Pelican’s SnoBalls
801 2ND Ave, Gastonia, NC 28054
Approximately 85-90% of the Pelican’s SnoBalls restaurant locations are linked in the Atlas Research Platform.
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(US & CAN)
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Cuisines
1 of 1 shownStates & Provinces
3 of 17 shownSummary
Pelican's SnoBalls is a quick serve shaved ice and ice cream concept founded in 2001 when then-13-year-old Ansley Johnson brought New Orleans-style snoballs to Garner, North Carolina, after falling in love with the treat on summer visits to her grandparents in Chalmette, Louisiana. She named the business after Louisiana's state bird and ran day-to-day operations while her parents worked full time, with younger brothers helping for a promised wage of fifty cents an hour. Her father Adrian later joined full time so Ansley could pursue veterinary school, and customer demand led the family to begin franchising the concept into other communities. In 2017, with about 80 stores in the system, the Johnsons sold the franchise to co-CEOs Gregg Fatool and Randall Wright, both multi-unit franchisees, who relocated headquarters to Gastonia, North Carolina. The company remains privately held. Nearly all of its locations are franchised. The footprint has a Southeast core and reach into Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, and California markets. Shops serve lunch and dinner guests soft, fluffy New Orleans-style shaved ice with more than 100 syrup flavors, optional cream add-ins, and playful signature combinations such as Shark Attack and Unicorn, clearly distinguishing snoballs from crunchy fairground snow cones.
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The Restaurant Enterprise Index is RestaurantData’s research framework for organizing major restaurant enterprises, including franchisors, franchisees, multi-concept operators, and parent organizations.
Certain sales and location totals are presented as estimates when companies do not publish single current figures.
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- Sources: Publicly available filings throughout, including public Franchise Disclosure Documents (FDDs).
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- Duration: Continuous tracking since 1997. Twenty-nine years of unit-level history.
- Method: Same methodology applied across the full period so year-over-year comparisons hold.
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- Result: Expansion and contraction trends visible over decades, not snapshots.
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