Article
NexCen Brands R&D head masters differentiation
Michael Curtis says developing innovative products for three different categories, including two ice cream brands, is challenging but fun.
April 15, 2010
Michael Curtis has the difficult job of leading research and development for the five quick-service brands managed by NexCen Franchise Management. That means he must differentiate new product development for two differing ice cream concepts, a cookie concept and two merging pretzel concepts.
The biggest challenge, said Curtis, vice president of plant operations and head of NexCen's R&D department, is differentiating between the two ice cream brands, MaggieMoo's and Marble Slab. It helps that the companies have two distinct branding models. MaggieMoo's is focused on fun, colorful offerings in line with its polka-dotted cow mascot. Marble Slab is more upscale and indulgent, targeting an adult clientele.
"So we have to be very careful how we come up with flavors" for each brand, he said. "There've been times we said that (flavor) would be great for Marble Slab, but the color's too bright."
There's no such crossover when coming up with unique and innovative offerings for Great American Cookie or the pretzel brands — Pretzelmaker and PretzelTime — especially since the latter two brands are merging.
Of the five brands, Great American Cookies is closest to Curtis' heart since he's worked for the brand for 25 years. He started when the company had only five cookies and helped it develop more varieties, bringing the total to more than a dozen flavors and more than 30 in-store offering possibilities. He also has seen company ownership transition to Mrs. Fields Famous Brands in the late 1990s to being acquired by NexCen Brands in 2008.
Curtis said he likes the brand because its cookies have wide spread appeal, both for children and adults. Kids like the colorful choices, while adults lean toward more indulgent offerings, such as its Chewy Chocolate Supreme. When he makes it out of the test kitchen and into stores, seeing the kids' reactions is his favorite part.
"There's nothing more enjoyable than seeing a little 5 year old come running up to the cookie store and saying, 'I want that one,'" Curtis said.
He also enjoys it when NexCen executives and franchisees respond with a wide smile when they taste a product he's developed, no matter for which brand. More importantly, he feels gratified when franchisees e-mail with reports that sales are going well and customers are lining up for the new products.
"That's what we're here for, for the franchisees, to be able to give them products like that because if they don't grow their business, then we don't grow," he said,
New, expanded R& D facility
It helps that NexCen has a new R&D facility. The Innovations Center, as it is called, is located just outside Atlanta in a building that also houses Great American Cookies' batter facility. NexCen Brands Inc., parent company of NexCen Franchise Management, purchased the batter facility from Mrs. Fields in 2008 and remodeled it to centralize and improve product development. (See below for a video of Curtis at the new facility.)
The new facility's laboratory is three times larger than at NexCen's former R&D center, an improvement for which Curtis is grateful.
"There's nothing worse than a small R&D kitchen," he said. When he is working on a new product, he tends to spread out, "so space is of the utmost importance."
The lab is outfitted with the same equipment used in the each of the brand's stores. Even so, Curtis has to adjust for differences. For example, the batter facility produces all of Great American's cookie dough, which is delivered fresh across the country to the stores.
With the batter facility in the next room, the R&D team needs to let the cookie dough sit a few days to accommodate for the small changes the batter continues to undergo. But Curtis doesn't necessarily need to taste the baked product to know if he's got the formula right. He says he's gifted with the ability to taste for the finished product when he samples the raw cookie dough.
When a developing product does encounter challenges, Curtis takes advantage of the time he spends daily in Atlanta's notorious traffic jams.
"You're sitting in the car, you're not moving — I'll just start working on something in my head," he said.
That time to mull things over helped him realize that if the facility could produce its own cookie dough, the company also could benefit from adding equipment to prepare the flour base for its pretzel brands. NexCen liked the idea, and the facility will soon be supplying the mix to its pretzel stores.
But the ideas don't come from Curtis alone. The R&D team works together to develop ideas into new products while they seek input from various departments and franchise advisory panels. That's the beauty of the product develop process, he said.
For example, after everyone has had their say, an idea conceived for a brownie could develop into a cookie.
"It evolves. Through that process (of seeking input), at the end it could be nothing like what you started it out to be but it's better," Curtis said. "Or it could be exactly what you started it out to be, you just improved it going down the line."
Here are some facts about the Great American Cookies batter facility, which produces all of the batter for all Great American Cookies locations:
- Produces more than 10 million pounds of cookie dough per year
- Uses around 1 billion chocolate chips per year
- Two full, refrigerated 18-wheelers filled with only Great American Cookies cookie dough depart from the plant daily, each visiting 12-20 stores. The fresh dough is delivered directly to stores with no cross-docking during transit
- The Great American Cookies batter facility manufactures more than 12 different cookie dough flavors on a regular basis. The original Chocolate Chip cookie dough formulation for its signature Cookie Cakes is the highest volume batter produced.
Also view: Pretzelmaker success built on freshness, quality.
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