This story has been updated to reflect Briad's Corner Bakery unit count.
The Briad Group, a multi-concept operator, plans to expand its first proprietary foodservice operation, Cups Frozen Yogurt Your Way, to as many as 14 units within the next year and a half.
The first Cups store opened in November 2010 in Clifton, N.J., and a second is underway in East Hanover, N.J., according to Rick Barbrick, Briad’s president, chief operating officer and concept creator.
“We’ve also signed LOIs [letters of intent] or leases for another 12 deals beyond East Hanover,” Barbrick said in a phone interview Tuesday. “We’ll get them done within 18 months.”
Livingston, N.J.-based Briad Group franchises and operates 42 Wendy’s Old Fashioned Hamburger restaurants, 70 T.G.I. Friday’s restaurants and one Corner Bakery unit, as well as developing Marriott and Hilton hotels. It also licenses the Zinburger brand.
Briad’s first Cups unit is sandwiched between its Zinburger and Corner Bakery franchise units in the Clifton Promenade lifestyle center, which has such amenities as a fountain and fire pit.
“Cups was designed around the experience,” Barbrick said. “It’s more of a nightclub-kind of experience. We have dance music that we play at very loud volume. We have lighting and pictures that give us a little bit of an edge, a little bit of vibe versus a normal yogurt bar-ice cream shop.”
Barbrick said the Cups units, which cover 1,200 square feet to 1,500 square feet, are designed with a demographic target of 12-year-old girls to 49-year-old women.
Each of the eight double-flavor, self-service frozen yogurt machines features a middle-pull lever so customers can mix flavors, yielding 24 offerings. Sauces include upscale items such as Ghirardelli chocolate, and all the fruit is fresh and hand-cut in the store.
“You can build your own product with as many toppings as you want, and when you get to the end of the line, you weigh it,” Barbrick said. “We charge 49 cents an ounce in this location.”
Barbrick said he wanted to emphasize Cups’ focus on quality, so it includes finish-out features like a $35,000 terrazzo floor.
“We have couches and ottomans in our store versus most stores having tables and chairs,” he said. “The murals on the walls are of celebrities in various stages of preparing to go to the beach. A continuous loop plays 1960s beach movies on the television like ‘Beach Blanket Bingo.’ The televisions are silent, so it’s amusing to see the ’60s dancing to the modern music.”
‘Edgy with a vibe’
Barbrick said the design aims at “edgy with a vibe,” inspired by Las Vegas and California, and includes such punny sayings as: “Size Matters; Fill Your Cup.”
“If you look at the logo closely. It’s really a bikini top,” Barbrick said. “I told our in-house graphic designer to give me two bowls with lots of yogurt in them, and we’ll put the polka dots on them. That’s where the name came from.”
The edginess has drawn crowds and celebrities, such as the musical Jonas Brothers and the stars of television reality show “Jerseylicious,” he said. The unit serves as many as 1,900 customers a day, a spokesman added.
“It has become very attractive for those in their early 20s and younger. It’s like the 21st century malt shop,” Barbrick said. “On a Friday night, we’ll have 240 to 250 people waiting in line to get in. It’s really filled a niche that didn’t exist.”
That appeal has produced sales growth, although Barbrick would not reveal numbers. “Every week that we’ve been open, our sales have gone up,” he said. “It’s very exciting.”
Also getting in with the theme are sales of $40 bikinis. “All the profits from the bikini go to the Susan G. Komen Foundation,” Barbrick said. “And, come October, which is breast-cancer awareness month, we’re going to do a promotion where we give 25 cents of every cup we sell to Susan G. Komen.”
In June 2006, The Briad Group became the nation’s largest T.G.I. Friday’s franchisee when it acquired the publicly held Main Street Restaurant Group of Phoenix, Ariz., in a $119 million deal.
Contact Ron Ruggless at [email protected].
Follow him on Twitter: @RonRuggless
