For Franchise information visit Cold Stone Creamery on BISON.

Cold Stone Creamery Awards Its 500th Store

SCOTTSDALE, Arizona (June 12, 2002) - Cold Stone Creamery, the fastest growing Ice Cream Franchise in the nation, awarded its 500th store this week. Cold Stone Creamery is poised for rapid expansion with an aggressive goal to open 1,000 stores by 2004. The store was awarded to new franchisees, Greg and Lori Lomen, and is scheduled to open this September in Tualatin, Ore., in the Nyberg Creek Shopping Center. Cold Stone Creamery has a solid track record of franchisee success and awards numerous new Franchises each month. More than 50 percent of those franchises are opened by operators already in the system.

What started in 1988 as the search for the perfect ice cream dessert has turned into a phenomenon sought out by ice cream lovers everywhere. Cold Stone Creamery specializes in making it a great day for each guest by combining the best-made ice cream with a truly personalized experience, making its super-premium ice cream fresh every day in each store. The ice cream is then personalized as the Creamery Crew blends it with each customer's choice of fruit, nuts or candy on a frozen granite stone.

Below is a snapshot of Cold Stone Creamery's growth & plans to date:

• 233 Cold Stone locations open and operating
• Cold Stone locations represented in 27 states including Hawaii, Alaska, and our first international store in the Virgin Islands
• Prospective franchisee applications are up 583 percent from 2001
• Cold Stone is the leader in sales with stores averaging more than $322,000 in annualized sales
• Cold Stone is scheduled to open 143 stores and award 300 stores during the remainder of 2002

For franchise information visit Cold Stone Creamery on BISON.