Cookie dough franchise to open in Springfield

Photo courtesy Google Maps

NoBaked Cookie Dough is slated to open next month in Fremont Corners.

Franchisees of Nashville, Tennessee-based NoBaked Cookie Dough are bringing the concept to Springfield next month.

Michael Lassen, with business partner Kyler Steding, is targeting an opening before Valentine’s Day at 1364 E. Republic Road, in the Fremont Corners shopping center.

“It kind of smacked me in the face,” Lassen said of the franchise opportunity.

Lassen was working for Springfield-based Franchise Dynamics helping businesses launch and grow their franchise operations when NoBaked Cookie Dough came across his desk.

“I realized this is a really unique concept,” he said. “I fell in love with it.”

NoBaked Cookie Dough offers raw, edible cookie dough, as well as coffee and shakes.

“It’s kind of like an ice cream shop,” Lassen said.

Lassen and Steding signed a five-year lease for roughly 1,300 square feet at the former home of Star Cakes. He said lease terms amount to payments of less than $2,000 per month. Star Cakes continues to operate without a storefront.

Lassen said he negotiated undisclosed franchise terms with NoBaked Cookie Dough. The company typically charges a $30,000 franchise fee, 6 percent royalties and 1 percent for marketing, he said.

“I was able to put less than $100,000 into it to get it open,” Lassen said.

Lassen acknowledged downtown’s Crave Cookie Dough LLC was the first to bring the concept to market when they launched in May last year. He said there’s room in the market for both ventures since raw cookie dough in a retail setting is still a relatively new concept.

“They’ve done a phenomenal job,” he said.

Lassen said he and Steding — who he worked with at Franchise Dynamics — signed a franchise agreement for most of southwest Missouri. They’re planning at least one more location in Springfield, as well as a possible food truck, and also targeting Nixa, Ozark, Branson and Joplin.

Founded in 2017, NoBaked Cookie Dough’s website lists stores in Nashville and Louisville, Kentucky. Lassen said the company’s franchise strategy calls on 300 stores in five years.