Franchised Food Company (FFCo) has acquired Nutshack, the leading Australian retailer of nuts, confectionery and dried fruits.
Michael Sherlock, FFCo chairman and former Brumby’s CEO, confirmed settlement of the Nutshack deal today, with all 28 stores across Victoria and Queensland to fall under the umbrella group. The company was purchased from a group of investors including the Langdon Group.
Nutshack offers fresh, tasty snacks including quality nuts, special mixes, confectionery, chocolate and dried fruits as well as a selection of gift hampers.
The acquisition is the latest for FFCo which last year purchased the Cold Rock chain of ice cream stores.
Franchised Food Company also owns the Mr Whippy and Pretzel World brands. The latest acquisition pushes total store numbers for the group to 135.
Mr Sherlock said the Nutshack franchise was a good fit for Cold Rock and would help the ice cream brand expand its product range.
“Nutshack is FFCo’s first acquisition since buying Cold Rock in September 2009 and it has synergies with the ice cream franchise,” Mr Sherlock said.
“Cold Rock works on the ‘create your own’ experience of adding ‘mix ins’ to your favourite ice cream flavour and we’ll be able to use Nutshack products like nuts, chocolate and lollies for mix ins and to come up with new flavour creations.
“We’ll also examine the possibility of opening dual Cold Rock – Nutshack stores because the two brands are a very good fit.”
Nutshack was developed in 1991 and has been franchising since 1994.
FFCo CEO and managing director Stan Gordon said FFCo would aim to open Nutshack stores nationwide.
“This acquisition pushes the number of systems under FFCo to four and we are thrilled to be adding another brand to our group,” he said.
“We always said we were on the lookout for more opportunities in our sector and here it is. Nutshack is another exciting and unique brand which we believe has great potential to grow.
“FFCo is one of Australia’s biggest multi-system franchisors. We’ve enjoyed rapid growth, but we are always looking out for other opportunities, so watch this space.”
