Australia’s first dual Cold Rock Ice Creamery and Pretzel World store opened in Hobart on 16 April, attracting approximately 2,000 customers within its first three days of operation.

The opening of the store, at 388 Elizabeth Street North Hobart, also heralded the debut of both franchise brands in Tasmania.

What Hobart did in their first three days has never been done in the first week of any Cold Rock opening, said Stan Gordon, managing director of Franchised Food Company (FFCo), which owns the Cold Rock and Pretzel World franchises.

Gordon said combining the two brands allowed Cold Rock to avoid winter sales troughs, offer more products and trade for longer. Cold Rock generally trades from lunch until 11pm, but by having a warm breakfast offering of a coffee and a pretzel from Pretzel World, we can open earlier and offer a lunch option, he said.

Pretzels are a new concept, certainly to Hobart but also Australia. It’s taken a little bit of time to explain what a hot, warm pretzel is but we are now seeing people return again and again to our stores because, like Cold Rock, it’s such a unique product.

Gordon added that FFCo plans to roll out the dual store concept in other locations across Australia.

The North Hobart store is run by Annette Rooke and her husband Anthony Jones, and at this stage is open from 10am to 10pm.