Organic frozen yoghurt chain, Frozen by A Thousand Blessings, says it is unlikely to add to its existing store network, despite a growing number of rivals. The Melbourne-based yoghurt business is an extension of organic cafe, A Thousand Blessings. Frozen, which operates under a self serve model, has four stores in Melbourne including outlets in Richmond, South Yarra, and Westfield Doncaster. It latest store to open was at Melbourne Central shopping centre in December. Evelyn Lau, owner of Frozen
, told Inside Retail PREMIUM the business does not intend to open any more stores, despite the growing number of competing chains.
“There’s lots of yoghurt shops opening, some really good ones and some not so good ones,” Lau said.
“We just want to concentrate on these four stores. We want to focus on our offering and giving our customers nutritious product. We use biodynamic milk and biodynamic yoghurt, and we aren’t gimmicky or do massive PR or marketing like other yoghurt chains.”
Lau says that while competition is healthy, the fast growing number of players in the sector, predominantly from the US, are beginning to saturate the market.
“Competition is always good for the market. Those with the best product and the best service are going to stay, and that’s why a lot of the franchises are starting to close their doors.
“The market is quite saturated at the moment and there are a lot of American players, but our model is a lot more costly than the ready mix type model that the others seem to operate under. That’s why we’re not looking to expand really big, it’s really just about being sustainable.”
The company also has no intention to franchise.
“We have a very different philosophy from what a franchise would do. We’ve had lots of people talking about licenses with us, but we haven’t found an operator as passionate as us. We just want to focus on the stores we have now, we’re just happy to sit here quietly.”
This story first appeared in Inside Retail PREMIUM issue 1992.
