Three new deals put Take 'n' Bake pizza and frozen yogurt under one roof, days before MTY said some of its brands may belong elsewhere.
Two days before MTY Food Group said it would stay intact but might sell brands that would do better elsewhere, its U.S. development team was making a different argument: some of its brands do better together.
Papa Murphy's signed three franchise agreements on Oct. 7 for a co-branded store that pairs its Take 'n' Bake pizza with Pinkberry frozen yogurt. Both brands sit in MTY's portfolio.
The pitch is seasonality. "These brands in particular pair well together and also offset each other seasonally, which will greatly assist in growth and a faster ROI in the future for candidates that wish to explore co-brands," said Ray Zandi, MTY's vice president of U.S. development.
John Perea, who is adding a Pinkberry to the Santa Fe, New Mexico Papa Murphy's he has owned since 2010, put it in staffing terms. Pairing the brands "creates a business that can gainfully employ eight to 10 team members and thrive all year long," he said.
Two of the three deals come from current owners. Casey Kauer, who runs five Papa Murphy's in Utah, plans a co-branded store in West Haven for summer 2027. Joshua and Samantha Kimzey open the first location in both systems in Sunriver, Oregon in early November.
My read: this is how a multi-brand franchisor gets value from concepts that struggle to carry a lease on their own. Zandi named sweetFrog and other "less labor-intensive concepts" as future candidates. That is sound portfolio math for MTY.
For franchisees, the math is less settled. The announcement doesn't say what a co-branded unit pays in combined royalties and fees, or how much of the lift is new demand versus the same family buying dessert at one counter instead of two. Sunriver opens in November, which means its first real test arrives next summer.
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