Yo-Chi is ‘not a fad’: Meet the man making frozen yoghurt cool again

Oliver Allis is never in one place for very long. As the brand director of frozen yoghurt chain Yo-Chi, he constantly bounces between his home on the Gold Coast and various cities and towns across the country for new store openings – always packed to the rafters – that come around roughly once a month.

The son of Boost Juice co-founder Janine Allis, Oliver still recalls the buzz surrounding Yo-Chi more than a decade ago when he was in year 10.

Yo-Chi brand director Oliver Allis (second from left) at a crossover event with Pistachio Papi.

“I was the same as these kids that I just saw [at the recent opening] in Ballimba – the mad rush, everyone was going nuts for it,” he said. “There were a lot of frozen yoghurt places that came and went, but even when the trend finished, Yo-Chi was still ticking along.”

Written off as a dying trend of the early 2010s, Yo-Chi has engineered with a vengeance the return of frozen yoghurt to become one of Australia’s fastest-growing dessert chains, recently opening its 35th store.

To describe the self-serve frozen yoghurt and acai bar as popular is something of an understatement: many who love the product, ranging from schoolkids to their intrigued parents, also rue the lengthy queues that wrap the block on Friday and Saturday nights.

Allis became a director of the business in his mid-20s after it was sold by George Calombaris’ Made Establishment, who in turn had bought it off Australian billionaire and toy tycoon Manny Stul, whom Allis said had set up the dessert chain as a passion project with his own children.

The number of stores in the Yo-Chi chain – the first of which opened in Melbourne’s Malvern – was a modest four when Calombaris purchased it in 2020. Since then, Allis has overseen the opening of more than 30 new outlets, each one generating more interest and excitement than the last.

Mila Morgan, age four, picks her own Yo-Chi (vanilla, chocolate, chocolate sauce, some banana, Nutella and raspberry) in Melbourne’s Malvern store on Thursday.Credit: Joe Armao

Allis is quick to give credit to Stul and Calombaris for building Yo-Chi with high standards. “The foundations for it were so amazing, to be honest,” he said. “Now, we’ve revolutionised the stores in terms of making them the most welcoming spaces and very minimalistic, but funky and inviting … The topping bar’s completely changed.”

The recipe for a typical Yo-Chi – revolving flavours, neon lights, pop music, art murals, plenty of seating, fresh fruit, native Australian ingredients and claims to wellbeing and sustainability – has made it the perfect social gathering place for youngsters.

“We’re sort of breaking the mould for dessert – you can sit in and eat it, it’s a really easy way to catch up with friends and family, it’s an easy date option,” he said.

A Yo-Chi store in Melbourne.Credit: Wayne Taylor

“I think young people are drinking less as well. In our eyes, we’re not part of a fad. We’re part of a new way of how young people are spending their nights.”

But not everyone would say frozen yoghurt has made a comeback: long-time player Yogurberry has 25 stores, according to its website, and there are a handful of other smaller players, but none that could be said to rival Yo-Chi’s hype.

“It’s not the fad of frozen yoghurt. It’s the fad of Yo-Chi,” said consulting firm Titanium Food director Suzee Brain. “They’ve used beautiful design and understood food needs to be as Instagrammable as it is edible.”

Alpha appeal

The dessert chain is a notable bright spot in Australia’s otherwise struggling hospitality industry and has seemingly proofed itself against the ongoing pullback in consumer spending. A DIY self-serve cup of frozen yoghurt by the weight – $4 per 100 grams – has emerged as an attractive alternative to more expensive options at a restaurant.

Brain points out that the cost of your cup is not even factored into the process until the very end.

“Price is left out of it. It’s an entirely emotive way of purchasing,” she said. “That’s a game changer from a psychology point of view.”

“You’re not being told what to eat, you’re creating it. For a world of creators, for this alpha generation coming through, that’s really important.”

Yo-Chi stores are such a hive of social activity that there have been some unexpected side effects of a romantic nature. “We’ve had people come up to us and say, ‘You guys should do a singles night,’” Allis said.

“There’s guys and girls who are meeting at Yo-Chi and getting together from their first meeting … On Friday and Saturday night, it’s literally people picking up.”

Could a singles night hosted by Yo-Chi ever happen? “I’m open to it. Again, I have to think about the brand,” he said. “Chi means good energy, so I guess finding love is good energy.”

Allis attributes much of Yo-Chi’s growth to organic word-of-mouth about the quality of its product and to his young, energetic team, who are adept at wielding the modern world’s most powerful word-of-mouth tool: TikTok. It’s seen some graduate from store workers to content creators.

“A lot of that growth is because of how much trust we gave the right young people to make content for us, and rewarding them for it. Their videos perform well, we give them a cheque as well. Everyone at Yo-Chi who works for us is invited to make videos.”

Yo-Chi has emerged as a notable bright spot in Australia’s otherwise struggling hospitality industry.Credit: Joe Armao

Winning over customers in some markets was tougher than others, but the commitment to serving high-quality products and providing a good customer experience has helped shake off old assumptions about frozen yoghurt.

“Sydney was the hardest to crack,” said Allis. “Sydney had this perception of frozen yoghurt, which is correct, that it was all powder, really cheap fit-outs, laminated signs, plastic chairs.” Now, Surry Hills is one of the chain’s best-performing stores.

Protecting the brand is paramount. “We have heaps of companies come to us and give us samples, and we’re like, no, sorry. This is just cheap shit.”

A family affair

Although Allis is the head of brand and marketing, behind the scenes, retail executive, Boost Juice co-founder, and father, Jeff Allis pulls the strings. “He’s the boss,” says the younger Allis.

None of the stores in Yo-Chi’s network are franchised, nor are there plans to turn them into one; extended family members can be found in various parts of the business. Cousin Claudia is the design director, while an aunt and uncle are part owners of the stores in South Australia and Western Australia.

Brain, who advises property companies on food retail placements, says the Allis family’s previous experience has put them in good stead.

“They know how to grow stores from the Boost experience; all of that DNA, all the mistakes that were made and all the systems that needed to be put in place, has been able to fast track this expansion because of the experience from the past.”

“Our advice to landlords is jack the rent up on these guys. They can afford it,” she said. “They’ve got a high price point and a low cost of goods and a low labour cost. They’re an ideal tenant.”

Allis is not planning to slow the pace of Yo-Chi’s breathless expansion any time soon, with hopes of hitting 60 stores by the end of 2025.

Is international expansion on the cards? “Maybe,” Allis replies. Where? “We’re looking in South-East Asia.” Pressed again, he says: “Thailand.”

“I don’t think anyone’s doing frozen yoghurt how Yo-Chi’s doing it.”

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