LUBBOCK TEXAS —With consumers perceptibly pushing away from ice cream at the dessert table, other frozen-treat purveyors are expanding to help sate the sweet teeth.
Many fruit-focused and ice-based chains are popping up as alternatives, with such names as Bahama Buck’s and La Paletera. —With consumers perceptibly pushing away from ice cream at the dessert table, other frozen-treat purveyors are expanding to help sate the sweet teeth.
Ice cream still accounted for 59.2 percent, or about $13.8 billion, of all U.S. frozen-dessert sales in 2007, but its share slipped 0.3 percentage points from 2006, according to the research firm Packaged Facts. —With consumers perceptibly pushing away from ice cream at the dessert table, other frozen-treat purveyors are expanding to help sate the sweet teeth.
Meanwhile, sales of frozen yogurt grew 12 percent from 2006 to 2007, helping fuel the growth of such break-out concepts as 43-unit Pinkberry, a frozen-yogurt darling from Los Angeles that has stores in California and New York. —With consumers perceptibly pushing away from ice cream at the dessert table, other frozen-treat purveyors are expanding to help sate the sweet teeth.
Cathy Minkler, editor of Packaged Facts, explained: “Because this is a mature market, growth for one marketer often comes at the expense of another. And within a company, growth of an individual product line or flavor often cannibalizes sales of another item. This is particularly true with frozen novelties, where product life cycles are extremely short.” She said consumers are often looking for product innovations and treats with a “surprise” factor. —With consumers perceptibly pushing away from ice cream at the dessert table, other frozen-treat purveyors are expanding to help sate the sweet teeth.
Surprising, perhaps, to customers more than 600 miles from the nearest beach is the menu of Lubbock-based Bahama Buck’s, whose patrons are transported to tropical destinations by way of a menu of fresh fruit, 91 flavors of shaved ice and coffees. The 24-unit chain has been growing in Texas and Arizona and has enlisted the help of franchise specialist the Findley Group to expand further. —With consumers perceptibly pushing away from ice cream at the dessert table, other frozen-treat purveyors are expanding to help sate the sweet teeth.
Bahama Buck’s joins another Texas chain that’s seeking to take frozen confections to a wider market, especially in Sun Belt states. —With consumers perceptibly pushing away from ice cream at the dessert table, other frozen-treat purveyors are expanding to help sate the sweet teeth.
La Paletera of Houston, which has 40 units in Texas, last year began seeing franchisees open in Central and Southern California. The Mexican-based concept specializes in fruit cups spiced with lime and chile powder, and paletas, or mashed and frozen fruit served on a stick. The chain’s menu has been expanded to include freezes, gourmet ice creams, and light hot and cold foods. While aimed more at the Hispanic market, the La Paletera stores have gained a foothold in Anglo markets. —With consumers perceptibly pushing away from ice cream at the dessert table, other frozen-treat purveyors are expanding to help sate the sweet teeth.
While snow-cone spots long have been a staple of small cart-kiosk entrepreneurs in the summers, those kinds of operations seek to make it a year-round market, and island visitors have been bringing the idea home. Matsumoto Shave Ice, which Mamoru and Helen Matsumoto started in Haleiwa, Hawaii, has drawn mainland tourists to the North Shore of Oahu since 1951 on the strengths of its exotic flavors, including versions that blend syrup-doused shaved ice with ice cream and sweetened azuki beans. The appeal of such gourmet snow cone concepts has inspired other independent operators like Sno-Beach Hawaiian Shave Ice in Austin, Texas; Island Snow in Kailua, Hawaii; Rainbo Ice in Knoxville, Tenn.; and various cart-borne confectioners, such as those in New York’s Spanish Harlem in the summer months. —With consumers perceptibly pushing away from ice cream at the dessert table, other frozen-treat purveyors are expanding to help sate the sweet teeth.
Bahama Buck’s touts itself as the “greatest snow on earth.” Blake Buchanan, founder and president of the surf-theme concept, said: “We’re really focused on bringing the ultimate tropical-dessert experience. When you walk in there’s something for every member of the family, from the shave ice to smoothies, fruit and coffee as well.” He founded it in Lubbock in 1990. —With consumers perceptibly pushing away from ice cream at the dessert table, other frozen-treat purveyors are expanding to help sate the sweet teeth.
Franchisee Brent Daniels has a 1,500-square-foot Bahama Buck’s store, which opened last fall in Lewisville, Texas. It seats 30, with additional seating on a patio. His daughter had attended college in Lubbock, and helped talk him into investing in a franchise. —With consumers perceptibly pushing away from ice cream at the dessert table, other frozen-treat purveyors are expanding to help sate the sweet teeth.
“She said, ‘Dad, you have to build one of these,” Daniels said. —With consumers perceptibly pushing away from ice cream at the dessert table, other frozen-treat purveyors are expanding to help sate the sweet teeth.
Opening a Bahama Buck’s unit, excluding land or lease, costs $250,000 to $400,000, said Eric Lee, the chain’s chief financial officer. The company, which plans to add 10 stores to the chain this year, said a franchisee will soon open in Clovis, N.M., and a franchisee in Florida is looking for sites. Currently, the franchisor owns two stores in Lubbock, and the other 22 are franchised. —With consumers perceptibly pushing away from ice cream at the dessert table, other frozen-treat purveyors are expanding to help sate the sweet teeth.
Aiming to be like Starbucks, Bahama Buck’s offers “affordable luxuries” and is aimed at suburban families, Buchanan said. —With consumers perceptibly pushing away from ice cream at the dessert table, other frozen-treat purveyors are expanding to help sate the sweet teeth.
The chain’s shaved ices cost $2 to $3.50, and coffees range from $2 for hot to $4 for frozen. Smoothies are $3.50 to $4.50. Most units are about 1,200 square feet and seat 18 to 32 seats. A franchisee in Sachse, Texas, has built a freestanding, 600-square-foot store with a large patio that seats 18 and has a drive-thru. —With consumers perceptibly pushing away from ice cream at the dessert table, other frozen-treat purveyors are expanding to help sate the sweet teeth.
CFO Lee said Bahama Buck’s average item price is $3.15, yielding a $6-per-transaction average. —With consumers perceptibly pushing away from ice cream at the dessert table, other frozen-treat purveyors are expanding to help sate the sweet teeth.
Shaved ice is about 56 percent of the sales, with popular flavors being strawberry and strawberry cheesecake as well as cherry and grape, Lee said. —With consumers perceptibly pushing away from ice cream at the dessert table, other frozen-treat purveyors are expanding to help sate the sweet teeth.
“We manufacture our own flavors,” he said, “so we have coconut cream pie and marshmallow and crème brûlée.” —With consumers perceptibly pushing away from ice cream at the dessert table, other frozen-treat purveyors are expanding to help sate the sweet teeth.
Customer traffic is highest from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. and from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m., he said. —With consumers perceptibly pushing away from ice cream at the dessert table, other frozen-treat purveyors are expanding to help sate the sweet teeth.
The company offers what it calls “extreme flavors,” such as “wedding cake” and “pickle juice.” —With consumers perceptibly pushing away from ice cream at the dessert table, other frozen-treat purveyors are expanding to help sate the sweet teeth.
“Those are popular with the kids,” Lee said, as is a supersour line of flavors. —With consumers perceptibly pushing away from ice cream at the dessert table, other frozen-treat purveyors are expanding to help sate the sweet teeth.
The chain also offers a “thin ice” line, which has no calories, no carbohydrates and no sugar. Last fall, Bahama Buck’s introduced its own proprietary coffee beverage line to boost sales in cooler winter months. —With consumers perceptibly pushing away from ice cream at the dessert table, other frozen-treat purveyors are expanding to help sate the sweet teeth.
“We started in October with our Island House coffee,” Lee said. “The idea is to do a premium product.” —With consumers perceptibly pushing away from ice cream at the dessert table, other frozen-treat purveyors are expanding to help sate the sweet teeth.
As part of the company’s growth strategy, it partnered last year with the Findley Group of Waco, Texas, whose owner, Gary Findley, expanded the Curves gym chain from three to 8,000 units between 1996 and his retirement in 2004. —With consumers perceptibly pushing away from ice cream at the dessert table, other frozen-treat purveyors are expanding to help sate the sweet teeth.
“I have seen what it takes to burst onto the franchising scene, and Bahama Buck’s has it,” Findley said, citing the concept’s “highly distinctive product offering” for his interest. —With consumers perceptibly pushing away from ice cream at the dessert table, other frozen-treat purveyors are expanding to help sate the sweet teeth.