Cold Stone opens 100th Canadian unit

Cold Stone opens 100th Canadian unit
Tags: Coffee/Bakery/Donut, Franchising & Growth, International, Marketing / Branding / Promotion
May 16, 2011

Cold Stone Creamery opened the doors to its 100th location in Canada this week, in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. The unit is cobranded with Tim Hortons.

The 100th Cold Stone location is the second one on Prince Edward Island and is part of a newly rebuilt 4,600 square-foot Tim Hortons restaurant that first opened more than 20 years ago.

The co-branded restaurants have reached 100 locations since the initial opening in 2009.

"Ice cream weather is just around the corner and we are thrilled to offer PEI a taste of the ultimate ice cream experience," said Danny Murphy, Tim Hortons and Cold Stone Creamery restaurant owner. "Our newest Cold Stone location will allow more people to try what other Canadians have already discovered – delicious, premium quality ice cream."

Reader Comments

Matthew Klein

about 12 months ago

As a former Cold Stone Creamery operator, I can tell you, it gets a lot worse than even the CNBC documentary and the Wall Street Journal article revealed. I owned three stores. Two of them were among the top stores in the nation and the third operated at well above the average unit volume. Still we could not earn a profit.

I think overwhelmingly, most Cold Stone franchise owners are not profitable due to the actions of Kahala and Cold Stone Creamery. It may even be that no stores are profitable because it was discovered that Cold Stone accepts kickbacks from the distributors that it forces the franchise owners to use. As you mentioned, this was reported on CNBC but also in the Wall Street Journal. That causes Cold Stone franchises to become unprofitable. In many cases, this results in the loss of $500,000 or more in savings and other assets and leads to bankruptcy and ultimately the loss of the owner’s home. It’s corporate greed at it worse.

As Cold Stone continues to engage in kickbacks and until the federal government steps in says “no more kickbacks”, this will continue to happen.
Matthew Klein

about 12 months ago

As a former Cold Stone Creamery operator, I can tell you, it gets a lot worse than even the CNBC documentary and the Wall Street Journal article revealed. I owned three stores. Two of them were among the top stores in the nation and the third operated at well above the average unit volume. Still we could not earn a profit.

I think overwhelmingly, most Cold Stone franchise owners are not profitable due to the actions of Kahala and Cold Stone Creamery. It may even be that no stores are profitable because it was discovered that Cold Stone accepts kickbacks from the distributors that it forces the franchise owners to use. As you mentioned, this was reported on CNBC but also in the Wall Street Journal. That causes Cold Stone franchises to become unprofitable. In many cases, this results in the loss of $500,000 or more in savings and other assets and leads to bankruptcy and ultimately the loss of the owner’s home. It’s corporate greed at it worse.

As Cold Stone continues to engage in kickbacks and until the federal government steps in says “no more kickbacks”, this will continue to happen.