Cereality in expansion mode
Cereality has been at the center of interest for cereal enthusiasts, as their innovative cereal restaurant concept has been getting significant publicity.
Yesterday, the company announced that they will be pursuing more aggressive expansion beginning in 2006. They are exploring potential partnerships for franchising and licensing initiatives.
According to their press release they are "determined to bring the feeling of 'Always Saturday Morning(tm)" to thousands of consumers around the country quickly and in the signature 'Cereality way,' with a huge amount of choice."
Choice? Obviously in menu choices, but the issue of competition still remains. It appears that they are wanting to emphasize growth rather than focus on their protectionist actions. Co-founder David Roth says:
"Our response to our friends out there is that Cereality's defense of its intellectual property against copycats is, and will continue to be, aggressive," though he says that the company is shifting their attention away from an earlier defense of its pending patents and instead, focusing on the new expansion strategy. However, Roth adds that the company will closely monitor when competitors "put Cereality's brand components through a copy machine. Straight-out mimicry is just plain bad business and we have trademark protection for that sort of thing."
It is exciting to see the growth of this restaurant concept (PLEASE OPEN ONE NEAR ME!), but hopefully Cereality will realize that their success will be even greater with healthy competition. They can't afford the negative publicity of being perceived as the bully.
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