In late April, U-Swirl Inc. announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, U-Swirl International, which operates and franchises self-serve frozen yogurt cafés, has acquired the business assets of Let's Yo! LLC. The acquisition of all intellectual property and worldwide franchise and license rights includes the rights associated with twelve currently operating Let's Yo! Yogurt stores in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Florida. "The completion of this acquisition increases the size of U-Swirl's store base to a total of 259 units in 37 states and four foreign countries, and allows us to expand into the highly populated northeastern region of the United States," noted Alan Stribling, President of U-Swirl Inc. U-Swirl has experienced dramatic growth during the past 27 months. The number of cafés in its network has increased 375 percent since January 2013, largely due to the acquisition of eight self-serve frozen yogurt franchising companies."The self-serve frozen yogurt market is extremely fragmented,” he added, “and we believe consolidation is necessary for the future success of the industry. U-Swirl intends to play an important role in this process as we pursue economies of scale through both organic growth and an aggressive acquisition program.” In addition to recent acquisitions of frozen yogurt chains, the company is also pursuing new store openings by franchisees under the U-Swirl, CherryBerry, Yogurtini, Let's Yo! and Fuzzy Peach brands. U-Swirl expects 20 to 30 store openings under its current brands during Fiscal 2016. Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory Inc. owns a controlling interest in U-Swirl Inc.
CATEGORY: Self Serve
Chain Name: U-SWIRL Frozen Yogurt
Company Name: U-Swirl Inc.
Street Address: 265 Turner Dr., Durango, Colorado 81303
Tel: 702/586-8700 Fax:
Email: [email protected] Website: www.u-swirl.com
Menu Specialty: Up to 20 non-fat frozen yogurt flavors with up to 70 toppings including fresh fruit, sauces, candy and granola sold by weight.
Introduced:
No. of Locations: (All banners) Over 255 locations in about 37 U.S. states, Canada, Pakistan and Turkey
Areas of Operation: Worldwide
Types of Location:
BusinessType (corp., franchise, jv): Public Company, Franchise, Licenses, Co-branded and Corporate owned units
Size Req’d:
Special Requirements (patio, drive-thru, etc):
Contact Name: Henry ‘Hank’ Cartwright - Chief Marketing Officer
Alan Stribling – President
Jim Werling – Franchise Business Consulting
REAL ESTATE REPRESENTATIVES:
FRANCHISE REPRESENTATIVES:
PARENT COMPANY: Majority owned by Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory Inc., 265 Turner Dr., Durango, Colorado 81303 tel: 800/438-7623 fax: 907/259-5895
Related Chains: CherryBerry, Aspen Leaf Yogurt, Yogli Mogli, Yogurtini, Gracie Blue, Josie’s Frozen Yogurt, Fuzzy Peach Frozen Yogurt, Let’s Yo!
Last Report: Restaurant & QSR Expansion Report #135 Last Update:
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