New Owners, New Direction; Cookies by Design Focus on Franchise Strategy

By: Cookies by Design | 9 Shares 465 Reads

May 15, 2008 // Franchising.com // - Plano, TX (May 15, 2008) – Crumb Corps, LLC, new owner of the franchise Cookies by Design, starts the renewal of the cookie bouquet brand by concentrating on building new franchise relationships.

"We need to centralize our branding process by focusing on one of our most important priorities, the franchisee," states Cookies by Design's new president and CEO, Jon Rice, "Our custom designs and hand-delivery is what separates us from our competitors. Our primary goal in expanding our franchise operation is to create more points of contact w/ our customers."

The first Cookies by Design franchise opened in 1987 and the momentum has been growing ever since. Within 10 years, Cookies by Design had grown to more than 175 shops in 115 cities across the United States. There are currently over 190 operating franchise locations across the U.S. with vested interest in expanding their operations. Starting with their Web site, www.cookiesbydesign.com will show revisions to their franchise page intending to draw more attention to interested buyers.

"Cookies by Design has a very bright future," says Rice, "and we welcome you to explore being apart of it."

To learn more about Cookies by Design and new developing changes to the franchise, visit www.cookiesbydesign.com/franchiseinforequest.aspx.

The leadership team for this new ownership group consists of the following individuals:

Jon M. Rice, President, CEO and Brand Development – Rice's 25 years in franchise marketing include tenure with companies such as Pizza Hut, Marriott, Church's International, and more recently CEC Entertainment (Chuck E Cheese) where he served for 10 years as Vice President of Marketing. His early experience also includes working for Tracey Locke and Wells, Rich, Greene advertising agencies.

Steve Gellman, Chief Operating Officer – Gellman began his diverse restaurant career in the Burger King Marketing and promotions department before becoming a successful Burger King franchisee. He has worked with concepts such as Steak-Out Delivery, Fazoli's, Boston Pizza, and Pei Wei Asian Diner and in such disciplines as field marketing, franchise development, packaging, sales management and operations.

David Patterson, Chief Financial Officer and Franchise Development – Patterson served as Cookies by Design, Inc.'s CFO since 2004 and, prior to that, occupied the position of Vice President of Franchise Development. In addition to his long history of service to CBDI, he and wife owned and operated their own Cookies by Design shoppe from 1992-1997.

Marshall R. Fisco, Jr., Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary – Fisco's most recent experience was Vice President, Senior Counsel and Corporate Secretary with CEC Entertainment. Prior to his position as Vice President at CEC Entertainment, Marshall was a successful litigator in the Houston area.

Kim Rice, Director of Creative Development – Rice's 25 years experience in copywriting and design includes work for major advertising agencies, corporations and small businesses. Rice also co-owned Human Nature, Inc., a business that specialized in the design and production of handcrafted and printed stationary products.

About Cookies by Design

Cookies by Design created the world's first cookie bouquet almost 25 years ago and continues to provide customers with creative gifts of hand-decorated cookies and gourmet cookies in a variety of shapes and sizes for every occasion. Today, there 190 shoppes in 42 states. For more, visit www.cookiesbydesign.com. Cookies by Design is ranked in the top 500 franchise concepts by Entrepreneur Magazine.

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