Caribou Coffee led all Beverage-Snack chains in store-count growth in the Latest Year.

Save for Cold Stone Creamery, all of the chains in the Beverage-Snack segment of the Second 100 report registered domestic sales and new unit growth for 2012, with many crediting popular food platforms for driving further expansion.

Caribou Coffee led all Second 100 Beverage-Snack chains in store-count growth in the Latest Year, as its system size increased 8.4 percent, nearly doubling its 4.3-percent growth rate in the Preceding Year.

However, that number does not account for the Minneapolis-based brand’s more recent decision to close 80 underperforming locations and convert another 88 units to Peet’s Coffee & Tea stores — another Second 100 chain that became Caribou’s sibling brand with Caribou’s December 2012 acquisition by German holding company Joh. A. Benckiser Group.

Many of the converted Peet’s locations will be in markets like Chicago; Washington, D.C.; Ohio; and Michigan.

Alfredo Martel, Caribou’s senior vice president of marketing, described the moves as “pruning before the blooming” that the company said will benefit both brands.

Data

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“The conversions will give Peet’s a foothold in non-San Francisco markets, and we’ll aggressively put our innovation engine on full throttle to really elevate our average unit volumes,” he said. “We’ll continue to open stores in our regions of influence: Minnesota, the Dakotas, Iowa, Wisconsin and Denver. We’ll develop units in a fill-in mode where we know we have leverage and brand dominance.”

According to Caribou, much of the product innovation the chain has in mind would continue to center on its baked-foods platform, which includes grilled cheese sandwiches, breakfast sandwiches and quiches, which were introduced in June.

Similarly, Tropical Smoothie Café grew its estimated sales per unit, or ESPU, in the Latest Year by 7 percent to $471,900 by promoting itself as a food destination, chief executive Mike Rotondo said.

“The challenge for somebody in this category is, if you’re a smoothie concept, what else do you have besides muffins and granola?” Rotondo said. “We’ve succeeded by having credible food and fitting into the better-for-you food category. But the beauty of it is as we’ve focused on food, smoothie sales have grown right along with it.”

One of Tropical Smoothie Café’s most on-trend beverages, a spinach and kale smoothie, is “the No. 1 seller with a bullet,” he added.

Rotondo also said restaurants opened last year are producing average unit volumes 25 percent above the typical Tropical Smoothie Café, which he owed to “homing in on the right locations, with great franchisees, at the right time.” Half of the Destin, Fla.-based brand’s franchise growth is coming from existing franchisees, he said.

Tom O’Keefe, president and chief operating officer of Smoothie King, is targeting similar growth from the New Orleans-based chain’s franchisee base.

“We have more single-unit operators now, and I want to make those existing single-unit guys multiunit operators, while recruiting more multiunit people to the brand,” O’Keefe said. “We’ve got prospects in places like Connecticut or St. Louis now, so we’re seeing the brand can penetrate climates that had not been seen as favorable for the model before. But given the results we’re seeing, we think we have tremendous upside.”

Several factors contributed to Smoothie King’s 10.1-percent increase in ESPU and 4.1-percent growth in units in the Latest Year, O’Keefe said. They include very warm weather, enthusiasm and growth capital from new CEO Wan Kim, and a successful launch of the Lean1 smoothie. But the biggest advantage both in the present and over the long term would be the country’s move toward more healthful lifestyles, he said.

“The drive toward healthier lifestyles is here to stay; there’s so much awareness being brought to the issue,” O’Keefe said. “As that continues and people act on it, we think we’re positioned perfectly to act on that and grow in that niche.”

By the numbers

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