Marketing

Auntie Anne's co-brands with Jamba for pretzel QSR's 1st drive-thru

May 18, 2021

Auntie Anne's will soon be putting pretzels in drivers' hands thanks to the opening of a combined store with sister brand, Jamba, in Wylie, Texas, a Dallas suburb, that opened this week. The store is operated by Shawn and Crystal Bowling and is part of a push to move Auntie Anne's into more non-mall-related settings, a news release said.

After conducting a study with the Boston Consulting Group to learn more about customers' tendencies, Focus Brands learned that guests want to access Auntie Anne's and Jamba outside of malls and airports, where they have become staples, a spokesman for the brands said in a news release. That triggered a push for off-premise co-branded opportunities like that which opened in the Dallas suburb.

The Wylie store contains elements of both brands, including design and menu boards, in a 1,200-square-foot location.

"Consumer research shows that our guests want access to Auntie Anne's outside of the mall. While we were already underway with identifying ways to enhance our brands' accessibility, the study results confirmed our strategy to co-brand this location with Jamba," Brian Krause, Focus Brands chief development officer, said in the release. "Considering how the pandemic has changed consumer preferences, we recognize the importance of building our off-premise offerings and evolving our development capabilities to provide franchisees with additional opportunities, including co-brand locations that have potential for enhanced revenue"

Currently more than a quarter of Jamba's locations — which is a fast casual brand — have a drive-thru and the brand is aggressively looking to add drive-thrus to half its new stores. Auntie Anne's — a traditional QSR — continues to explore locations out of the mall, including drive-thru locations, co-brand locations, locations near colleges and universities as well as mobile food trucks.

"Auntie Anne's has become synonymous with malls and airports, but for some time we've been looking for opportunities to grow outside of those traditional locations to give our guests greater access to a brand they love," Kristen Hartman, Focus Brands specialty category president, said in the release.

"Today, we have a number of Auntie Anne's streetside locations paired with Cinnabon and Carvel. The opportunities that become available when we leverage the power of our full portfolio are endless. I'm incredibly excited to see that through co-branding we are able to add the drive-thru experience to the Auntie Anne's portfolio and can't wait to see how guests respond to this enhanced accessibility."