Local player Gelare is keeping pace with the big ice cream brands.
Local player Gelare is keeping pace with the big ice cream brands.
As a burst of warmer weather brings forth thoughts of a hot summer ahead, the nation’s major ice cream franchises are reaffirming plans to expand their operations in Western Australia; not that Farid Torabi – the man who runs local player Gelare – seems concerned.
Baskin Robbins, for example, recently announced it would open 20 new stores across Australia, including four in WA, in the next year.
Meanwhile the state's largest ice cream franchise, Wendy's, has just opened another two stores in WA, Cold Rock Ice Creamery is due to open its fourth, and Ben & Jerry’s continues to add retail outlets to its sales network.
But despite the increased competition, Fremantle-founded Gelare is keeping pace with the international brands.
Gelare opened its first franchise in Fremantle 28 years ago after Mr Torabi obtained a licence for the US -manufactured ice cream.
Just last week, Gelare opened its 17th Australian franchise, at Harbourtown in Perth.
That degree of growth hasn’t come without challenges, however, with Mr Torabi acknowledging the plan to focus on major shopping centres and international expansion into five different countries had not quite worked out as expected.
But after a period of consolidation, when the number of WA franchises dropped from 17 to 12, Mr Torabi is again on the growth path.
This time around, Mr Torabi has modified his strategy to focus on suburban locations areas he would not have considered previously.
“Something had to change,” Mr Torabi told Business News.
“It’s like that saying, you can’t keep doing the same thing over and over again and expect a different outcome.”
Mr Torabi said Perth’s increasing population meant a growing number of ‘active’ suburbs could benefit from the establishment of basic services, which was something Gelare hoped to leverage off.
“You sort of become part of the community in those suburban areas, and that’s the part I enjoy,” he said.
Mr Torabi said the Gelare store that opened at the Harvest Lakes Shopping Centre in Atwell about a month ago was doing good business.
That was in contrast to large shopping centres, he said, where Gelare had become a small fish in a big pond.
“I wanted to be a big fish in a small pond,” Mr Torabi said.
The suburban focus became even more appealing when high rents in big centres and trouble securing and retaining good staff were considered.
Ben & Jerry’s arrival in the WA market caused a stir when the company launched its ‘scoop wagon’ in the Perth Cultural Centre in June last year.
Since then it has worked on growing WA sales through a retail network of (now) 24 outlets.
But Mr Torabi said Ben & Jerry’s had actually done Gelare a favour by educating the market on premium ice cream available in takeaway tubs, which Gelare also sells.
“People see (Ben & Jerry’s) everywhere so they’re bound to buy it,” he said.
“All of a sudden consumers are willing to pay $12 to $13 for a pint (of ice cream), which is less than half a litre.”
Mr Torabi said Gelare had an edge over Ben & Jerry’s in that it had bricks and mortar shops, which became particularly apparent after his business introduced a breakfast menu about a year ago.
“A freezer cannot compete with a shop … we’ve got the ice cream, we’ve got the waffles, we’ve got the total experience,” he said.
Baskin Robbins last month announced it was increasing its stores across Australia by 20 in the next year.
That proposal may have a familiar ring to it, however. At the time of the California-founded franchise’s sale to United Arab Emirates company Galadari Brothers last year, Baskin Robbins said it would open 200 new Australian stores in the next 10 years – an average of 20 per year.
The company now has 16 stores in WA and told Business News it planned to increase that to 20 by the end of 2014.
Cold Rock has also been attempting to expand in the state for the past few years, largely without success.
Last year it was negotiating a joint venture with Video Ezy, which would increase its presence by adding sales through 24 video stores to its three established franchises.
However, it failed to agree on an outcome.
Managing director of parent company Franchised Food Company, Stan Gordon, told Business News expansion had been slower in WA due to the head office being located in Melbourne.
However, the company would open its fourth WA store in Scarborough in the next few months, Mr Gordon said, with Franchised Food Company also looking to bring its gelato franchise, Trampoline, to WA before the end of the year.
With 21 stores in WA, Wendy's remains the state’s largest ice cream franchise.
That includes two outlets opening recently, in Warnbro and Cockburn Gateway.
Chief executive Rob McKay said the expansion reflected the company’s strong national growth.
“We’ve recently been seeing an increase in the number of enquiries from people wanting to know how they can get involved in a franchise, reaffirming that the Wendys brand is strong and continues to resonate,” Mr McKay told Business News.
