Bentonville T-shirt franchise hits $1M in 2022 revenue

A custom T-shirt franchise with nearly 100 stores nationwide recently honored its only Arkansas store in Bentonville for its seven-figure success.

Tampa, Fla-based Big Frog Custom T-Shirts & More had seven franchises eclipse $1 million in revenue in 2022, a surge from only one store in 2021.

The company recognized the seven franchise owners in April at its annual conference in Florida, and that included the Bentonville store at 2501 S.E. 14th St.

“We could not be more excited to celebrate these seven extraordinary franchisees and our entire system at Frog-A-Thon,” said Tina Bacon-DeFrece, Big Frog Franchise Group President and CEO. “Not only do these owners clearly run high-performing business operations, but they are also just really good people, and we could not be happier they are members of the Big Frog family.”

John and Mara Dougherty — formerly Walmart Inc. corporate workers — purchased the franchise in April 2019. 2022 was their first million-dollar sales year.

Mara and John met at Walmart, where he worked in IT and she in graphic design. Having worked for the retailer for 25 years, John wanted to make a more significant impact on their community instead of just working in corporate America.

The Bentonville Big Frog store also earned the “President’s Frog” award at the 2022 conference for its community support, giving more than $35,000 to charities during 2021.

Big Frog was launched in 2008 and opened its first franchise store in 2009. The company touts its “direct to garment” printing technology, which bonds the ink directly to the fabric. The shirts can be washed in either hot or cold water and with color-safe bleaching without cracking or peeling the image.

The company increased monthly average store revenues 21.4% last year and sold 2.4 million T-shirts in 2022. The store also designs tank tops, sweatshirts, bandanas, onesies, dog clothes, jackets and more.