2018 The Year in Froyo Review

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It’s time for our last post of 2018, the annual review of significant froyo trends and events in 2018. Let’s take a look back at the year in froyo.

The two biggest stories were the acquisition of sweetFrog by MTY and the rise of froyo robots. Reis & Irvy’s began delivering and installing froyo robots this summer. Froyo XPress opened a kiosk at Purdue University.

Froyo (soft serve) machines are getting smaller. Both Carpigiani and Stoelting introduced smaller models. These smaller models work well for non-traditional froyo locations.

Overseas Expansion and Non-Traditional Locations

Most of the growth is occurring outside the US. Of the top 10 largest froyo chains by location count, 2 of the 3 that grew are based in Europe (llaollao and Yogorino). Pinkberry has had more locations outside the US for years, and they continue to open locations, the vast majority of which are outside the US.

Many froyo shops continued to close in the US, particularly in the Pacific Northwest. About 50 froyo shops closed in California, fewer than last year, but fewer shops have been opening as well.

In overseas expansion news, Yogurtland now has a presence in Oman and Yogorino opened its first shop in the Philippines. Yogland opened its first location in India.

Pinkberry has opened multiple shops in Nigeria. Pinkberry is now served at 85 Second Cup locations across Canada. And Pinkberry also launched a foodservice program which allows convenience stores, movie theaters, retailers, corporate cafes, restaurants, etc.

Llaollao made good on its promise to return to Singapore, after the dispute with its master franchisor led to the rebranding of all its Singapore locations. Those locations are now known as Yole. Llaollao also opened its first location in the US, in Houston, Texas.

Soft Serve Ice Cream and Non-Dairy Soft Serve Continue to Expand

We continued to see more soft serve ice cream at froyo shops. Yogurtland and 16 Handles introduced their first frozen custard flavors. Yogurtland also introduced its first light ice cream flavor, Butter Pecan, and its first dairy alternative frozen yogurt, Coconut Cream Pie. 16 Handles introduced its first frozen custard and Italian ice. Dannon YoCream introduced its first dairy alternative soft serve, Silk Almondmilk.

New Collectible Froyo Spoons

There aren’t as many collectible froyo spoons as there used to be. If you’re a frozen yogurt spoon collector, here are the spoons you should have picked up this year.

  • Yogurtland: blue Flip Flop spoons
  • Menchie’s: Color changing Halloween spoons (blue and pink wizard, blue and pink rock star)
  • 16 Handles: Welch’s grape spoons
  • Moyo: Sanrio spoons, including Hello Kitty, Chococat, Keroppi, My Melody, and Bad Badtz Maru

Significant Anniversaries

16 Handles turned 10 this year. They continue to stay on top of trends, adding cookie dough, taiyaki froyo, frozen custard, Italian ice, and the Galaxy cone.

IFYA News

This year we sponsored one contest, the Froyo Stories Instagram contest, and brought back to the National Frozen Yogurt Consumer Survey and National Frozen Yogurt Shop Owner Survey. The results were similar to last year’s.

For froyo consumers, the top 3 key attributes that consumers seek in frozen yogurt shops remained the same. Even the top 2 items consumers would consider getting from a frozen yogurt shop did not change. Consumers continue to show loyalty to their favorite shops. Taste preferences showed little change.

Froyo shop owners were optimistic about the future of their business, though they were concerned about rising costs, finding and keeping good employees, finding new customers, and the seasonality of frozen yogurt demand. They were also fairly satisfied with their suppliers, especially their soft serve mix suppliers.

We look forward to running the surveys again next year.

Timeline of Froyo News