Yogen Früz Comes to Rochester - and Lots of Other Places

Yogen Früz may be the largest chain of yogurt franchises in the world, with over 1100 stores in 20 countries. And they're expanding like mad.

From their press release:

The Yogen Früz menu is comprised of its signature "Blend It" frozen yogurt offering a combination of low-fat, non-fat or no-sugar-added frozen yogurt with an extensive variety of flash-frozen fresh fruit custom blended for each customer. Yogen Früz also offers their Tart "Top It" soft serve frozen yogurt, a refreshing yogurt with the customers' choice of a wide range of delicious fresh fruit and dry toppings. Other menu selections include yogurt and non-dairy smoothies, as well as a variety of healthy additions and beverages. This contemporary menu design and packaging subtly reinforce the healthy snack brand positioning and point of difference.

A unique ingredient to all Yogen Früz low-fat and non-fat yogurt products as well as the dairy smoothies is that all are packed with Probiotic cultures. Probiotic cultures have been shown to promote a healthy digestive system, improve mineral absorption, fortify the immune system, manage lactose intolerance and even help lower cholesterol. Yogen Früz has more than 17 million live Probiotic cultures per gram compared to as few as 69,000 for other brands, making their great tasting healthy snack alternatives even healthier. In a further market innovation, Yogen Früz maintains an industry leadership position by proudly placing key nutritional information on its menu for everyone to see (calorie and fat content).

Where will you see these new stores?

Yogen Früz plans to open stores in Hawaii, Orange County, Los Angeles, Virginia, Washington DC, Maryland, Chicago, Puerto Rico, Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, Miami and Upstate New York.

Did you catch that Upstate New York bit? For a rare change, Upstate New York means Rochester. Why do I care? I live here. I've been watching the revived yogurt craze from a distance, wistfully. And now I get to take part.

The first Yogen Früz store in the area will open in Eastview Mall on November 28. Plans are for 15 additional stores to be built in the area.

Fifteen? Fifteen new yogurt stores in Rochester? And 100 in upstate over the next five years? That's what the Democrat & Chronicle reported.

Yogen Früz must think that it's the best and most addictive yogurt in the universe to support that many stores. Admittedly, the chain started in Canada and so they must know the part about the six-month long winters. I'm still flabbergasted.

Check back in five years to see how they do.