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 — only a few occasions per week, he says.
In 2024, New York-based 16 Handles introduced in $20.6 million in systemwide gross sales, and within the first six months of 2025, systemwide gross sales reached $12.5 million, in response to paperwork reviewed by CNBC Make It.
As soon as crowded with manufacturers like TCBY, Yogurtland and Menchie’s, the self-serve frozen yogurt house has been shrinking since 2016, in response to information from meals service analysis agency Technomic. Nonetheless, since taking up the corporate in 2022, Hershman says there’s been a “surge” in buyer demand at 16 Handles.
In-store site 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.
“Everyone thought frozen yogurt was fading … however we revived the class,” Hershman says.
‘There was no vitality’
Solomon Choi based 16 Handles in 2008 in Manhattan’s East Village. Named for the 16 totally different flavors of self-serve frozen yogurt, soft-serve ice cream or sorbet you could find in every retailer, the chain presently has 40 places, totally on the East Coast.
After graduating from faculty and shifting to New York Metropolis 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 residence.
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 give up his job and bought a 16 Handles franchise utilizing “successfully all of the money” he had saved up at that time — $160,000 in financial savings and slightly below $400,000 from a Small Enterprise Administration mortgage and vendor’s word.
“I used to be searching for one thing that was just a little bit extra arms on, all the way down to earth and in individual,” he says. “I labored the register for full shifts days in and days out … By that, I realized the enterprise from the within.”
Neil Hershman purchased his first 16 Handles retailer when he was 23 years previous.
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By 2022, the then-27-year-old owned six places and says he had turn into the biggest franchise proprietor of 16 Handles — however he needed 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 vitality and spark and innovation,” he says. “That was very thrilling to me as a result of it confirmed that with new vitality and new concepts, there was room to push the needle and innovate.”
That yr, he made a bid to buy all the firm, utilizing all of his present places as collateral to safe the acquisition for an undisclosed value. At the moment, Hershman says he is almost all proprietor of 16 Handles. YouTube comic Danny Duncan owns a stake within the firm, together with a number of different minority traders, he says.
Altering client sentiment
To get individuals by way of 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.
To date, Hershman says his efforts to revitalize the model have been working. Since he took over, the chain has added about 10 new places. The corporate’s company operations are worthwhile, and he says he is working with 18 franchisees seeking to open new shops, with a further 5 to 6 places anticipated to open this yr.
Based in 2008, 16 Handles has 40 places totally on the East Coast.
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The choice to put money into frozen yogurt could also be properly timed. Nationally, shoppers 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 — “an enormous deal within the context of an total flat to barely declining meals service market,” he says.
Folks could also be returning to frozen yogurt not simply out of nostalgia, however as half of a bigger pattern towards well being consciousness, with many shoppers viewing it as a more healthy various to different frozen treats like ice cream, Portalatin says.
Whereas there’s nothing flawed with having fun with a enjoyable dessert after dinner, registered dietitian Leah Kaufman cautions shoppers to be cautious of the sugar content material in frozen yogurt, which may be equally as excessive as ranges present in soda and ice cream. “For those who’re searching for the well being advantages of dessert, I’d in all probability look elsewhere,” she says.
An ‘inexpensive 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, clients spend wherever from $8 to $10 after they go to 16 Handles, he says.
He isn’t searching for clients to come back to his retailer daily both. Somewhat, he views his frozen yogurt, which is priced by weight, as an “inexpensive luxurious” — a candy deal with a number of occasions per week, he says.
For Hershman, that is only the start. He says he expects the variety of places to develop to about 100 shops within the subsequent couple of years, and ultimately, needs to see the model turn into a family identify.
“My profession in finance actually taught me learn how to mannequin dangers, and in frozen yogurt, now I handle cookie dough stock,” Hershman says. “Each are very risky markets, however one is much more enjoyable.”
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