Mrs. Fields Famous Brands LLC, which includes Mrs. Fields Cookies and TCBY, The Country's Best Yogurt, has announced aggressive expansion plans both domestically and abroad.
To support that growth, the company has hired Rob Streett as senior vice president, development. Streett will lead domestic development for the two brands focusing on non-traditional opportunities. Most recently, Streett was senior vice president, non-traditional development, for Quiznos and has also worked with Cold Stone Creamery and Starbucks.
"We are poised for rapid expansion in our traditional markets and, with the addition of Rob's background and skills, we are now resourced to drive growth at unprecedented levels in our nontraditional markets as well," said Mrs. Fields Famous Brands co-CEO Michael Ward in a news release. "Within the next 12 months, we expect to be reaching our customers from hundreds of new points of distribution."
After a five-year hold on international development, TCBY and Mrs. Fields are once again partnering with new master franchisees around the world. Co-CEO Michael Ward is spearheading this endeavor and announced that since January 2009, he has signed agreements for both TCBY and Mrs. Fields in more than five new countries. New stores will open as early as this fall in Bahrain, Kuwait, Greece and Saudi Arabia.
TCBY recently announced an upcoming video contest in which potential franchisees can submit a short video to TCBY explaining why they deserve to win a free store in the This Could Be Yours, The Great TCBY Store Giveaway. The contest kicks off Oct. 5.
Mrs. Fields Famous Brands is run by co-CEOs Michael Ward, president of TCBY and John Lauck, president of Mrs. Fields.
