After more than a year on the market, Famous Brands International, the parent to the Mrs. Fields and TCBY chains, has yet to find a buyer.
But Famous Brands’ newly appointed CEO Dustin Lyman is working on upgrades to both brands that will position the company for growth, and, potentially, for an eventual sale.
“My focus is on growing this business,” Lyman told Nation’s Restaurant News.
“We believe that continuing on our path to growth and being successful with the operating plan will go hand-in-hand with anyone buying the business down the road,” he said. “There’s no timeline for that. We’re just focused on being successful.”
Private-equity firm Z Capital Partners LLC, now majority stakeholder in Broomfield, Colo.-based Famous Brands, first bought into the company after a January 2012 recapitalization.
Lyman, a former tight end for the Chicago Bears professional football team, is the company’s third chief executive in three years, replacing Jonathan Drake, who was appointed CEO in 2015. At the time, Drake replaced Neal Courtney, who was named CEO in 2013.
Between the two brands, which are 95-percent franchised, there are 700 locations worldwide, including about 320 domestic TCBY locations and 100 units overseas, as well as 200 Mrs. Fields units across the U.S. and 130 locations internationally.
Here’s what’s in the works for both brands:
TCBY
TCBY, the frozen-yogurt brand, has been challenged in recent years by a gaggle of entrants to the marketplace, from Yogurtland to Pinkberry, Lyman said.
But TCBY, a 35-year-old brand, has weathered such challenges before, he said.
“Frozen yogurt has been historically volatile,” Lyman said. “There are periods of retraction and entrenchment. But it is better for you than ice cream, and there will always be a certain level of interest and demand for frozen yogurt.”
One solution: Getting the product into the hands of more customers, he said.
“What we find in our research is the biggest inhibitor to TCBY purchase is accessibility to the point of purchase. There are just not enough locations that are convenient to our customers,” Lyman said.
For about six years, TCBY has been experimenting with self-service yogurt formats, similar to a vending machine, that could work as a kiosk at a university, or in a convenience store or airport, he said.
Five fro-yo vending machines are now being rotated through various settings to see where they work best.
“They perform well at all locations, but we’re really excited about the university setting,” Lyman said.
Co-branding partnerships are also an opportunity, he said.
“You could have a full-format store with 12 handles and 24 flavors, or one handle with two flavors on the countertop at another concept,” Lyman said.
In the past, TCBY has tested co-branded locations with franchisees of the sandwich brand Schlotzsky’s, and those units performed better than expected, he said.
“We need to pick up those conversations again,” Lyman said.
Mrs. Fields
Like TCBY, Famous Brands hopes to make Mrs. Fields cookies and sweets more available through foodservice channels and as a co-branding partner.
Historically, the cookie brand has focused on mall retail outlets, Lyman said.
“But the reality is mall traffic has been down for some time now,” he said.
Mrs. Fields has recently been building its online e-commerce platform as a business-to-business gift, or for parents to send to their kids at college. The chain’s cookie cakes — essentially a giant cookie — are customizable online and a popular gift.
The company has experimented with co-branded Mrs. Fields/TCBY units, and recently opened the first dual-brand location at a Walmart store in Colorado as a test, Lyman said.
Famous Brands also recently acquired the Maxfield Candy and Nutty Guys snack brands, and Mrs. Fields now has a new proprietary line of chocolates and confections.
Grocery channels also offer an opportunity.
Mrs. Fields has long offered shelf-stable cookies in grocery stores through a third-party manufacturer. Soon, a new line of chocolate-covered cookie-dough treats will appear both in grocery stores and in Mrs. Fields retail locations.
Next spring, the company will debut a new refrigerated cookie dough in grocery stores that can be baked at home.
“We want to make sure we remind customers that our excellent products are available to them, and there are locations that can be easy and accessible, especially during the upcoming holiday gifting season,” Lyman said.
Contact Lisa Jennings at [email protected]
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