2019 The Year in Froyo Review

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For our last post of the year, we’d like to take a look back at the significant froyo events and trends of 2019.

Non-Dairy, Plant-Based Soft Serve Continues to Grow

Of the new flavors that we tracked in 2019, 48% were froyo and 52% froyo alternatives. Of the froyo alternatives, vegan soft serve made with milk alternatives (e.g., cashew milk, almond milk, coconut milk, oat milk) was the most popular, accounting for 31% of the all new flavors. Interestingly, 16 Handles and Red Mango’s new flavors were all dairy-free. There were some notable firsts, including Menchie’s and 16 Handles first cashew milk based vegan flavors and Summit Premium’s introduction of the first oat milk based soft serve mixes.

On a related note, outside of froyo shops, Revele introduced the first vegan Greek froyo bars to grocery stores and Lifeway launched Plantiful, the first plant-based frozen kefir soft serve, available at Lifeway Kefir shops in Chicago.

Overseas Expansion Continues as Domestic Growth Slows

The top 10 largest frozen yogurt chains accounted for approximately 2,816 locations in 2019, down from 3,020 locations in 2018. The number of frozen yogurt stores is declining, though we did see three chains grow, primarily due to partnerships outside the US. These were llaollao, Yogen Fruz, and Pinkberry. We’re keeping an eye on the growth of froyo in Mexico, Colombia, and Indonesia.

Pinkberry opened its first shops in Liberia this year, while Yogurtland established locations in Indonesia. Yogen Fruz’s partnership with Pita Pit Canada drove their growth. Walmart Canada partnered with Freshii to offer healthy meals, froyo, juices and smoothies at 100 locations in Canada.

On the domestic front, 7-Eleven’s new sit-down cafe concept, which opened in Dallas, includes frozen yogurt. It’s unclear what the expansion plans are yet for this concept.

In California this year, there were 50 froyo shop closures, compared to 68 in 2018 and 99 in 2017. And there were 27 California openings this year, compared to 43 in 2018 and 64 in 2017. With fewer froyo shops opening, fewer froyo shops are closing as well. But there were more closures than openings, as in 2017 and 2018. The number new California openings has been on the decline since peaking in 2016.

As for mobile froyo units, we found 14 this year. Six of these are based in the US and three of those have mix-in style froyo. Five are in Europe, 1 in South America, 1 in Africa, and 1 in the Middle East.

IFYA News

We brought back the National Frozen Yogurt Survey for consumers and froyo shop owners, for the third time. The consumer survey results were quite similar to the results of last year’s survey. The top 3 key attributes that consumers seek in frozen yogurt shops remained the same. Some of the attributes they rated included the importance of offering a wide variety of frozen yogurt flavors, the self-serve format, and cleanliness. The top 3 non-froyo items consumers would consider getting from a frozen yogurt shop did not change. Three out of four respondents expressed willingness to pay more for quality froyo.

As for the shop owners, while more respondents reported that their business was doing better than doing worse over the past year, we did see an increase in the number of respondents who reported their shop was doing slightly worse. Fewer respondents expected business to be better in the next year compared to 2018 respondents. Rising costs are their main concern. Respondents were also fairly satisfied with their suppliers, especially their soft serve mix suppliers.

To help our members, we added a valuable new member benefit, a member discount on replacement soft serve parts, from FrozenYogurtParts.com

We welcomed three new Swirl of Honor members this year: Yoga-urt in Glendale, CA and Los Angeles, CA and Blitzer’s! Premium Frozen Yogurt in Murrieta, CA. Congrats to all three on earning three swirls, the most possible.

This year we sponsored one contest for froyo fans, the Summer Photo Froyo Contest. The prize was free frozen yogurt from our Swirl of Honor member, Yoga-urt.

Froyo in the News