Baskin-Robbins planning new concepts

TORONTO—After spending six months rolling out soft serve ice cream in its 122 Canadian stores, Baskin-Robbins was looking at two other concepts last month that do not yet have any schedules for opening.

As far as expansion goes, the company is concentrating on saturating the Ontario market, Srninivas Kumar, chief brand officer, Baskin-Robbins Worldwide, told Restaurant News last month.

The soft serve flavours vary from market to market. Some have been adapted from candy bars, tastes that children have grown up with. For instance, there is a Reese’s Peanut Butter sauce to go on the soft serve.

“It allows us to bring a whole new offering of products,” said Canadian franchising manager Marietta Snetsinger who joined Kumar in the interview.

The next development in Canada will be BR 31 Express. “It’s a completely different offering from our other stores,” explained Kumar.

It’s a 200-square-foot kiosk that fits easily into malls and high traffic areas such as in airports.

The company was looking for something significantly different—more than just a concept with a limited menu. So the express unit has only soft serve, but with 31 flavours rotated throughout the year, as do the traditional ice cream parlours.

While eight or 10 of the chain’s most popular flavours have been retained, the others are completely different.

Snetsinger said the Canadian division is working hard to bring this concept into Canada and she has been talking to existing franchisees about it.

It has been tested in the U.S. in five stores. “We were very pleased,” said Kumar. The concept met its three-year goal for return on investment.

They are now looking at several other locations, including Duncan’ Donut stores where it could be installed.

Baskin-Robbins and the doughnut chain are both owned by Dunkin’ Brands Inc., based in Canton, MA.

Also in the works is BR Café 31, a fast casual concept that has been in Asia for years. It offers chef-made desserts and gourmet ice cream products.Children can interact in the store. They can build their own sundaes, choosing from a variety of ingredients. There is a fondue where people dip balls of ice cream into hot chocolate.

“It just becomes a place where people hang out and have fun,” Kumar.

A test unit, complete with kitchen for trying out different menu items, opened in Massachusetts in September last year. They have tested items such as flavoured popcorn and candy floss.

Kumar indicated that Baskin-Robbins has being doing well in Canada. The chain has had three years of continuing same-store sales increase, and the first quarter of the current fiscal year was up even more than in previous quarters, he said.

U.S.-based Baskin-Robbins has 6,000 stores in 35 countries, with sales of $1.4 billion in 2008.