Indulge without the bulge- Yogen Früz

Yogen früz is an international chain of frozen yogurt stores that has, through company-owned, franchised and various forms of partnerships; become the world’s largest licensor and franchisor of stores that primarily serve frozen yogurt. And now they have landed, with a bang, in Pakistan!
Surrounded by other brands offering similar products, they opened for business Monday evening, right in the heart of DHA Y-Block commercial area with confidence levels running through the roof.
Pakistan Today was there to get a taste of what they had to offer and to find out what they were aiming for venturing into Pakistan in ‘times like these’.
You cannot help stepping into the ambience created inside the restaurant. There’s colour all around, especially the second floor where the walls have been covered with massive picturesque posters with catchy phrases that is clearly a tact to woo the customer into differentiating Yogen as a brand standing out from its competitors. The woodwork is elegantly done and the lamps hanging from the ceiling give the place an exotic look.
It is a self serve outlet where you can choose a tub from two available sizes, and make yourself a yogurt dessert with as many flavours as you desire and the best part is the variety of toppings to go with it.
While it was easy for me to select for myself blueberry and strawberry yogurt (my favourite flavours) from a plethora of other choices including and not limited to peach, blue velvet, butter cream, banana and blackberry, I couldn’t decide what toppings my taste buds would appreciate more- there were so many of them. Eventually I went for the dry ones with hazelnut wafer and choco rings but you could definitely try smarties, M&Ms, lindt chocolate, sliced almonds, cookies and cream or a range of sprinkles to go with your yogurt. Needless to say, it turned out to be delicious without the traditional ‘yogurty’ taste which I despise.
During the launch I got a chance to meet Yogen’s Global Vice-President Operations Carlos Campo who had come all the way from Canada for the store opening. Having opened stores in dozens of countries around the world, my natural question to him was- “Why Pakistan?” With a smirk on his face, perhaps expecting this question, he replied, “Why not?” He had just launched an outlet in Lebanon, which took me by surprise but also answered my question to a large extent. “Whatever the economic or social situation, we stick to three things and three things only, quality, service and image. And this formula is bound to work,” he said. In Pakistan they are able to employ more labour in one store- 10 to 20- workers, he said.
In other places like India (where they had opened stores in Mumbai and Calcutta), there are on average five workers at one store he revealed. “This means our service here will be of a much higher quality and we plan on capitalising on this,” he remarked.
Baseer Sayyed, who is the owner of this franchise, said that this is not going to be just a one-store venture. In fact they have started work on opening a store at Link Road Model Town along with three outlets in Islamabad, five in Karachi and one in Multan.
“We are going to focus on pricing. This is not just about catering to the elite and finding a niche in DHA only. In fact we might be making very low profits by offering such a diverse range of toppings because some of them are very expensive. But we’re going to sell them at very reasonable prices and continue to offer them on the menu. There is no compromise on quality and this is how we will become market leaders,” he said, oozing with confidence.