News

TCBY secures Texas-sized expansion deal

January 20, 2011

TCBY has signed a deal with Lone Star Yogurt to open 200 stores within the next 10 years throughout Texas. The first store is slated to open this month in Lone Star Yogurt’s hometown of Tyler, Texas.

The company has committed to another 24 TCBY self-serve stores in East Texas, Dallas, Fort Worth and Houston within the next 18 months.

The breadth of the deal is notable, as most frozen yogurt chains top out at 50 to 100 total units nationwide.

"With frozen yogurt operators continuing to outpace their ice cream counterparts within the U.S. frozen dessert segment, TCBY's announcement to open 200 new stores comes as no surprise," said Darren Tristano, executive vice president at Technomic. "With many American consumers continuing to look for healthier alternatives to traditional desserts, frozen yogurt will likely continue a positive growth pattern for years to come. As a well-established brand with decades of history, TCBY will have a leg up within the yogurt segment."

TCBY recently introduced a self-serve prototype, which will be featured in many of the Texas stores, as well as a new interior design scheme and brand identity.

Bolstered by these changes, TCBY, which was founded in 1981, is on track to achieve its best franchise sales numbers in more than a decade.

“We are making an important statement with a deal of this magnitude,” said Tim Casey, CEO of TCBY. “We have seasoned area developers and franchisees who believe as we do that TCBY is once again the fro-yo brand of choice. Today we have the most relevant store model in self-serve, coupled with a modern design that’s resonating with our customers who have experienced it in our prototype stores. Not only will we carry tremendous momentum into 2011, but we anticipate the release of some significant category innovation to support record growth."

Among that innovation is TCBY’s current test of a meal replacement concept, Yovana-Simply Yogurt. Yovana is made with twice the amount of calcium, protein and fiber as most store-bought products, and also features a pro-biotic and pre-biotic formula consumers have come to expect from their yogurt.

Development partners

Lone Star Yogurt, headed by David Weaver, Bryan Selden and Jeff Worthen, has a portfolio that includes Smashburger and Wingstop. The trio’s restaurant experience spans more than 50 years.

“Some of our fondest memories were taking the family to TCBY for some white chocolate mousse yogurt. It was pure happiness,” Weaver said. “Once we learned that TCBY was developing a self-serve model, we knew we had the ideal partner to do something scalable throughout Texas. Knowing the marketplace can be competitive, we intend to maintain an aggressive schedule throughout the 200-store build-out.”