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Director of Security
Industry: Hospitality
Location: Dubai, UAE -
Business Development – (Pre Sales)
Industry: Hospitality
Location: Dubai, UAE
Cold Stone Creamery enters Middle East market
by ArabianBusiness.com staff writer on Saturday, 01 December 2007
In October, US ice cream maker Cold Stone Creamery opened its first regional outlet in Festival City, Dubai.
Based in the US state of Arizona, Cold Stone is one of America's largest ice cream retailers, with reported total revenues of more than AED 4.4 billion (US $1.2 billion) last year.
In the Middle East, Cold Stone is partnering with Apparel Group, and plans to open a further four stores in Dubai by the end of this year, starting with an Al Ghurair branch in Deira. There are plans for 40 more stores across the region by the end of 2008, with an investment of AED 30 million ($8.2 million).
Cold Stone ice cream is a premium product, but the hallmark of the brand is that customers can personalise their ice cream, by choosing syrups and candies or other additions, which are mixed into the ice cream while you watch.
In fact, Cold Stone bills its retail shops as an "ice cream entertainment experience" and gears itself towards families looking for a fun time out, not just a cone.
"Right from the first meeting, I was really impressed by Apparel," said Lee Knowlton, president of parent company Kahala Cold Stone. "I thought it was a great match: they shared out dreams and desires for the brand. While there are some ice cream brands out here, I though it was a great opportunity," he added.
Knowlton described the ice cream market in the Middle East was "wide open". He said Cold Stone's main competitors in the region as Haagen Daaz, Baskin Robbins and fellow US specialty ice creamery Marble Slab, but believed Cold Stone offered more than the competition.
"Baskin Robbins is our main competition, they have been here longer and are more established here, but today customers expect more. We put the emphasis on fun, after all, it's eating ice cream, it should be fun," said Knowlton.
Knowlton added that in the US, Cold Stone had "done for ice cream what Starbucks did for coffee", that is, made ice cream both up market and ubiquitous.
Knowlton said the biggest challenge in entering this market had been getting landlords to understand the concept to the point where they were willing to lease prime space.
"Landlords do not understand the concept at first. It takes time to get the real estate ramped up. They don't understand at first that we are not an ordinary ice cream store, that we need bigger space in a prime location," he said.
Knowlton added that it was much easier once landlords had seen the Cold Stone concept in action. "Atlantis (the Palm) would love to have us in there. When they know about you, it makes it much easier [to get the real estate]."
Another hallmark of Cold Stone ice cream is the unusual flavours of the ice cream. Knowlton said that, outside the US, people actually preferred ‘western' flavours, such as chocolate and vanilla, over regional flavours.
"International customers want western flavours," he pointed out, "In Japan we don't offer green tea."
In Dubai, the store will offer several fruit flavours, such as mango, coconut and banana. At any given time, Cold Stone has about 100 flavours, of which around 20 are available on any given day. Because the ice cream is all manufactured on site, flavours are rotated daily.
And the most popular flavour? Said Knowlton, "In the Middle East-chocolate."
