ATLANTA — Cinnabon is getting smaller in hopes of getting bigger.
The Atlanta-based chain, best-known for its gooey cinnamon rolls and pecan buns, is rolling out new versions of its stores in an effort to spur expansion.
Cinnabon has spent the past year testing a Cinnabon Express format that can operate within another restaurant. It takes up about five feet of counter space and uses a pared down menu that includes the classic Cinnabon, Pecanbon and Minibon.
The company also has developed a smaller version of its full-menu Cinnabon bakery, creating a store that can fit in a space of about 120 to 140 square feet. Current full-bakery stores take about 600 to 800 square feet.
Cinnabon used an "RV approach" to squeeze the full bakery into a smaller space, said Cinnabon President Geoff Hill.
"Mentally, it was the exact same model," Hill said. "We saw something laying on the counter — spoons and ladles — and we would say to ourselves, 'We can't afford to have that laying on the counter,'" Hill said. "That taught us to figure out a place to put that. It might be hanging space, utilizing air."
Cinnabon also benefited from a new frozen dough that eliminated the need for proofing on-site. It already had been using a frozen dough in some stores that did not need to be mixed or rolled.
After three years of development, the latest version of the frozen dough passed taste tests earlier this year, Hill said. Consumers could not tell the difference between rolls made from scratch and the frozen dough, he said.
"We would not roll it out until our guests in a blind taste test said they were the same," Hill said.
Cinnabon, which has more than 700 outlets, is primarily located in malls, airports and travel plazas. The Cinnabon Express should allow Cinnabon to move into areas that do not have a mall or airport with enough foot traffic to justify a full store, Hill said.
Cinnabon has about 30 express versions open or under development in Schlotzsky's restaurants. Focus Brands, an Atlanta-based restaurant group, owns both Cinnabon and Schlotzsky's.
The company has started talks with other chains, Hill said. It hopes to have 45 to 50 Cinnabon Express stores by the end of the year, he said.
Cinnabon also is launching the smaller version of its full-line bakery. It opened the first small-footprint store in July in a suburban Seattle mall. The company is still determining how many of these smaller stores could be added, but it creates new opportunities, Hill said.
The smaller store lowers the build-out costs for franchisees and makes the full-bakery more flexible, he said. Cinnabon, for example, can now fit in the middle of mall and airport walkways.
"Now that it's up and doing very well, our real estate and sales team is out approaching other mall people," Hill said.
Cinnabon still has room for expansion and the new formats could help, said Darren Tristano, executive vice president for Technomic, a Chicago-based food industry research firm.
The Cinnabon Express, in particular, could be attractive to other restaurants trying to complement their current offerings, he said.
A format such as Cinnabon Express could confuse customers dining at the host restaurant, Tristano said.
The upside, though, is attracting additional traffic or getting current customers to spend more money in the same visit, he said.
"It's less likely they're going to turn off existing customers and more likely they're going to up-sell," Tristano said.
Joe Guy Collier writes for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. E-mail: jcollier AT ajc.com