Dairy Queen plans expansions across state, in Myrtle Beach area
Dairy Queen is growing, and the company has picked the Palmetto State for most of its new locations after marketing tools showed explosive growth potential in South Carolina.
The company is planning to open 75 new Dairy Queen Grill & Chill restaurants in South Carolina this year with nearly eight of those planned for the Grand Strand area, said Jim Kerr, vice president of franchise development with International Dairy Queen Inc.
“We are targeting the state of South Carolina,” Kerr said, citing the growth potential company officials found in marketing research.
The growth, the tourism and the DQ Grill & Chill concept gives us now a … (great opportunity) to attract many customers throughout the year.
Jim Kerr
vice president of franchise development with International Dairy Queen, Inc.“One of the items that has enabled us to target South Carolina is that we have state-of-the-art analytics,” he said, that show the high potential growth areas, especially prime in South Carolina.
“The growth, the tourism and the DQ Grill & Chill concept gives us now a … (great opportunity) to attract many customers throughout the year,” he said.
Company representatives have been mum on the exact locations of the new restaurants, but have said the new Grand Strand stores would be popping up in prime spots from North Myrtle Beach to Georgetown.
Dairy Queen is actively recruiting new franchisees to operate the stores.
“Our primary objective for the Myrtle Beach area is that we would build existing franchisees and would also like to attract multi-unit franchisees,” Kerr said, or business owners looking to build their portfolios with a new franchise.
International Dairy Queen had a “really strong 2015,” opening 84 locations across the United States, Kerr said. The company plans to open 85 or more stores in 2016.
“A lot of that is being pushed or enabled by strong marketing,” Kerr said.
The American Dairy Queen Corp. is a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, Inc., and has 6,700 locations worldwide, through the United States and in more than 23 other countries.
Reach Emily Weaver at 843-444-1722 or follow her on Twitter @TSNEmily.
This story was originally published March 1, 2016 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Dairy Queen plans expansions across state, in Myrtle Beach area."