When Ben Seabury, president of Trifecta Restaurant Group, saw a Cinnabon at the airport about two years ago, he had a light bulb moment. 

“I thought if I could get a Cinnabon to come streetside out of malls and airports that would be the ideal brand for us,” he said. 

Seabury, who along with Jon Guhl created the restaurant management company 1100 Group in 2016, was looking for brands to franchise with real estate guru Paul Frank of PDF Development in Northern California. 

At the time, Frank was building a Dutch Bros drive-thru location in the Sacramento area and had 1,500 to 2,000 square feet left on the site for another brand. 

Frank and Seabury joined forces to create Trifecta Restaurant Group, which became a subsidiary of 1100 Restaurant Group, in 2022. The pair originally considered creating their own brands, looking at a range of options from chicken wings to snack food. None were the right fit. 

After his light bulb moment, Seabury contacted Focus Brands and eventually secured a franchisee deal to develop a handful of co-branded Auntie Anne’s/Cinnabon restaurants and single-branded Cinnabon units. 

The first dual-concept location opened in December, and it exceeded Trifecta’s initial expectations.

“The opening demand was extreme,” Seabury said. “Sales and visibility [were] definitely underestimated, so we had to scramble the first month of operations to just catch our breath.”

Seabury and Frank thought Dutch Bros would draw in customers, but Auntie Anne’s/Cinnabon turned out to be the traffic driver. Opening sales volumes tripled the operator’s original projections, Seabury said. 

As a leader of a $30 million restaurant group that runs several full-service restaurants, Seabury was used to busy openings, and had a lot of resources to call on to meet demand. 

During that first month at the Auntie Anne’s/Cinnabon store, Seabury pulled executives from other projects to help. The location extended its production hours into the evening and opened earlier to accommodate the unexpected consumer demand. 

While the dual-brand store isn’t as busy as it was those first few weeks, it’s running at about 1.5 times Trifecta’s original projections. “We’re still doing better than we anticipated,” Seabury said. 

Trifecta is among Focus Brands’ franchisees that together are opening over 50 multi-branded locations this year. These restaurants will mainly include Auntie Anne’s/Jamba or Auntie Anne’s/Cinnabons, said Kristin Hartman, president, specialty category brands, at Focus Brands. This year, the company expects to open its first Cinnabon Swirl, a co-branded Carvel and Cinnabon concept.  

Trifecta plan to complete a second Focus Brand unit in late spring or early summer, Seabury said. The store will be a Cinnabon because of size constraints. A third until will be an Auntie Anne’s/Cinnabon combination store, and is projected to open in late 2023. Afourth planned store will have a dual-brand format and is targeted to open early next year, he said.

By 2024, Trifecta’s portfolio will become a hybrid of single and dual-branded locations. The company is working on a larger deal with Focus Brands to have upwards of 50 licenses for 20 to 25 units within the next five years, Seabury said. 

Finding new opportunities with multi-branded units

A few years ago, Focus Brands started shifting its growth strategy after investing in research to see which brands consumers felt would work well together. While each of the company’s specialty brands were considered unique, the research showed that consumers liked having more choice and variety at dual-branded locations. 

Subsequently, Focus Brands focused primarily on four dual and tri-brand locations: Auntie Anne’s/Cinnabon; Auntie Anne’s/Jamba; Auntie Anne’s/Cinnabon/Carvel and Cinnabon/Carvel. 

“Dual branding is especially important as we take our mall-based brands streetside and as we grow a brand like Jamba expanding from West to East or take a brand like Carvel Ice Cream outside of its core territory,” Hartman said. “We know consumers want access to our brands, and streetside offers this added layer of convenience.”

In addition, Focus Brands is exploring different store prototypes, including a drive-thru or walk-up window for its new streetside locations. The company is already building drive-thrus at some of its Auntie Anne’s/Jamba locations, and Hartman said those dual-brand stores have become a significant percentage of the company’s business. 

But not all multi-branded locations need drive-thrus to be successful. Cinnabon/Carvel stores are opening in urban streetside locations with heavy foot traffic. 

Franchisees benefit from dual-brand stores

While multiple brands in one location increase accessibility for customers, these formats also benefit franchisees in several ways. 

“This convenience also creates opportunity for franchisees, as co-branding leads to an expanded menu that drives enhanced unit-level volume,” Hartman said. 

Franchisees can also access more premium real estate with a dual or tri-brand location, she said, because they can generate more sales. 

Seabury said Auntie Anne’s/Cinnabon locations help generate impulse buys. Customers who come in the store for a Cinnabon pack, often buy a pretzel as a snack. The same thing happens in reverse, with customers coming in for a pretzel then deciding to take home a Cinnabon pack.

The two brands balance sweet and savory flavors, as well, he said.

 “I don’t think they cannibalize and that’s a big part of it,” he said. “They don’t interfere with each other’s sales. They’re additive,” Seabury said.

Finally, franchisees benefit with additional dayparts and seasonality since each brand differs slightly in that regard. 

“In addition to net unit growth, we expect the benefits for franchisees to grow in the coming years as we continue to analyze [profits and losses] and buildout costs to understand economics and gain valuable insights for us to optimize,” Hartman said