Gary Bales is a man with a mission. The president of Cinnabon is overseeing the overhaul of the 570-unit quick-serve chain, a division of Atlanta-based Focus Brands Inc.
Bales was appointed president of Cinnabon about nine months ago, and he has big plans for the chain. He intends to turn the brand around by converting it into a bakery-cafe concept. The process is expected to take about three years to complete. Recently, he talked to Nation’s Restaurant News about his plans.
Education: bachelor of science degree from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio
Hometown: Cincinnati
Career Highlights: serving in an executive capacity at such restaurant brands as TCBY, Summit Family Restaurant Group, Bob’s Big Boy, Ponderosa and as a 21-unit franchisee with the Zuka Juice smoothie chain before joining Carvel Ice Cream in 2002 as vice president of marketing
Personal: single
Cinnabon is undergoing a lot of change right now. Why reinvent the concept at all?
This year is our 25th anniversary, and we have been a single-product brand for 25 years. The Cinnabon name has been tied to the cinnamon roll product. Much like other older brands — I like to give the example of Dairy Queen, which also was famous as a single product brand — it had to evolve into something new with added food products and a new look. We’re looking for the next thing that will grow Cinnabon. We’re looking to expand our appeal to a broader audience.
How has Cinnabon weathered the economic storms of the last few years?
The brand is in high-traffic areas, built for airports and malls. What’s happening in the malls is traffic is going down. People don’t have time to cruise the shops any more. They go in and get out. We found through research that we needed to reinvent the brand to increase our traffic.
How do you plan to do this?
Well, the first step involved the development of a more relevant look. We tested the redesign in 2009 at four company-owned stores in the Houston market. It has a much cleaner, more contemporary look with dark woods and less clutter. We’ve also expanded our beverage line to feature a proprietary frozen beverage. That also has been in test for about a year and is seeing double-digit increases in sales.
The second step, which we’re doing now, is to look at products and product lines to expand our customer base. We’ve already rolled out a cupcake line to take advantage of the cupcake craze, and we’re going into test in August with a breakfast program that we think has real potential for us, that will create incremental business. It will feature traditional egg and cheese sandwiches with sausage or bacon or just egg and cheese. The bread itself will be made fresh in store with Cinnabon dough. We’ll also offer combo meals featuring blueberry muffins, hash browns, coffee and orange juice as side items.
What about lunch? Are you planning something for that daypart, too?
We’re not sure what we’re going to call it yet, but we’re looking at a couple of things. We’re going to test a Panini-style sandwich made with smoked turkey, chicken, angus roast beef or Black Forest ham.
And what about an espresso-based coffee line? It seems like every bakery-cafe concept has to have gourmet coffees now.
That is the third part of our plan. We are actively working on developing an espresso-based line of coffee drinks that will allow us to offer a full line of lattes, cappuccinos and flavored iced coffees. We’ll be going from just a drip coffee program to a full coffee line.
