessert, I would probably look elsewhere,” she says.
An ‘reasonably priced luxurious’ product
From the frozen mixes produced solely with a creamery in California to the self-serve in-store expertise, Hershman says 16 Handles is priced as a “higher-end” product in comparison with a Mister Softee truck, for instance. On common, prospects spend anyplace from $8 to $10 after they go to 16 Handles, he says.
He’s not searching for prospects to return to his retailer daily both. Rather, he views his frozen yogurt, which is priced by weight, as an “affordable luxury” — a candy deal with a couple of occasions per week, he says.
For Hershman, that is just the start. He says he expects the variety of places to develop to about 100 shops in the subsequent couple of years, and finally, needs to see the model change into a family title.
“My career in finance really taught me how to model risks, and in frozen yogurt, now I manage cookie dough inventory,” Hershman says. “Both are very volatile markets, but one is a lot more fun.”
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