This article needs additional citations for verification .(February 2010) |
Great American Cookie | |
Company type | Wholly owned subsidiary |
Industry | Food Bake shop |
Founded | 1977 Dunwoody, Georgia, U.S. |
Founders |
|
Headquarters | Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. |
Number of locations | 371 (February 20, 2022) |
Area served | United States Bahrain Saudi Arabia |
Products |
|
Parent | FAT Brands |
Website | greatamericancookies.com |
Great American Cookie Co., doing business as Great American Cookies, is an American chain of independently owned and operated franchised stores that specialize in gourmet cookies, especially cookie cakes. It has over 290 stores in the U.S., particularly in the Southeast as well as Puerto Rico and Guam, most commonly located in malls. The company was founded in 1977 and has its headquarters in Atlanta. It is since 2010 a franchise brand in the portfolio of Global Franchise Group.
Great American Cookie Co. was founded by future CEO Michael J. Coles and partner Arthur Karp, who each invested $4,000 to develop a business selling cookies on the strength of a family recipe passed on to Karp's wife. [1] That same year the first store opened in Atlanta's Perimeter Mall. [2]
The first store in Perimeter Mall became successful in its first month, and the company first became franchised the year after its opening. [3] By 1985, the company had revenue of $100 million per year and was the largest retail cookie chain in the U.S. [4]
In 1985, Coles shortened the name to Great American Cookie Company, with a plan to shorten it further to Great American Cookies. "To complement the revised recipes and pricing structure, we refashioned our branding. Our name—the Original Great American Chocolate Chip Cookie Company—was cute at first, but it had become a liability. What might work for a small, local company did not have national cachet," said Coles. [5]
When Coles sold the firm to Mrs. Fields Famous Brands in 1998, the company had sales of over $100 million. [6] On January 29, 2008, the company was acquired by NexCen Brands Inc. for its Quick Service Restaurant portfolio, which included sister companies Marble Slab Creamery, MaggieMoo's Ice Cream and Treatery and Pretzelmaker. Since July 2010, this portfolio of brands has been owned by Global Franchise Group, LLC, an affiliate of Levine Leichtman Capital Partners, and managed by GFG Management. [7]
On June 28, 2021, Global Franchise Group announced that it would be acquired by FAT Brands, owners of Fatburger and Johnny Rockets. [8] The acquisition was completed on July 22. [9]
Bloomingdale's Inc. is an American luxury department store chain founded in 1861 by Joseph Bloomingdale and Lyman Bloomingdale. It was acquired by Federated Department Stores in 1930, which acquired the Macy’s department store chain in 1994, when they became sister brands. Ultimately, Federated itself was renamed Macy’s, Inc. in 2007.
Round Table Pizza is a chain and franchise of pizza parlours in the Western United States. The first Round Table Pizza restaurant was opened in 1959, and the company has over 400 restaurants. The company is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.
Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, Inc., also known as Popeyes and formerly named Popeyes Chicken & Biscuits and Popeyes Famous Fried Chicken & Biscuits, is an American multinational chain of fried chicken restaurants formed in 1972 in New Orleans and headquartered in Miami. It is currently a subsidiary of Toronto-based Restaurant Brands International. As of 2021, Popeyes has 3,705 restaurants, which are located in more than 46 states and the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and 30 countries worldwide. About 50 locations are company-owned; the other ~98% are franchised.
Marriott International, Inc. is an American multinational company that operates, franchises, and licenses lodging brands that include hotel, residential, and timeshare properties. Marriott International owns over 36 hotel and timeshare brands with 9,000 locations and 1,597,380 rooms across its network. Marriott International is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland. The company is the successor to the hospitality division of the Marriott Corporation, founded by J. Willard Marriott (1900–1985) and his wife Alice Marriott (1907–2000).
Hot Dog on a Stick is a fast food company that was founded by Dave Barham in Santa Monica, California, USA, in 1946, and later branched out into malls and shopping centers. From 2014 to 2021, the company was owned by Global Franchise Group based in Atlanta, GA. Under GFG, the brand opened new locations across the country and moved into the franchising space. On June 28, 2021, Global Franchise Group announced that it would be acquired by FAT Brands, owners of Fatburger and Johnny Rockets. The acquisition was completed on July 22.
DHX Cookie Jar Inc. was a Canadian media, production, animation studio, and distribution company owned by DHX Media. The company was first established in 1976 as CINAR Films Inc., a Montreal-based studio that was heavily involved in children's entertainment. The company's business model, which included the licensing of its properties into educational markets, had a significant impact on its success; by 1999, CINAR held CDN$1.5 billion of the overall children's television market.
Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, Inc., is an American hospitality company based in Parsippany, New Jersey, United States. It describes itself as the largest hotel franchisor in the world, with 9,100 locations.
Mrs. Fields' Original Cookies Inc. is an American franchisor in the snack food industry, with Mrs. Fields and TCBY as its core brands. Through its franchisees' retail stores, it is one of the largest retailers of freshly-baked-on-premises specialty cookies and brownies in the United States and the largest retailer of soft-serve frozen yogurt in the country. In addition, it operates a gifts and branded retail business, entering into many licensing arrangements. Its franchise systems include over 300 franchised and licensed locations throughout the United States and in 22 other countries. It also offers retail grocery products and a gifting catalog under the name of Mrs. Fields Gifts. It is headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado.
A cookie cake is a dessert that consists of a large cookie, which is baked similarly to a batch of regular-sized cookies and usually decorated with frosting. Cookie cakes are made with cookie dough, generally by adjusting the portions of existing cookie recipes to match the size of the pan used for baking. Cookie cakes can be baked in a variety of sizes, and are served and sliced in sections, similarly to cakes and pies.
Marble Slab Creamery is an American chain of ice cream shops owned by FAT Brands. Its corporate offices are in Atlanta, Georgia.
MaggieMoo's Ice Cream and Treatery is a chain of independently owned and operated franchised stores that specialize in serving ice cream and other desserts. The first MaggieMoo's opened in 1989 in Kansas City, Kansas. At its peak, the brand had 400 stores and had a goal of opening over 1,000 stores. The brand's headquarters are in unincorporated Fulton County, Georgia. When MaggieMoo's was an independent company, it had its headquarters in Columbia, Maryland. It later became a franchise brand in the portfolio of Global Franchise Group, along with Marble Slab Creamery, until 2021 after Global Franchise Group was acquired by FAT Brands.
Nestlé Toll House Café was a franchise in the United States and Canada founded by Ziad Dalal and his partner Doyle Liesenfelt. The two started Crest Foods, Inc. D/B/A "Nestlé Toll House Café by Chip" in 2000 in Dallas, Texas. Crest Foods, the master franchisor for Nestlé, is in charge of developing cookie store franchises across the United States as part of Nestlé USA's challenge to the longtime industry leader, Mrs. Fields Famous Cookies Inc. The menu consists of items such as cookies, cookie cakes, brownies, ice cream, milk shakes, smoothies, and a full line of hot and frozen coffee beverages. The Nestlé Toll House Cafés are commonly found in shopping malls or shopping centers.
Perimeter Mall is a shopping mall in Perimeter Center, Dunwoody, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta, near the interchange of Interstate 285 and Georgia State Route 400. It is the second-largest shopping mall in the state of Georgia, the largest being the Mall of Georgia in Buford, Georgia. The mall features Macy's, Dillard's, Von Maur, and Nordstrom.
Apollo Global Management, Inc. is an American asset management firm that primarily invests in alternative assets. As of 2022, the company had $548 billion of assets under management, including $392 billion invested in credit, including mezzanine capital, hedge funds, non-performing loans, and collateralized loan obligations, $99 billion invested in private equity, and $46.2 billion invested in real assets, which includes real estate and infrastructure. The company invests money on behalf of pension funds, financial endowments, and sovereign wealth funds, as well as other institutional and individual investors.
Global Franchise Group was a brand-acquisition and management firm headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It specialized in franchising and quick-service restaurant industries. It was founded in 2010 with the acquisition of NexCen Brands' properties and was acquired by FAT Brands in July 2021.
Pretzelmaker is a chain of independently owned and operated franchised stores that specialize in hand-rolled pretzels, smoothies and cold beverages. It is a franchise brand in the portfolio of Global Franchise Group. It has more than 280 locations in the U.S. and internationally.
Frito-Lay, Inc. is an American subsidiary of PepsiCo that manufactures, markets, and sells corn chips, potato chips, and other snack foods. The primary snack food brands produced under the Frito-Lay name include Fritos corn chips, Cheetos cheese-flavored snacks, Doritos and Tostitos tortilla chips, Lay's and Ruffles potato chips, Rold Gold pretzels, and Walkers potato crisps. Each brand generated annual worldwide sales over $1 billion in 2009.
Twin Peaks is an American chain of sports bars and restaurants based in Lewisville, Texas, which has been described as an "ultimate sports lodge" and breastaurant along with similar chains. The chain is known for having its waitresses, primarily young women and typically referred to as "Twin Peaks Girls", dress in revealing uniforms that consist of cleavage- and midriff-revealing red plaid tops, as well as khaki shorts or denim short shorts. At other times, waitresses wear revealing seasonal or themed outfits. Restaurants are decorated in the theme of a wilderness lodge and serve a mix of American, Southwest and Southern cuisines as well as alcohol. The chain's slogan is "Eats. Drinks. Scenic Views."
FAT Brands Inc. is an American multi-brand restaurant operator headquartered in Beverly Hills, California.
Michael J. Coles is an American entrepreneur, author, philanthropist, and politician. Coles was the co-founder of Great American Cookie Company and former CEO of Caribou Coffee. Coles was the 1996 Democratic nominee for the house of representatives in the Sixth District of Georgia, and the 1998 Democratic nominee for U.S senate. In 1994 Kennesaw State University named its school of business the Coles College of Business.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link){{cite news}}
: |last1=
has generic name (help){{cite news}}
: |last1=
has generic name (help)