For established concepts, sometimes the key to prospering and expanding is to seek menu items from another existing brand. Chicken Salad Chick and HTeaO have their markets covered for customers seeking a hearty lunchtime chicken salad or an on-the-go curated iced tea, but what if they want a little treat to go with it?
Founded in 2008 by Stacy and Kevin Brown, Chicken Salad Chick has a menu featuring 12 takes on chicken salad. Based in Atlanta, the brand’s varieties are made from scratch each morning.
As a single mom, Stacy made chicken salad at home and sold it door-to-door. After her business got too big for her home kitchen, she opened her first restaurant in Auburn, Alabama. As her brand grew, so did her roster of flavors. With names like Kickin’ Kay Lynne and Olivia’s Old South, the title of each dish features an ode to a real “chick” in Stacy’s life.
While the concept of a chicken salad-based restaurant may sound niche, CMO Tom Carr says, “It has a lot to do with knowing who you are—[with] our roots in the South, chicken salad is a staple.”
“Everybody wants a little something sweet at the end of the meal,” Carr continues. Every plate at Chicken Salad Chick comes with a pickle and a “two-bite” cookie. It also offers full-size cookies and pies, but they did not sell as well because they were not in the customers’ view. “So, we knew there was an opportunity for something that’d be aligned with chicken salad, sort of our Southern hospitality roots, and having something more to share as a dessert, or to take out to-go,” Carr says.
Piece of Cake is an Atlanta-based bakery with eight locations around the metropolitan area. For Atlantans, it’s a chain that families rely on for their birthdays and holidays. Chicken Salad Chick saw no better fit for outsourcing a dessert than one right next door. As Piece of Cake looked to change its business strategy, Chicken Salad Chick saw the opportunity to purchase it, with the deal finalizing in November 2023.
Since May, every restaurant has been outfitted with cake stands on their counters, displaying a full hand-frosted, preservative-free, white chocolate cake from Piece of Cake.
With both being female-founded companies, there is a clear brand connection, but, Carr adds, “For our strategy, it had more to do with the quality of the product. We knew people loved it because we were some of the customers of Piece of Cake, so we knew how good the product was.”
Its decision to purchase Piece of Cake allowed it to control the supply chain flow. By outsourcing menu items, a brand can focus on its own in-house product flow without the additive slow process of recipe testing, manufacturing, and implementation. It also provides an opportunity to highlight a smaller business.
HTeaO, a Dallas-based iced tea concept, was in a similar situation. HTeaO’s iced tea flavors are desserts themselves, with features like Sweet Peach Cobbler and Sweet Mango Fresco on top of its highly acclaimed regular and unsweet options. The company had been offering ready-to-eat snacks such as chips and chocolate, but lacked a more filling option.
Besides its 26 bubblers each featuring a different flavor of freshly brewed iced tea, president Heath Nielsen says the chain’s “secret menu” and creative combinations are what set it apart from other beverage-led spots. Nielsen has more than 12 years of experience in executive roles at Starbucks and Black Rifle Coffee Company, among other roles, but he was led to join HTeaO due to the “fun and lighthearted” and “human experience”-driven culture he found in stores. “It’s self-serve,” he says, “so you get to create your own journey.”
As the brand sought to further develop its ready-to-eat menu, HTeaO landed upon a collaboration with San Francisco-based bakery Just Desserts, which launched in July. “The reason we partnered [with Just Desserts] is the taste profile of their particular product with our tea was a perfect match.”
HTeaO sells six flavors of Just Desserts’ cupcake lineup: red velvet, carrot cake, cookies and cream, chocolate fudge, and celebration. HTeaO recently expanded its offerings, with Just Desserts’ cinnamon churro crunch bites and brownies available now in select stores.
By adding Just Desserts to its lineup, Nielsen says sales have “been nothing short of phenomenal.” The iced tea brand also has another partnership at play—getting its coffee from actor Cole Hauser’s Free Rein Coffee Company.
The choice to distribute and use items from other companies helps to not only boost sales for all included, but also lets brands like HTeaO grow and adapt their menu while keeping focus on enhancing their own product.
“I love the collaborations,” Nielsen says. “When you can get other like-minded brands that fit the same kind of values [and] flavor profile, that’s when you get the best partnership in synergy.”
The hardest part of incorporating items like cupcakes into the HTeaO concept is the newfound distribution factor. While the beverage chain has locations from New Mexico to Florida, Just Desserts makes everything in-house in its California facility.
However, HTeaO has found the partnership to be worth it, with Nielsen stating the cupcakes are “definitely the fan favorites” of its food offerings.
