Baskin-Robbins have announced this month that they have scored a victory over one of its biggest ice cream shop rivals after securing a franchise deal to replace Ben & Jerry’s at Cineworld cinemas across Britain. This expanded deal also includes any future Cineworld sites which is brilliant news for the Baskin-Robbins franchise network because it will provide the brand with much greater exposure across the UK.
Under this new agreement, Baskin-Robbins kiosks have been added to 42 Cineworld cinemas across the UK and Ireland. This adds to the existing 18 at Cineworld units, taking the total to 60 out of the 80 Cineworld cinemas in the UK.
“The target market for Cineworld and the target market for us is almost identical. It’s young people and young families treating themselves to a blockbuster and, at the same time, treating themselves to a Baskin-Robbins ice cream. It works brilliantly for us,” explains Jim Johnstone, General UK Manager at Baskin-Robbins.
The Cineworld agreement is part of a much larger campaign to open more Baskin-Robbins stores and kiosks in the UK. They are hoping to secure a further 80 high-street locations across the UK over the next five years.
“We’ve opened around 12 new high street stores in the last 18 months. We are opening more of these this year and we are looking at actively recruiting franchisees for them right across the country. On top of that we are also looking for markets similar to Cineworld – not competing but other captive environments where we could do a similar offer.”
“The beauty of the Cineworld deal is it puts the Baskin-Robbins brand into cities and towns all over the country. Because one’s a captive market and one’s a high street, they don’t steal trade from each other. These kinds of deals are brilliant for both our existing and future franchisees. Existing franchisees benefit from the brand exposure and bring in more business and future franchisees will have a demand and awareness of their stores before they’ve even opened,” explains Jim.
Baskin-Robbins is the world’s largest chain of ice cream speciality stores operating in a market worth $1.8 billion. Since 1945, Baskin-Robbins have introduced over 1,000 unique, fun and much-loved ice cream recipes and frozen drinks including our famous ice-cream cakes. Baskin-Robbins stores continue to be popular as their products are an affordable treat for families and they sell in excess of 300 million scoops of ice cream each year across 7,300 stores in 50 countries.
Baskin-Robbins already has 150 stores in the UK and is now offering single store opportunities for new franchisees. Single store investments require a minimum £60k liquid capital for a minimum total launch cost of £120k, of which 50% will normally be funded by a high street bank. A typical franchise portfolio containing 5 stores has the potential to turnover £1 million in the first full year of trading with EBITDA of 10-15%.
This press release has created wide spread coverage on franchise related websites and social media. It will also be included in upcoming print publications. To find out how Coconut Creatives can help you generate great PR why not contact us