Cinnabon®, Inc., a subsidiary of AFC Enterprises, Inc. (NasdaqNM:AFCE), announced it has signed an agreement with Sun-Maid® Growers of California to license Cinnabon Cinnamon Bread for manufacture and sale in the grocery channel. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

“Our strategy is to take Cinnabon from a single product to a consumer brand,” said Chris Elliott, Cinnabon interim president. “Licensing allows us to leverage the power of the Cinnabon name, build our brand, and add to our bottom line very efficiently.”

Cinnabon Cinnamon Bread is made with familiar ingredients such as Cinnabon cream cheese frosting and the brand’s proprietary Makara(TM) cinnamon. The bread will be in test markets in second quarter 2003. A full product launch is scheduled for the fourth quarter 2003, pending favorable test results.

The breakfast breads category in the US is a $140 million business and is growing six percent per year,“ said Mike Boggus, Director of Sales and Marketing for Sun-Maid Licensed Products. ”We hope to do for Cinnabon Cinnamon Bread what we’ve achieved for Sun-Maid in the raisin bread category.“