News

Former Starbucks exec looks forward to leading Mrs. Fields' brands

May 5, 2010

Timothy Casey is only on day three of his new job as CEO and president of Mrs. Fields Famous Brands, franchisor of TCBY and Mrs. Fields Cookies. But he's already well studied in the strengths and needs of the brands. And mostly what he's sees are opportunities.

"The opportunity to move these two brands into the future is very exciting for me," he said.

Both brands are leaders in the categories as far as unit count and consumer preference, but Casey wants to take the chains further. His charge: to accelerate unit count and same-store sales while making the brands even more relevant to today's guests.

TCBY has already started work on its rebranding and is on a growth trajectory that is expected to result in triple the number of new units this year. With Mrs. Fields, Casey has the chance to put his Starbucks and The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf experience to work. Like the coffee brands, Mrs. Fields has restaurants and retail packaged goods. The cookie brand also has a successful online retail gift business.

"There's a tremendous opportunity to leverage the synergies between the three," Casey said. "Between establishing the brand position for today as well as into the future and leveraging those synergies, there's some very significant upside opportunities here."

Sid Feltenstein, chairman of Mrs. Fields Famous Brands, said the board saw Casey as a perfect fit for the job based on his experience, such as his role in growing Starbucks into a national chain and top-of-mind brand. A 30-year veteran of the food and beverage industry, Casey has held several senior level roles, not only with Starbucks and The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf but also Bakers Square Restaurants.

The board also values his focus on the guest experience, brand relevance and operations. His experience at the c-store level, as an entrepreneur and in marketing, were other desired attributes.

"After vetting, we found that Tim was successful in all those areas," Feltenstein said. So he's very much multi-dimensional in terms of his background and in terms of the skill set that he has and in terms of the success that he's enjoyed. And that we felt that was a great fit for our company given its complexity."

Growth plans

Combined, Mrs. Fields Cookies and TCBY have more than 1,200 franchised and licensed locations worldwide. Mrs. Fields has more than 400 units in the United States and nearly 100 locations internationally. TCBY has more than 800 locations in the United States and internationally.

Casey sees particular opportunities for the brands to grow internationally. He recently spent several months in Southeast Asia and noticed a pent-up consumer demand for brands products, particularly TCBY's frozen yogurt.

"When I look at both brands, I see not only opportunities to grow domestically but tremendous upside to grow internationally as well," he said.

Casey plans to pursue traditional and nontraditional growth opportunities for both chains.

Feltenstein said he looks forward to what Casey will be able to do for both brands.

"Tim is a forward-looking leader; always thinking about what will be important to the consumer tomorrow and what untapped assets these brands have that will strengthen consumer engagement and brand loyalty," he said.