Ice cream market / Dairy Queen

Editorial staff

Dairy Queen launches its brand-new concept store by opening the first ‘DQ Lounge’, aiming to increase customer engagement to its brand amid fierce competition.

Tanakritt Kittipanachol, general manager at Minor DQ Co, a subsidiary of Minor Group, which operates Dairy Queen soft serve ice cream, said that Dairy Queen has changed its strategy from ‘’soft serve leader’’ to ‘’the most favorite treats leader’’ from early this year by introducing the latest Dairy Queen store model, ‘DQ Lounge,’ to the market for over month.

Tanakritt Kittipanachol

The first ‘DQ Lounge’ has been designed with unique design elements, including more service space and decor that evokes a modern, fun-loving, and energetic ambiance.

Here, it provides bakery and parfaits recipes, which is not available in regular branches, catering to diverse consumer behaviours while serving as a bridge to new experiences between consumers and the brand, further solidifying its strong connection with consumers.

The new store model concept of DQ Lounge aims to bring consumers closer to the brand while attracting new customer segments and expanding the consumer base. It also aims to boost sales by meeting the current consumer behaviour trend, where people seek places to relax during shopping trips in malls while enjoying sweet treats to refresh and re-energise themselves throughout the day.

The first branch of the ‘DQ Lounge’ is located on G Floor of CentralPlaza Westgate, covering a total area of 40 square metres. The store space is divided into two zones: a service zone where customers can place orders for various menu items, with the highlight being special menu items available at this branch only. These include bakery treats such as brownies, toasts, and parfaits, which have contributed to an increase in sales by up to 10%. Premium-grade fresh fruits are also used as ingredients, further enhancing the menus. Additionally, there’s a topping zone where customers can add extra toppings to their regular menu items, such as bananas, ladyfinger biscuits, Oreos, and more.

The remaining 50% of the store space comprises seating areas to accommodate customers, allowing them to sit back, relax, and enjoy the brand’s menus to the fullest. Following the opening of the store, it has been found that it has helped increase sales by up to 15%.

“The reason behind the first branch of the DQ Lounge is due to it being located in a large shopping mall with the potential to attract consumers in high-traffic areas. Moreover, the diverse consumer base utilising the mall’s services makes it suitable to serve as a prototype store to gather consumer insights and drive product development and promotions. If some ideas are successful, we will deploy it to other branches,’’ he said.

He added that Dairy Queen serves wide range of customer age from 12-45 years old, but it will put more focus to young consumer lifestyle age between 18-35 years old because of high disposable income.

Within the year 2024, Dairy Queen is preparing to open two more branches at Zpell Rangsit Shopping Centre and plans to expand with at least one branch in every province nationwide, including all premium store malls.

In addition, the company has increased its budget to 200 million baht from last year of 150 million baht to open total 60 new Dairy Queen shops this year.

Last year it had 520 Dairy Queen shops in the market via both franchise and its own equity.
It is expected that the opening of these model stores will significantly boost the customer base by 10%, as well as drive overall sales growth according to the set targets of double digit rate.

Thailand’s total ice cream market is expected to be worth of 25 billion baht this year, up from last year of 22-23 billion baht. Of the total , 15 billion baht belongs to packed ice cream like that is available at convenience store and the remaining 10 billion baht is un-packed ice cream like Dairy Queen.