• August 20, 2008

With the U.S. market bulging with fast-food restaurants, quick-serve chains like F&B packaged goods companies are increasingly counting on non-U.S. marketers for growth.

Case in point: Just yesterday, both Quiznos and Cold Stone Creamery announced plans for more international expansion.

Quiznos has new agreements in India and Brazil, adding to other recent deals in Eastern Europe, the Dominican Republic, the UAE and Saudi Arabia--plus pending deals in Singapore, Chile and Ecuador. In all, these should add to at least 500 international restaurants over the next two years.

Cold Stone Creamery trumpeted the opening of its 100th international store, along with adding its 25th location in Japan alone. (Cold Stone just won second place in Restaurants & Institution's 2008 Consumers' Choice Awards.) --Karlene Lukovitz