Samuel Batt of Batt Enterprises has signed an expanded development agreement with Famous Brands International to add Georgia to his existing North and South Carolina territory, committing to 15 new TCBY and Mrs. Fields locations across the three-state region. Batt currently operates 15 TCBY and two Mrs. Fields stores, and the brand reports he is on pace for his strongest sales year since entering the system in 2010 — with year-to-date revenue up double digits versus the prior year.
For equipment dealers and kitchen consultants working in the Southeast, the agreement signals a pipeline of new dessert-concept buildouts in suburban growth corridors and college-adjacent neighborhoods. Each TCBY unit supports a soft-serve and hand-scooped frozen yogurt program spanning more than 50 soft-serve flavors and 16 hand-scooped varieties, plus a topping bar with more than 35 options. Mrs. Fields co-branded locations add a freshly baked cookie and brownie program, requiring both refrigeration cold-chain infrastructure and high-volume deck or convection oven capacity.
Southeast Buildout Strategy
Batt's expansion strategy mirrors a broader industry trend toward suburban multi-unit development outside major metro cores. His target markets include the Research Triangle (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill), greater Charlotte, and Atlanta — all markets with active commercial kitchen construction and strong franchise activity. Consultants specifying these locations will be working with a format that blends frozen-yogurt equipment (soft-serve machines, dipping cabinets, topping cold wells) with front-of-house bake-off or scratch-baking stations, depending on the co-brand configuration.
Batt pioneered TCBY's first self-serve concept in Charlotte, a pilot that informed the brand's wider rollout of that format. Self-serve frozen yogurt units typically require a reconfigured service line with customer-accessible soft-serve dispensers, refrigerated topping rails, and a point-of-sale weight scale system — a distinct back-of-house footprint compared with traditional attended-service yogurt shops. Dealers supplying this segment should expect Batt's new Georgia and Carolinas units to follow that self-serve model as the brand's preferred format.
Franchise Pipeline Opens
Beyond his own 15-unit commitment, Batt is actively recruiting and supporting sub-franchisees across his territory, providing operational and development guidance to new operators. Famous Brands International lists Raleigh-Durham, Charleston, and Atlanta as priority markets for additional franchise candidates — a signal that the equipment and design pipeline for this concept extends well beyond Batt's own buildout.
For dealers tracking operator expansion in the prep-and-storage segment or sourcing frozen dessert equipment, the TCBY self-serve format represents a repeatable kit of parts: soft-serve dispensing units, refrigerated topping wells, hand-dip cabinets, and — in co-branded Mrs. Fields units — baking equipment capable of handling high-volume cookie production. Operators and consultants following the frozen dessert and refrigeration equipment landscape will want to monitor this Southeast expansion as Batt moves into Georgia markets through 2026 and beyond.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
