16 Handles, a self-serve frozen yogurt and soft serve chain founded in 2008, has signed four separate multi-unit agreements totaling eight new locations across California, covering Orange County, Northridge, San Diego, and the San Francisco Bay Area. The deals represent the franchise brand’s most concentrated single-state expansion push to date on the West Coast and further strengthen its scalable franchise concept.
16 Handles launched in New York City in 2008 with a self-serve format that allows customers to mix frozen yogurt and soft serve flavors and toppings independently. The brand currently operates more than 40 locations nationally. California, with its large population, established frozen dessert consumer culture, and year-round warm climate, represents a significant opportunity for a brand that built its early identity on the East Coast.
Four Deals, Four Markets, Eight Units
The four agreements, all reported by Franchise Times, each cover two units:
- Orange County: franchisees Fadl Abdel Karim and Jamila Refky
- Northridge (Los Angeles area): franchisee Rockwell Allen
- San Diego: franchisee Paul Vignola, a US military veteran
- San Francisco Bay Area: franchisees Arthi and Karthik Karthikeyan
The four markets span the length of California, from the San Diego border metro to the Bay Area, and encompass a diverse range of consumer demographics and urban densities. Signing four distinct operators simultaneously across a single state is a franchising approach that brands sometimes pursue to seed multiple clusters at once rather than building sequentially from a single market.
Diverse Franchisee Profiles
The four franchisee teams reflect a range of backgrounds. Paul Vignola’s profile as a military veteran aligns with an active trend in franchising: veteran entrepreneurs have been among the more consistently active buyer segments in franchise development over the past decade, supported by financing programs and organizational culture fit that several franchise brands have cited in their recruitment materials. The Karthikeyan partnership in the Bay Area and the Abdel Karim-Refky team in Orange County represent the kind of co-investment structures that multi-unit agreements increasingly attract, spreading operational responsibility and capital commitment across two principals.
Frozen Desserts and the West Coast Market
The self-serve frozen yogurt segment experienced rapid growth in the early 2010s, followed by a period of consolidation as consumer preferences shifted and competition intensified. Brands that have navigated that period most durably have generally done so by broadening their dessert menus to include soft serve, mix-ins, and seasonal formats. California’s frozen dessert market is among the most competitive in the country, with local and regional independent operators, as well as national chains, present across all major metro areas. The eight units committed across these four deals will expand 16 Handles’ California presence from its current base and give the brand a more distributed West Coast footprint.
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