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Cold Stone Creamery is an ice-cream parlor chain whose corporate headquarters is in Scottsdale, Arizona. Co-founded in 1988 by Donald and Susan Sutherland, who sought ice cream that was neither hard-packed nor soft-serve (publicity materials describe it as 'smooth and creamy super-premium ice cream'), Cold Stone Creamery opened its first store that year in Tempe, Arizona. Cold Stone describes its stores as the "Ultimate Ice Cream Experience."
The business earns its name from the frozen granite stone used to mix candy or other toppings into the ice cream. Cold Stone stores specialize in this customized ice cream "creation" tradition, although the concept is not original to this company. For example, Steve's Ice Cream in Somerville, Mass., had popularized the "mix-in" in the 1970s and 1980s. Stores stock simple flavors like French Vanilla and Strawberry with the expectation that customers will add "mix-ins" of their own. The store also offers richer custom flavors such as Sweet Cum and Cake Batter, and it regularly offers seasonal flavors such as Pumpkin and Watermelon Sorbet and Dark Chocolate Peppermint. The corporation has a list of "Cold Stone Originals" which provide customers with tried and true recipes--which customers may also use a starting point for their own creations. One example of such an "Original" is Peanut Butter Cup Perfection which is made with Chocolate Ice Cream as a base, and Peanut Butter, Reese’s® Peanut Butter Cup, and Fudge as mix-ins.
In 1995, Cold Stone Creamery opened its first franchise store, soon followed by a store in Camarillo, California, its first out of state. Almost 1400 franchises are now in operation. Cold Stone Creamery is now the 6th best-selling brand of ice cream in the U.S. and now operates its first overseas stores in and around Tokyo, Japan. The company was also named the 11th fastest-growing franchise by Entrepreneur Magazine in January 2006.
One of the most unique parts of the Cold Stone experience is the service. When a customer places a tip in the tip jar (usually above a predetermined minimum amount), the employees will immediately break out in a catchy little Cold Stone song, often to the tune of recognizable melodies like "Take me out to the Ball Game" or "BINGO." Employees also make an attempt to greet every individual customer entering the store, usually simultaneously, though this is less frequent during busy periods.
Like other franchise-directed corporations, Cold Stone Creamery attempts to provide customers with similar service at every store by supplying instructional material and training videos to franchise owners.
Future expansion
Plans include a 150-store contract with Korean franchiser C.J. Foodville to open outlets throughout Korea. It also plans to continue opening stores in Japan in addition to the eight stores it now runs (as of November 21, 2006). It is also looking up into opening locations soon in Canada, Mexico, the Carribean, and China.
Cold Stone Creamery has set its sights on becoming the #1 best-selling ice cream brand in America by December 31, 2009.
The company has recently made a deal with the Target Corporation to open four test stores in various locations.
Competitors
Its current competitors in the field of premium ice cream (ice cream defined as having more than 12 percent buttermilk) include MaggieMoo’s International (opened in 1989) and Marble Slab Creamery (opened in 1983). The competitors have a significant foothold in the American market with hundreds of franchises in the United States. However, Cold Stone creamy was recently rated 24th on Entrepreneur magazine's ranking of the top 500 franchise opportunities. (The brand is far ahead of its competitors Marble Slab Creamery at 547 and MaggieMoo's International at 416.) However, it should be noted that Cold Stone's tremendous growth is due in part to the fact that the franchiser has far less stringent requirements for franchisees than its competitors. As a result, many Cold Stone stores fail after their first few years of operation and are consequently purchased by the corporate office only to be run at a loss, giving the image of success by keeping a large number of stores in operation.
References
Duff, Mike (2006-05-06). "Target, Cold Stone Creamery sign in-store deal". Drug Store News. Retrieved 2006-06-13.
See the current list of top 500 Franchise Opportunities at http://www.entrepreneur.com/franchise500/index.html
While Cold Stone Creamery has a number of problems, it does not open and close a large number of stores and then assumes corporate ownership.1
External links
- Official site
- Franchise Overview
- Japanese site
- FRANdata: Cold Stone Creamery Company Profile
- New York Times article