Sawyer Hemsley, co-founder and Chief Business Officer of Crumbl.
US gourmet cookie brand Crumbl eyes 15 stores down under
The brand is currently planning to open its first one in Sydney.
Crumbl, a gourmet cookie brand based in Utah, plans to open its first store in Australia after an unaffiliated pop-up stand in Sydney sold days-old imported cookies that went viral on social media.
“It was probably a blessing in disguise, although it wasn’t the way we initially planned or expected to do things,” Sawyer Hemsley, co-founder and chief business officer at Crumbl, told QSR Media.
“Seeing this unfold really opened our eyes to the country of Australia. Australia was always in our mind to eventually expand into, but never this quickly,” he added.
Unaffiliated fans of the American cookie maker flew in hundreds of cookies on 29 September to sell at a temporary store near Bondi Beach in Sydney. It drew flak after customers complained of the stale taste, for which they were charged $17.50 each (US$11.61).
Crumbl Cookies, which opened in 2017 and operates a franchise model with more than 850 stores in North America, was never really meant to become a storefront concept, Hemsley said.
“So we thought, ‘Let's just make chocolate chip cookies’ — It was only one flavour at that time — ‘and let's take advantage of DoorDash and delivery,’” he said. “And so, we decided to capitalise on that technology, and we wanted to deliver cookies to people's homes.”
Crumbl is looking at Sydney as the site of its first store down under.
“We want to expand across all of Australia, don't get me wrong, but we do believe Sydney is a good starting point,” Hemsley said. “So if we can build a foundation there, it's going to be easier to move outside into the other cities.”
Crumbl seeks to give Aussies the same American cookie experience, complete with its signature store design where customers can watch cookies being baked.
Whilst there are talks of localising the menu with Australian favourites like Tim Tams, the brand will conduct taste tests to determine how well the American recipes align with Australian taste.
“We are planning to go over to Australia in the next month or so, and we want to conduct a couple more tests to make sure that our product will do well in that market, to make sure that they'll like the flavour profiles that we have on our menu,” Hemsley said.
“If the data and the responses are well received, then we'll continue forward,” he added.
Sawyer noted that if for some reason, their cookies turn out to be a little too sweet, they would consider changing their recipe to suit the Aussie taste.
“What we do at Crumbl is we try to answer every DM (direct message) that we get, every comment that we get, and we want to listen to our customers,” Hemsley said. “If they wanted another particular flavour, or smaller cookies, or something of that nature, then we would definitely want to adapt so that they're happy because they're the ones that are going to keep us in business.”
Crumbl plans to build more than 15 stores across Australia in the next two years.
“We like to find store owners that live in these areas, that know their community, that are well known,” he said. “If there's a leader there that understands their market, we believe the stores are going to be super successful.”
