QSR September 2022

DEPARTMENT ONES TO WATCH

FriosGourmet Pops In light of the pandemic, the upstart took to the road, and found plenty of runway to chase. B Y B E N C O L E Y

nearly as much as other businesses trying to find people to work our trucks and help our franchisees at events.” Among frios’ roughly 50 units, there are still a few physical stores, but most of the franchisees who remain in storefronts have favorable deals with landlords in which the overhead makes sense. And many use the space as their commissary to store popsicles and keep their carts. The current franchise opportunity doesn’t include retail locations. The primary focus is now mobile vans, or as frios fondly calls them, “Sweet Rides.” The vehicles are tie-dye and feature a slide-top storage freezer, internal and external remote-con trol LED neon lights, Bluetooth speakers, a built-in service window, power inverter, and a customizable menuboard. Vans operate mostly around events, like an Employee Appreciation Day, or for schools, f irst responders, hospitals, festi vals, fairs, farmers markets, and sporting events. On slower days, some franchisees drive through neighborhoods. As of July, frios vans stretch from the East Coast to Arizona, and by the end of 2022, the concept hopes to be closer to 100 units. The company established a predictable pipeline after being challenged by a short age of Ford Transit vans. At the beginning of the year, frios held off on signing new operators to provide a more sophisticated system of support to existing partners, and because that’s now settled, franchise sales are ramping up. The concept sells territories the same way it would actual stores. It targets areas of 200,000 people—although that figure is still a work in progress—and contiguous zip codes. In addition to vans, franchisees can use carts and join wholesale partnerships with local businesses, sports complexes, and schools and universities. Historically, frios has sold single units, but CONTINUED ON PAGE 54

About f ive operators participated in the f irst test, and it wasn’t too long afterward frios recognized how perfectly positioned its product is. The company sells prepack aged frozen popsicles in a variety of f lavors, making it sanitary and safer to approach customers outside as opposed to them walk ing into a store. The P&L potential is “drastically differ ent,” as well, president Patti Rother says. “The f lexibility it gave in terms of labor was a game-changer,” she explains. “In a storefront, obviously you’re paying someone regardless if you’re selling popsicles. And then the food truck, if you’re at an event, you only just work the event and hand out popsicles and then you stop paying for labor as soon as the event is over. We’re a really labor light model. We haven’t struggled

FOUNDERS: CEO Cliff Kennedy and president Patti Rother HEADQUARTERS: Mobile, Alabama

YEAR STARTED: 2015 ANNUAL SALES: N/A TOTAL UNITS: 50 FRANCHISED UNITS: 50

ASAFRANCHISEDBUSINESS,FRIOSGOURMETPOPS had to get creative with its support once the initial wave of COVID-19 temporarily shut down storefronts nationwide. CEO Cliff Kennedy felt it was time to go mobile, which wasn’t out of left f ield. Franchisees had already done iterations of this, with ice cream pushcarts and trailers.

FRIOS GOURMET POPS

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SEPTEMBER 2022 | QSR | www.qsrmagazine.com