Do we like them?

Do we like Dairy Queen?

Soft-serve ice cream and fast-food chain, mostly franchised; run by International Dairy Queen, based in Minnesota, US.

Our score: 6 out of 10. A well-liked, long-lived brand under steady ownership. The search found franchisee labor violations and franchisee disputes but no big corporate scandal, so we'd back it with some caution.

Dairy Queen is the soft-serve and Blizzard chain, mostly run by franchisees. The parent, International Dairy Queen, belongs to Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett's group. Troy Bader has been in charge as president and CEO, after joining in 2001 and becoming COO in 2011.

The franchise model has caused friction. In 2008, franchise owners in 10 states sued the company and Berkshire over demands to modernize and enlarge their shops. The company said modernization is standard in most franchise contracts.

In October 2023 the US Department of Labor found child labor and wage violations at four New Jersey Dairy Queens run by one franchisee. They involved 23 minors, a $14,006 penalty and $9,764 in back wages. That was the franchisee's doing, not the corporate parent's.

Dairy Queen also sued W.B. Mason over its 'Blizzard' bottled water. In 2022 a federal judge ruled against it, saying there was no evidence of consumer confusion. We don't count suing a rival as good or bad. Overall it's a decent, middling score.