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Andy’s Frozen Custard President Andy Kuntz plans to move his company down the street by fall.
Andy’s Frozen Custard President Andy Kuntz plans to move his company down the street by fall.

Andy’s looks toward new HQ

Posted online

Andy’s Frozen Custard currently has one store for every year it’s been in business.

With its 30th anniversary a month away, President Andy Kuntz plans to nearly double the store count this year with a goal of 75 in the chain by the end of 2017.

“We want to be the Chick-Fil-A of frozen custard,” Kuntz said. “Quality of product and quality of service is what wins.”

For starters, Kuntz has purchased an undeveloped piece of land on South Glenstone Avenue for the chain’s sixth Springfield store, and he’s quadrupling Andy’s headquarters in a move to a renovated historic building downtown.

Plans in motion
Kuntz took a step on Jan. 27, when he closed on the purchase of 1.5 acres at 3820 S. Glenstone Ave. for undisclosed terms from Ted Hall, who operated Skateport roller rink on the property for 37 years. It closed in mid-2014 when highway officials extended a road to create a four-way stop on South Glenstone.

The planned standalone store, at nearly 1,900 square feet, would resemble a new Kansas City store designed with a wood and brick exterior. Also in the works is a 3,000- to 4,000-square-foot multitenant retail center, similar to the Einstein Bros. Bagels building he owns next to Andy’s south of James River Freeway on Campbell Avenue.

Kuntz expects the store to open by August.

R.B. Murray Co. Vice President Ross Murray, who brokered the deal for undisclosed terms, said the land sale was particularly challenging given the intersection changes.

“It’s probably one of the last really good corners left in town that’s undeveloped,” Murray said.

“I probably lost two years of my life getting that thing done.”

From his downtown office at 338 Boonville Ave., Kuntz said the company would move its headquarters down the street to 211 E. Water St., the former home of Harry Cooper Supply Co. In the move, Andy’s won’t change landlords. Clan MacQuarrie LLC owns both buildings, and the McQueary family is renovating the 103-year-old, three-story building, which Kuntz said leaves Andy’s capital to invest in stores.

Kuntz said a key feature of the new space would be a 14-foot custard cone visible from the first-floor entryway suspended from the third-floor ceiling. Offices will be located on the top two floors along with a kitchen and a workout facility for employees. In addition to 18,000 square feet of offices, the move also gives Andy’s 10,000 square feet for storage.

“Plus, we like that it’s downtown,” he said, declining to disclose lease terms. “We hope the Springfield spirits are good to us.”

Rick McQueary, co-owner of Clan MacQuarrie, said renovations are scheduled to wrap up by October. According to a city building permit, the renovations are estimated to cost $3.75 million.

“It’s a beautiful building anyway, but it’s going to really be extraordinary when we get done with renovations,” McQueary said, noting Kenmar Construction Inc. is general contractor, and project architects are Allen Casey and Matthew Hufft.

He doesn’t anticipate filling the space Andy’s occupied for four years will be too difficult.

“It’s a well-finished office. When Andy moved in there, he did a lot of renovations to it,” McQueary said. “I don’t think we’ll have any trouble finding another tenant.”

Humble beginnings
Founders John and Carol Kuntz launched Andy’s Frozen Custard on March 19, 1986, with its first store in Osage Beach. Andy Kuntz, their son and now co-owner, said it snowed that day, and the company pulled in $165.77. A year later, the business would open its first store in Springfield on East Sunshine Street.

Kuntz said stores now average about $1.2 million in sales per year. In 2014, Andy’s posted three-year revenue growth of nearly 80 percent to $24.7 million, and the company generated $30.5 million in 2015.  In recent years, the store on South Campbell Avenue near James River Freeway was top performer, and it became the first store to top $2 million in annual sales last year.

With seven stores coming on line last year, the company operates 29 stores – 16 of which are corporate-owned and 13 by franchise operators.

“We’ve seen a lot of things come and go,” Kuntz said. “In the 1980s it was TCBY. … Then there were all the yogurt shops. I don’t know; there might be two or three left.

“But at a frozen yogurt shop, you can’t get a chocolate malt, and you can’t get a hot fudge sundae.”

New markets for Andy’s over the next two years include Dallas, Oklahoma City, Nashville, Tenn., Denver and Phoenix. Kuntz said cities targeted for further brand penetration include Chicago, Kansas City, St. Louis, Tulsa, Okla., and Austin, Texas.

“The frozen dessert market is available,” Kuntz said, pointing to restaurant chain competitors Dairy Queen, Freddy’s and Culver’s and independent shops with single locations or a small footprint. “Our efforts in recent years have been fueling our confidence to grow.”

The company began franchising in 2005. There were some bumps along the way, and Andy’s eventually bought back a few stores, starting with Branson in 2007 from a struggling owner-operator, then Rogers and Fayetteville, Ark., in 2012.

Franchisees must have a net worth of at least $1 million and $500,000 in liquidity, and Andy’s seeks a minimum of three-store deals. Franchisees have told Springfield Business Journal they budget $1-$2 million to open each store.

After some missteps, Kuntz feels the staff now has its systems down for training franchisees and new store managers.

John Kuntz died in 2008, but Andy Kuntz said his father’s influence is still very important in this age of expansion.

“He was the one who brought a high level of detail and organization to the company,” Kuntz said. “Everything was very detailed. ‘We do it exactly like this and we don’t vary from it.’”

Carol Kuntz still is active in the company, regularly working Friday and Saturday nights in Branson – now the chain’s No. 2 store – during the busy summer season.

“That’s where the action is,” she said. “I never anticipated it would be like this.”

Andy Kuntz said each of the company’s 22 stores open in 2014 posted sales increases last year.

“This growth is the byproduct of success in our existing stores,” he said.  

Web Producer Geoff Pickle contributed

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