Ferguson Plarre Bakehouses launches network first pop-up doughnut store

Nick Hall

Heritage bakery franchise, Ferguson Plarre Bakehouses has today unveiled a network-first pop-up doughnut kiosk at Bayside Shopping Centre in Frankston.

The new concept showcases 15 new flavours for the brand, launching just in time for Christmas and is expected to run for six weeks.

Steve Plarre, Ferguson Plarre Bakehouses CEO said the pop-up concept presented an opportunity to explore new territories and products in an innovative manner.

“This pop-up doughnut concept is a way for us to test a shopping centre’s capacity for our brand of retail and promote our range, almost in a Ferguson Plarre Express type model. There’s a much greater focus on grab and go, where our retail model has different offerings such as birthday cakes that are far more destinational, it just gives us more options,” Plarre said.

“It’s on the back of looking at our traditional kiosk, in-line stores and thinking ‘what if we wanted to roll in and out easily?’, because in some cases, landlords don’t want you for five or six years. So, we caught up with a few national leasing managers and really tested their appetite for this kind of model. ”

The pop-up store is one of a number of innovations Ferguson Plarre has adopted to combat recent conditions in the evolving food retailing market.

Plarre indicated that innovation had been a major focus for the brand, and suggested the rapid digitalisation of the retail market presented its own set of challenges.

“We are always interested in being agile, we’re a heritage brand, so we’re always trying to reinvent and find new ways to appeal to a range of demographics, which I believe is really important in the retail space,” Plarre said.

“Everybody is talking about Amazon Go and how technological innovations are going to change the way retail operates, how marketing is conducted. The food retail space is all about innovation, it’s just in this case we are testing with format rather than with ingredient.”

The new move is paying off, with Plarre reporting sales are far exceeding initial projections, hinting at a potential future roll-out.

“It’s only launched today and it’s trading well ahead of target, up about 30 per cent already. It’s something that could be on the radar more permanently, possibly as a sub-brand of some kind.”

The latest project from Ferguson Plarre Bakehouses follows a successful partnership with the Salvation Army, where the brand created a gingerbread man in the likeness of Melbournian of the Year, Major Brendan Nottle.

The charity partnership saw $1 from the sale of each gingerbread man going to the Salvation Army’s Melbourne Project 614 Night Caf_ – Safe Space, with Plarre overwhelmed by the amount of support the initiative has had.

“You always like to think that some of the good things that you do are going to resonate with the community. We had been looking for a charity partner for quite some time, obviously, that is defined by the bakers, the partners; really that human component. We’re busy trying to figure out how that relationship turns into a marriage of sorts in 2019,” Plarre said.

“The last two weeks we’ve seen double digit comparative sales, and that’s on the back of the Salvation Army media, but we’ve also had an incredibly successful catalogue launch, which is up 80 per cent on last year.”