Cinnabon has made a cracking start in Australia, despite the challenges presented by COVID-19.

Cinnabon Australia took home the coveted Special Recognition Award for Outstanding Achievement at QSR Media’s annual Sandhurst Awards.

The popular US brand only landed in Australia in December, but quickly gained a strong following and achieved milestones most new businesses could only dream of in their first year.

This includes recording the highest opening day sales record in the history of the franchise at the Westfield Garden City Opening in February, with over 6500 Cinnabon Rolls sold.

Since December, Cinnabon Australia staff have rolled, baked and sold more than half a million bons in various sizes and flavours.

In the face of COVID-19, Cinnabon Australia was able to pivot for survival by introducing delivery, hosting pop-ups at shopping centres and implementing new digital marketing campaigns to drive traffic.

In fact, April 2020 was the brand’s best month to date, despite the permanent bakeries at Toombul and Garden City being subject to low traffic within their shopping centre locations.

Cinnabon Australia franchisor Gaurav Bansal, was thrilled to have been recognised by QSR.

“Despite many challenges, the Cinnabon brand is off to an incredible start in Australia, and we’re honoured to be recognised with this coveted award,” Mr Bansal said.

“Thank you so much to the Cinnabon fans that have continued to support us through the pandemic and allowed us to keep all of our staff employed. Their devotion is the backbone of this brand and we are beyond grateful to them. And thank you also to our very hardworking team.”

Cinnabon currently has two permanent bakeries at Toombul Shopping Centre and Westfield Garden City, delivers to over 900 suburbs in South East Queensland, and will continue to host pop-up stores throughout the state to meet popular demand.

Cinnabon Australia plans to land in NSW and Victoria later in 2020 and 2021.