Focus Brands, the parent company of Auntie Anne’s, Carvel, Cinnabon, Jamba, McAlister’s Deli, Moe’s Southwest Grill, and Schlotzsky’s, is capitalizing on franchise growth in the nontraditional sector, now boasting more than 2,000 nontraditional units across the country.
Building on this momentum are two newly signed agreements in the Las Vegas market.
- Mother-daughter entrepreneurial team Vicki Richardson and Leila Day, of JV Ventures, recently opened an Auntie Anne’s location inside of Allegiant Stadium. This location adds to their nontraditional portfolio including two Auntie Anne’s at the Las Vegas Premium Outlets North, an Auntie Anne’s Food Truck, and an Auntie Anne’s location inside Harry Reid International Airport.
- Fifth Avenue Restaurant Group, known for providing the guests of Las Vegas’s most exciting destinations exceptional food and superior service for over 20 years, has signed on to open one Cinnabon and six Auntie Anne’s locations across various Las Vegas casinos. The first Auntie Anne’s opened in the Flamingo Hotel in September, and the first Cinnabon is expected to open in New York, New York by the end of the year. Additional locations guests can expect to find Auntie Anne’s iconic pretzels in the coming years are as follows:
- New York, New York
- Horseshoe Las Vegas
- MGM Grand
- Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino
- Luxor Hotel
“Focus Brands has always found success in the nontraditional sector, predominately in malls, but we’ve since broadened venue types to include airports, entertainment centers, colleges and universities, big box retailers, hotels, casinos, and more,” says Mike Woodward, SVP of Franchise Sales for Focus Brands. “Not only do our nontraditional locations perform strongly, proving the consumer appeal, but these types of nontraditional builds also have the benefit of a smaller square footage with lower startup costs. Pair this with concentrated, high-volume foot traffic, and franchisees see the vast opportunity for enhanced revenue.”
With a variety of iconic brands and cobrand concepts, Focus Brands thrives in this nontraditional sector by meeting the demand for desirable and diverse food and beverage offerings. Company leadership sees vast whitespace for aggressive nontraditional expansion, playing a vital role in the portfolio company’s overall development which is expected to have a record-breaking year.
“We’ll continue to lean into nontraditional expansion as a strategic growth driver,” says Brian Krause, Chief Development Officer of Focus Brands. “Not only do these nontraditional locations present an attractive business opportunity, but with Focus Brands, franchisees gain access to key benefits as a result of the power of our portfolio. They can plug into the shared resources across the company and add more concepts to their portfolio seamlessly and efficiently.”
Key to Focus Brands’ growth strategy has been its transformation into a platform company. Finding portfolio-wide synergies and cost savings adds more fuel to the company’s individual brands. In 2023, Focus Brands is prioritizing the ‘Power of the Portfolio,’ harmonizing across brands to create efficiencies, shared resources, menu diversity, and more – in turn, driving long-term results.
