Last Updated on July 24, 2012 by DeanR
Cookies By Design Franchise
Cookies By Design is a franchise that offers cookie bouquets. Gwen Willhite was a single mother and was unemployed when she came up with the concept of cookie bouquets. It was 1983 when she started the business under the name Cookie Bouquet right from her own kitchen.
The cookie bouquet is made up of very creatively designed cookies and arranged like a flower bouquet. People immediately loved the idea of an edible bouquet. She expanded to Tulsa, Oklahoma then to Dallas, Texas in 1986. In 1987, she opened up herself to the many requests to franchise the Cookie Bouquet. In 2004, they changed the name to Cookies By Design. To date, they have about 240 stores nationwide in 218 cities. It’s now one of the largest retailers of gourmet cookies in the US.
Cookies By Design customize the shape and hand-decorate each cookie. They now have licensed design from Disney Princess, Disney Cookies, Garfield Cookies, Winnie the Pooh Gifts, to NCAA and NFL Gift baskets. Each of these has about 28 designs to choose from not counting about 3-4 designs for each NFL or NCAA team.
What other cookie designs do they have? They have the Tasteful Greetings that’s designed to look like a greeting card with a cookie inside. Another very personalized option is their edible image cookies where you can submit your very own picture to be put on the cookie. You can also choose from the Cookie Boutrays, Cookie Baskets, or the Cookie Trays. Cookie Boutray is a mixture of designed cookies arranged like a bouquet with the gourmet cookies at the bottom. The Cookie Baskets like it said, is arranged in a basket and the Cookie Tray is arranged on a tray. They also have cookies the size of a cake which they call the Cookie Cake. These are also all hand-decorated. You may opt to get only those that have designs. You can get it as a bouquet, individually decorated and even personalized with a name for free, or smaller versions to be used as give-aways. These cookies are very versatile since each is hand-decorated. They offer it as corporate give-aways and they also have designs for holidays and special occasions like weddings.
Costs and Requirements of a Cookies By Design Business Franchise
What do you need to get your own Cookies By Design store? There’s no net worth requirement although you need to have at least $30,000 total of liquid assets. They don’t allow absentee ownership. Total investment would be around $111,500-$187,500. Franchise fee is $30,000 with an on-going royalty fee of 6%. This is for a renewable 5 year term agreement.
What’s included in the franchise package?
There will be 2 weeks training at the Cookie College at their headquarters and 2 days at your location. In training, they include the manufacturing since each cookie is baked and designed fresh in every store. For start-up assistance, they will help you find a perfect location, design and you will be provided training for production and operations. Part of their on-going support is the marketing of special occasion cookies. There will also be assistance in purchasing to help you in inventory management and savings. You will be getting visits periodically to check on your progress.
Contact Details
You may reach them at:
Phone: (800)945-2665/ (972)398-9536
Address: 1865 Summit Ave., #605 Plano, Texas 75074