It’s a big anniversary for us. The IFYA turns ten! We’re currently over 3,000 members strong. Of our current members 43% indicated that they are current froyo shop owners or employees, 23% prospective froyo shop owners, 15% froyo fans, 11% other, and 9% industry suppliers. Our members represent 132 countries, with 71% of members from the US. Our membership growth is slower now than it was in our early years. In our first year, we had 500 members representing 58 countries without any advertising.
Since it’s our ten anniversary, I wanted to look back at our origins. We started plans for the frozen yogurt association in early 2013. It was initially going to be called the International Soft Serve Association. Many of the features of the IFYA existed from the very beginning, including the Swirl of Honor program, informative articles, trend tracking, monthly enewsletter, panel of industry experts, supplier directory, and member discounts and offers. Others were phased out, including the online owner and fan forums. We added the National Frozen Yogurt Survey and classifieds.
As for the future, we remain committed to our mission of promoting the quality and success of the worldwide frozen yogurt industry. We will continue to support those in the industry by tracking news and trends, offering original research (the National Frozen Yogurt Survey), and providing advice, tools, resources, and ideas. Our members can save hundreds or even thousands of dollars on essentials for their frozen yogurt shops. These exclusive member discounts include frozen yogurt mix, frozen yogurt machines, toppings dispensers, payment processing, insurance, and HR/payroll services.
The State of Froyo Today
We’re also seeing more froyo shops open this year than last. We found 211 new froyo shops during January – June 2022 and 307 new froyo shops during January – June 2023, an increase of 45%. This is certainly encouraging! In fact, there were more froyo shop openings every month of the first half of 2023 compared to the same month the previous year.
According to IBIS World, the market size of US frozen yogurt stores, as measured by revenues, was $654 million in 2022, down from $802.5 million in 2021 and $826.1 million in 2020. US frozen yogurt market size growth was -3.3% in 2022. They are forecasting a continued decline in revenues. US frozen yogurt industry revenues declined an average of -8.7% between 2017 – 2022. IBIS World estimates that there are 211 froyo businesses in the US in 2023, a decline of -4.7% from 2022.
The IBIS froyo business numbers seem far too low in our opinion, unless a chain with multiple locations is considered one business. We also believe the number of frozen yogurt shops in the US declined last year, but we found 95 new froyo businesses in the US in 2022 and there are far more than 116 existing US frozen yogurt businesses in 2022. Menchie’s alone had over 300 locations in the US in 2022.
The top 10 largest frozen yogurt chains in the world accounted for approximately 1,902 locations in 2022, down from 2,351 locations in December 2021, 2,522 locations in December 2020, 2,816 locations in December 2019, and 3,020 locations in December 2018. None of the top 10 froyo chains by location count was able to grow their location count in 2022. While plans for froyo in ghost kitchens were announced, we have yet to see froyo ghost kitchens in North America (there were a few froyo ghost kitchens in Asia). In fact, the growth of ghost kitchens has stalled, with diners showing a preference for brick & mortar establishments. Ghost kitchens have been challenged with low sales volumes, lack of transparency, and regulatory challenges.
Worldwide interest in frozen yogurt as measured by search traffic on Google over the last five years, peaked in early July 2018 at 100 (100 represents peak popularity), declined slightly to 94 in July 2019, fell to 78 in July 2020, recovered to 88 in July 2021, and declined to 77 in July 2022. The pattern of search traffic on Google for the term frozen yogurt is remarkably similar for the United States (vs. worldwide) frozen yogurt search term over the past 5 years. It shows that the popularity of frozen yogurt did recover from the pandemic, with a stronger recovery in the US. Interest in frozen yogurt continues to be the highest in U.S., Canada, and Australia. The intent of most queries is the desire to find the froyo nearby.
Summer Froyo Shoes Contest
We continued our tradition of sponsoring a summer froyo contest. The Summer Froyo Shoes Contest invited froyo fans to share original photos of froyo and shoes. The winner, @LouisvilleLusciousEats, received a $75 gift card to DoorDash.
Final Thoughts
Thank you to our members, sponsors, partners, and supporters. We wouldn’t be here without you. Remember that you can help support us by supporting our corporate sponsors, partners, and advertisers when you’re looking for frozen yogurt supplies and by telling others about the frozen yogurt association.
Long live froyo!
Susan Linton
President, International Frozen Yogurt Association
