Up for grabs

Part of the grab and go sector, things are changing at Auntie Anne’s, the brand known for its sweet and savoury pretzels

A shopping centre is traditionally where you might find an Auntie Anne’s, but as times change and consumer buying habits evolve, there’s no doubt brands need to evolve with the times and go where the customers are.

Auntie Anne’s is the world’s largest soft pretzel brand. Its pretzels are handcrafted at each store, freshly baked and sold within 30 minutes to guarantee freshness. There are over 1,800 stores around the world in more than 25 countries. In the UK, there are 39 Auntie Anne’s stores in operation - and the company has big growth plans.

Its growth plans still include shopping centres, but only those that remain resilient to the steady decline in footfall the market is generally seeing. Aside from this, there are a number of other options Auntie Anne’s is focusing on:

High street

Within busy town or city centres, Auntie Anne’s is looking to open outlets within small shop units, especially in tourist led locations. The company is on course to open two stores in well known tourist areas before the end of the year, providing an opportunity to serve customers who recognise the brand from other countries while they’re visiting the UK.

Café style

Auntie Anne’s is also looking at larger coffee shop style units, where customers can sit and relax with premium coffee and enjoy freshly baked pretzels, along with other products straight from the oven.

The company’s full product line up would be available in stores like this, including pretzel based breakfast buns, sandwiches, pizzas and other freshly baked items.

Mobile option

So Auntie Anne’s can tap into the outdoor shopping park and designer outlet sectors, it will soon be launching its first store in a converted shipping container.

A full store set up that can be placed anywhere outdoors, these not only look modern and sleek, they’re flexible too. If anything changes in the location, for example footfall drops because a walkway or unit closes, Auntie Anne’s can move the store to somewhere more suitable.

The company is also looking at food trucks for entertainment and sports venues and would be interested to talk to anyone with an existing food truck business looking to expand.

Auntie Anne’s proven business model and the ability it has to create varied products means it has the ability to not only cater for various customers at different times of the day, it has the capacity to adapt stores to go where its customers are.

The company is keen to hear from prospects anywhere in the country, but especially in Scotland, the south west and north east.

At a glance Auntie Anne’s

Name of franchise: Auntie Anne’s
Established: 1988
Number of franchised outlets: 38
Location of units: UK wide
Investment range: £145,000-£180,000
Minimum required capital: £40,000
URL: auntieannesfranchising.co.uk Contact: Victoria Gale. franchising@auntieannes.co.uk