Doug Ducey, former CEO of Cold Stone Creamery and Kahala-Cold Stone, today offered the following media statement:
‘Today I announce my departure as CEO of Kahala-Cold Stone. With the agreement of the board I believe this is the best time to step aside. The merger continues to make tremendous sense for stakeholders, employees, and customers. My energies and skills were completely invested in making this merger and new company a success. I am proud of what has been built with the Cold Stone brand and continue to believe the merger can bring cost-savings to the Franchisee Community along with opportunities to grow revenue. I will miss these people and this place tremendously…
Doug Ducey Issues Media Statement
September 18, 2007 by Cris | 2 Comments
In Basic Guidelines, Law & Agreements, Franchises, News, Strategy
Jim McMartin on September 19th, 2007 at 5:32 pm
The rats are jumping from the ship as hundreds of Cold Stone locations are now collapsing around the US. Why? Because the “concept” of mixing stuff into ice cream has always been a fad, and the fad is now over. The product isn’t that good, is grossly overpriced, and consumers are flocking back to properly formulated ice cream from other chains like Baskin Robbins and Ben & Jerry’s.
The Cold Stones have been largely sold to Yuppies with too much equity in their homes, who jumped into the stores to be “business owners”. But since the labor costs are double the competition, and stores are too big and too expensive to run, the number of unprofitable stores is skyrocketing with the results we have here.
Jim McMartin on September 19th, 2007 at 7:16 pm
The rats are jumping from the ship as hundreds of Cold Stone locations are now collapsing around the US. Why? Because the “concept” of mixing stuff into ice cream has always been a fad, and the fad is now over. The product isn’t that good, is grossly overpriced, and consumers are flocking back to properly formulated ice cream from other chains like Baskin Robbins and Ben & Jerry’s.
The Cold Stones have been largely sold to Yuppies with too much equity in their homes, who jumped into the stores to be “business owners”. But since the labor costs are double the competition, and stores are too big and too expensive to run, the number of unprofitable stores is skyrocketing with the results we have here.