Cold Rock Ice Creamery launches Cold Rock Express

The company plans to open up to 120 Cold Rock Express stores in the next three years.

According to a release, Cold Rock Ice Creamery is set to revolutionise retailing in Australia with the launch of Cold Rock Express as a complementary outlet in jointly branded, high profile retail sites.

The multi-brand venture was introduced in Victoria last month by Cold Rock’s owner Franchised Food Company, which plans to pioneer the concept nationwide.

The company plans to open up to 120 Cold Rock Express stores in the next three years.

Franchised Food Company Managing Director Stan Gordon said the first Cold Rock Express ̶ a smaller version of a Cold Rock Store ̶ had opened in a Video Ezy outlet at Kew in Melbourne’s south-east.

Mr Gordon said Cold Rock, which has almost 100 stores around Australia, would look for other suitable retail partners with six Cold Rock Express stores also set to be integrated within the Souvlaki Hut system.

“To the best of my knowledge, this hasn’t really been done to any scale before in Australia or overseas and puts us at the forefront of retail development,” Mr Gordon said.

“With much of traditional retailing under immense pressure we are moving quickly to innovate and seize opportunities to expand our presence.

“By providing a complementary brand offering out of the same premises, using the same back of house and mostly the same staff, it gives the retailer greater efficiency and spreads fixed costs such as rent, wages and utilities.

“The benefits of having strong multi-brand complementary offerings in the one location make strategic sense.

“The beauty about the Cold Rock Express stores is that they are such a clean and easy operation; they require minimal fuss but prove to be loads of fun.”

Mr Gordon said the Cold Rock Express concept was a development with many potential retail partners.

“For the first time the ‘store-within-a-store’ model will be heavily promoted and not kept in the background as has been seen with department stores,” he said.

“The first store within Video Ezy has done exceptionally well in its opening weeks which is encouraging.”

Mr Gordon said the partnership with Video Ezy offered consumers the opportunity to enhance an evening’s in-home entertainment by providing the range of fun ice-cream treats Cold Rock has become famous for.

“The Cold Rock Express stores provide the popular items from our range but obviously with a much smaller footprint and lower setup costs,” he said.

“They can be easily deployed to be ‘stores-within-stores’ of other complementary retail outlets and will help fuel the growth of our brand.”

Mr Gordon cautioned operators that dual branding needed to be complementary.

“A fashion retailer in a restaurant is unlikely to work,” he said 

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Tags: Cold Rock Ice Creamery, Cold Rock Express