OC Ice Cream LLC plans 10 locations of Millbrae, Calif.-based Cream Inc. in Orange County in the next three to four years, Cream said.
The first two will open in Aliso Viejo in March and the Irvine Spectrum in April. OC Ice Cream partners Kyle Olson and Hector Haget also plan to open a location on the University of Southern California campus in February.
Olson founded Newport Beach-based commercial real estate firm Blu Ventures. Haget was chief executive of a Piscataway, N.J.-based food manufacturer and is a franchisee in the Jersey Mike’s sandwich shop system.
They are looking for sites for the other eight OC locations. Stores average 1,200 square feet.
Cream—its name functions as an acronym for “cookies rule everything around me”—is the build-your-own concept applied to ice cream. Customers pick flavors, cookie types and toppings from about 20 in each category to create desserts.
Stores have other desserts—shakes, floats, malts, ice cream by the scoop,baked goods, and a taco shell-shaped waffle cone.
The franchise fee is $30,000, and marketing and royalty fees are 8% of gross sales, according to documents filed with the state of California.
Cream has nine locations in Northern California. It was founded in 2010 and began franchising two years later.
It plans to franchise 13 locations in San Diego, the first two opening early this year, and to enter the Las Vegas market.
