GoTo Foods, formerly known as Focus Brands, has been hinting about this for some time, but the new Cinnabon Swirl brand is almost ready for its debut.
It’s the newest concept from GoTo, which is parent to seven brands, including Auntie Anne’s, McAlister’s Deli, Jamba and Schlotzsky’s.
And, of course, there’s Cinnabon and Carvel, and the new Cinnabon Swirl is a mashup of the two.
“This is the ultimate treat destination, with Cinnabon’s world famous cinnamon rolls and Carvel’s irresistible soft serve ice cream,” said Kristen Hartman, GoTo’s specialty category president.
A rendering of the first Cinnabon Swirl, scheduled to open this summer. |Image courtesy of GoTo Foods.
The first franchise unit is scheduled to open in Hawaii this summer, and a second is expected to follow later this year in Oregon, and there are nine units in the development pipeline. The brand is also officially available for franchising.
The goal is to help move the GoTo snack brand to more streetside locations. Most are in malls and non-traditional locations, but the snack brands within the group have been building off-premise sales. In fact, Carvel has the highest percentage of delivery than any of the GoTo snack brands, said Hartman, and the Cinnamon Swirl concept is also expected to do well for off-premise.
On the menu at Cinnabon Swirl will be classics, like the baked goods Cinnabon is known for and Carvel’s soft serve, but also product combinations not available at the individual brands.
At Swirl, for example, ice cream can top smaller “center of the roll” bits of Cinnabon rolls, where the cinnamon sugar collects for an extra, special bite.
Over the past four years, the platform company has been encouraging franchisees to co-brand or co-locate, with combinations like Auntie Anne’s/Jamba and Cinnabon/Carvel. There are more than 580 co-branded locations in the U.S., Hartman said. Generally, those are two brands together, but over the last year, some tri-branded units have opened.
“Those have tended to be Auntie Anne’s, Cinnabon and Carvel, primarily in the Northeast,” she said. “And this year we have some additional tri-brands in the pipeline, and we are going to open our first two quad brands.”
The second Cinnabon Swirl scheduled to open this year in Oregon will be operated by a franchisee who will also operate a co-branded Auntie Anne’s/Jamba next door, Hartman said.
A rendering of the exterior of the new Cinnabon Swirl brand. |Image courtesy of GoTo Foods.
Co-branded units tend to have average unit volumes that are about 45% higher than those of the individual brands, she noted.
This year, GoTo Foods will roll out a new POS system across all brands, which will smooth the path for more co-branding. Hartman said there may also be an opportunity to offer a loyalty program that crosses the specialty snack brands.
“We’re doing so much co-branding and we can see a world in which that would be an even greater value proposition for consumers, being able to get one loyalty program where you earn and redeem for Auntie Anne’s and Cinnabon,” she said. “We have not conceived of what that’s going to be like yet, but we can see that it would have some consumer interest.”
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