South Sound should brace
Hilary ReevesBusiness Examiner - 09.01.2008
Brian Curin, the brains behind the Cold Stone Creamery franchise, recently announced his plan to bring his latest enterprise to the South Sound.
Curin, who lives in Vancouver, B.C., is the president of Flip Flop Shops, a franchise opportunity designed to provide “the hottest brands and latest styles of flip flops and sandals.”
Curin, with his partners Darin Kraetsch and Alan Woods, will open eight stores in western Washington during the next five years.
The partnership purchased the company last year from a couple who owned seven stores, one in Boston and the rest scattered throughout Arizona and California.
“We’re rippin’ excited about it,” said Curin of the $20 billion flip-flop industry, adding that turning the business into a franchise was a no-brainer.
Five stores, owned by four franchisees, are currently open across the country. Fourteen more, owned by another 13 franchisees, are currently in the development stages and will put Flip Flop Shops on the map in Arizona, California, Idaho, Nevada, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Guam. Curin said the partnership will facilitate the opening of 236 total stores during the next five years.
“We’re excited and we’re looking for franchisees,” Curin said. “We hope to have a store open next summer in the Seattle-Tacoma market. A lot of it depends on available real estate.”
The stores themselves were designed to evoke a laid-back feeling, with recycled corkboard flooring and the scent of suntan lotion emulating from within.
Curin said he hopes Flip Flop shops will do for flip flops what Sunglass Hut did for sunglasses two decades ago. He and his partners are all heavily invested in the franchise’s success.
“This is our baby,” Curin said. “This is our money and our lives. We can’t afford to fail.”
Curin said anyone interested in owning a Flip Flop Shops franchise can visit flipflopshops.com or e-mail franchise@flipflopshops.com.
“We truly feel that with the people we have on board, this is one of those opportunities that doesn’t come along more than once in a lifetime,” Curin said. “We’re pretty pumped to be able to free the toes of everybody.”
BACK
