It’s been twenty years since the first Mrs Fields cookie store opened in Australia, at Sydney’s Wynyard station. Since then the freshly-baked, traditional cookie treats from Mrs Fields’ stores have been cemented as a popular local indulgence.
Mrs Fields Australia managing director Andrew Benefield still remembers buying oven-fresh cookies in 1988, from the company’s first Australian store. Benefield, who was in his first job back then, recalls well the “spoiled feeling” he would experience whenever he bought his favourite fresh cookie from the Mrs Fields store.
From the early beginnings, the Mrs Fields stores were company owned and run, and new stores quicklypopped up in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, with 17 outlets operating by 1994.
It was then that Mrs Fields in the US, which still controlled the Australian operation, decided to close all but four stores and sold the master franchise to Denis Polivnick who set about expanding the store count again.
Traditionally, cookies were sold by the kilogram, with cups of soft drink. While this worked extremely well in the States, it did not appeal so well to the Australian public. In 1998 Polivnick introduced barista style coffee, to go with the oven-fresh cookies, which account for 40% of all sales today. By 2000 he had built the group back up with 15 stores across three states, elevating the turnover to over $5 million per annum.
Innovative products and point of difference items have attributed to the Mrs Fields success story with Benefield as the currentvisionary at the helm.
“The new Premium Brownie is a great example of this,” according to Benefield. “There are other cookie, bakery and cafe-style companies and chains that produce similar products, however the new, round, Premium Brownie has to be a stand-out.
“The refined recipe, rich flavour and ‘tort’-like appearance and enticing topping all add up to make the Premium Brownie more of a sophisticated treat than just a chocolate-flavoured slice.
“It’s round, not square, and comes in a choice of two lush and rich toppings of caramel and dark, or dark and white chocolate.
Of course coffee and treats are available from other chains too, yet what puts Mrs Fields in front is that the products are prepared fresh on-site, with a large range of flavours available.
Mrs Fields’ recipes use no artificial flavours or preservatives and stick to a no-GM policy for their ingredients. This policy, combined with an innovative and creative approach has added an edge to the Mrs Fields stores, making them a real alternative to traditional bake houses and coffee shops for treats, sweets, coffee and cakes.
The recently released Oatmeal Peanut Scotchy Cookie was the winning recipe out of over 700 entries in the international Mrs Fields Cookie Recipe Competition.
Mrs Fields’ latest innovation is the range of Cookie Cakes – choose any cookie flavour and have a personalised cake ready to be picked up in under two hours. The cakes come in different shapes and sizes and are kept affordable at $28. Like the oven-fresh, soft-baked cookies themselves, the Cookie Cakes are a soft-bake item, answering a cookie lovers’ dreams of eating the biggest cookie ever.