Article
Krispy Kreme sees promise in ice cream test
Soft serve line boosting traffic in test markets.
April 8, 2009
*Click here to view a slideshow of images from the Krispy Kreme Kool Kreme line.
Soft serve ice cream may be a solution to some of Krispy Kreme's struggles. The company is currently testing its Krispy Kreme Kool Kreme product in three markets, with encouraging results.
"It's driving incremental customer count in the p.m. daypart and in the summer, so it's helping us out with daypart and seasonality," said Stan Parker, senior vice president, brand strategy and development at Krispy Kreme.
The Kool Kreme product line includes:
- Soft serve in vanilla, chocolate and swirl served in a cone or cup
- Sundaes with chocolate, caramel, hot fudge, candy and fruit toppings
- Milkshakes
- Arctic Avalanches, a blended frozen drink which includes customer choice of ice cream and any blend-in item.
The signature Kool Kreme menu item is the Donut Sundae, featuring choice of donut, ice cream and topping.
The Kool Kreme milkshakes will join the chain's lineup of specialty beverages, which includes bottled drinks, espresso-based drinks and ice-based Chillers and Frozen Blends.
The ice cream products are displayed in a "Kool Kreme zone," with merchandising promoting the line and the frozen blended drinks, Parker said. Staff members prepare the products at a toppings bar, dispensing the ice cream from a Taylor soft serve dispensing machine.
Tests of the soft serve line also requires installation of refrigerators and freezers. Parker could not share the cost of installing the equipment.
The chain chose to add ice cream to the chain's offerings from a cache of about 80 new product ideas. Consumer feedback demonstrated that the soft serve line was the best opportunity for the brand, Parker said.
Testing of the Kool Kreme product began in the Seattle market, with Krispy Kreme franchisee KremeWorks LLC developing the line. A second franchisee test is underway in the St. Louis market.
Company stores in the so-called Triad area, which include the chain's hometown of Winston-Salem, N.C., started to test the product in late summer 2008. The company will expand the test to the Nashville, Tenn., and Columbia, S.C., markets this summer, Parker said.
*Correction: Company stores in the Nashville market have tested a vanilla soft serve product for the last two years. This summer, those stores will test the full Kool Kreme line, Parker said. (Incomplete information from Krispy Kreme led to this omission.)
Franchisees are studying the results of the Kool Kreme test, and the company will showcase it at a franchise meeting this spring. The meeting will include a tour of Krispy Kreme's recently opened store in Winston-Salem, which also is testing the soft serve product.
"Hopefully they'll like what they see and more of them will begin to participate in a test," Parker said.
Krispy Kreme also has other new products in the pipeline, with testing on several menu items to begin in the fall.
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