The global food and beverage franchise group, which opened more than 400 stores across its seven foodservice brands last year, says co-branded outlets, bringing its supply chain in-house and technology innovation will be key to its growth strategy
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Focus Brands opened more than 400 stores across its brand portfolio across the last 12 months | Photo credit: Cinnabon
Atlanta-based franchise group Focus Brands has credited increased synergies between its food and beverage brands for driving record group sales in 2022.
The company, which operates the Auntie Anne's, Carvel, Cinnabon, Jamba, McAlister's Deli, Moe's Southwest Grill and Schlotzsky's brands, achieved system-wide sales exceeding £3.9bn in 2022.
Focus Brands said transitioning to a ‘platform company’ had strongly contributed to its growth, creating efficiencies and enabling better sharing resources across its brands.
In January 2023 the global franchise group announced agreements to open more than 50 dual and tri-brand stores – single outlets comprising multiple brands – this year alone.
By integrating multiple brands into a single retail space, Focus Brands said it would be able to meet consumer demand in ‘new and innovative ways’ while giving franchisees the opportunity to ‘increase average volume and bottom-line profitability’.
The franchise group currently operates more than 1,100 co-located or co-branded units globally.
Focus Brands also announced opening more than 400 stores across its brand portfolio across the last 12 months and signing a further 650 franchise agreements.
The company revealed 4.1 million new loyalty members were added across its portfolio globally in 2022. Focus Brands has set a goal to have its digital and loyalty sales collectively comprise 50% of the business within the next five years.
“Our brands have so much runway in both the US and around the world. In the US, many of our brands are still very regional and have the opportunity to expand outside of their core areas with the backing of the Focus Brands portfolio. Internationally, our brands have 1,900-plus locations and we are hard at work growing our brands in these markets. The key to our growth strategy will be synergies across our portfolio, bringing supply chain in-house, heavy investments in technology innovations, and growth via M&A as we expand with concepts that complement our existing brands and allow us to continue to grow in new markets,” said Jim Holthouser, CEO, Focus Brands.
Focus Brands operates more than 6,600 restaurants, cafés, ice cream shops and bakeries globally. The company also operates the Seattle's Best Coffee brand on certain international US military bases.