Big potential in a small package

Expansion doesn’t have to mean sizable square feet.

Restaurant Development + Design recently highlighted how brands like Philly Pretzel Factory, Smoothie King and others are making big moves with smaller spaces.

Thanks to tough competition and a turbulent economy, franchises have had to balance the best ways to expand, and nontraditional location types have become an ideal solution. For instance, the team at Philly Pretzel Factory knew it needed to branch out when the economy hit a speedbump.

“The economy had something to do with it,” Philly Pretzel Factory President Marty Ferrill told Restaurant Development + Design. “When the economy tightened up, it made it harder for franchisees to get access to capital.”

In order to make it easier for new, smaller restaurant formats, the brand had their equipment manufacturer reengineer all necessary tools so they could fit into a smaller space without sacrificing quality. Now the brand can be found at train stations, zoos, airports and other nontraditional locales.

Of course, Smoothie King would seem to have had the opposite problem when it became the namesake of the New Orleans Arena, now called the Smoothie King Center. But while the home of the New Orleans Pelicans NBA team is spacious, Smoothie King operates in smaller kiosks spread throughout the location.

The brand told Restaurant Development + Design selling their product in the arena necessitated a major overhaul of operating methods. Fortunately, the team at Smoothie King had been perfecting how best to suit different real estate types over the years.

“Over time, the footprints became dictated by the real estate they fit into,” Bret Cunningham, vice president of design and construction at Smoothie King, told the source. “We had to be creative. That’s when we started to think about new models. Now we can fit into an amazing variety of footprints.”