There was a time when you couldn’t walk through a mall without passing a TCBY or a Mrs. Fields. TCBY once had more than 3,000 shops worldwide. Now it’s down to 115 in the US, and shrinking, QSR reports. Sister brand Mrs. Fields isn’t doing much better, dropping from roughly 530 shops to just 98 today.
Enter Rich Screnci, the new guy in charge of turning both brands around. He’s done this kind of thing before, spending nearly four and a half years at Restaurant Brands International, including running Tim Hortons U.S. operations.
So what’s he actually doing? Not launching some big new product or ad campaign. He’s hitting the road, meeting franchisees face-to-face and just listening to what’s working and what isn’t. The goal now is to turn TCBY’s existing momentum into new locations and to get Mrs. Fields beyond its old-school retail and gifting business into new digital channels, too.
There was a time when you couldn’t walk through a mall without passing a TCBY or a Mrs. Fields. TCBY once had more than 3,000 shops worldwide. Now it’s down to 115 in the US, and shrinking, QSR reports. Sister brand Mrs. Fields isn’t doing much better, dropping from roughly 530 shops to just 98 today.
Enter Rich Screnci, the new guy in charge of turning both brands around. He’s done this kind of thing before, spending nearly four and a half years at Restaurant Brands International, including running Tim Hortons U.S. operations.
So what’s he actually doing? Not launching some big new product or ad campaign. He’s hitting the road, meeting franchisees face-to-face and just listening to what’s working and what isn’t. The goal now is to turn TCBY’s existing momentum into new locations and to get Mrs. Fields beyond its old-school retail and gifting business into new digital channels, too.
