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When the economy fizzled to the point where it was making lemons for developer George Traikos, he decided to sell, well, not lemonade, but yogurt.
And so far it seems to be paying off — in a low-fat, delicious kind of way.
Traikos is president of YF of Upstate New York, a master franchisee of Canada-based Yogen Früz. Traikos is embarking on a plan to open stores — and is actively seeking franchise partners to run them — throughout the upstate region, including one in the Mall at Greece Ridge in the next six to eight weeks.
In addition to a store in Eastview Mall, which opened a year ago, several stores have opened recently in Buffalo and Syracuse.
“In turns of timing, we were very fortunate we hooked up at the time we did,” said Traikos, from his bare-bones office in a Chili warehouse that stores dry goods for the business.
Traikos came to the area from Florida after seeing the real estate business there start to take a downturn a few years ago.
The historic Rochester Free Academy building downtown was the attraction, and with some work he saw the potential for new city housing and retail businesses. An article he read in March 2008 about the success of the Canada-based Yogen Früz chain turned his attention to frozen yogurt.
That May he visited the company headquarters in Toronto, and signed a deal that September.
The chain has 1,300 stores in more than 30 countries, and was looking for more in the U.S., even though ice cream remains the go-to dessert among Americans.
According to 2008 figures from the International Dairy Food Association, regular ice cream made up 61.1 percent of the frozen food market, with reduced-fat, low-fat and nonfat ice cream coming in at 25.4 percent of the market.
Yogurt was next at 4.8 percent, according to the association’s figure, but Traikos is hoping to tap into the healthy-eating trend and grow those numbers.
“Fro-Yo (for frozen yogurt) is one of the fastest growing franchise categories out there, especially in light of our country’s focus on improving wellness and reducing obesity, diabetes and the costs of treating these health problems,” Traikos said.
It helps that frozen yogurt has 150 calories, he said, but “tastes like it has 1,000 calories.”
“I can talk all day about the product, but it’s hard to explain taste,” Traikos said. “Once people try it, they get hooked on it. It’s great.”
When the economy fizzled to the point where it was making lemons for developer George Traikos, he decided to sell, well, not lemonade, but yogurt.
And so far it seems to be paying off — in a low-fat, delicious kind of way.
Traikos is president of YF of Upstate New York, a master franchisee of Canada-based Yogen Früz. Traikos is embarking on a plan to open stores — and is actively seeking franchise partners to run them — throughout the upstate region, including one in the Mall at Greece Ridge in the next six to eight weeks.
In addition to a store in Eastview Mall, which opened a year ago, several stores have opened recently in Buffalo and Syracuse.
“In turns of timing, we were very fortunate we hooked up at the time we did,” said Traikos, from his bare-bones office in a Chili warehouse that stores dry goods for the business.
Traikos came to the area from Florida after seeing the real estate business there start to take a downturn a few years ago.
The historic Rochester Free Academy building downtown was the attraction, and with some work he saw the potential for new city housing and retail businesses. An article he read in March 2008 about the success of the Canada-based Yogen Früz chain turned his attention to frozen yogurt.
That May he visited the company headquarters in Toronto, and signed a deal that September.
The chain has 1,300 stores in more than 30 countries, and was looking for more in the U.S., even though ice cream remains the go-to dessert among Americans.
According to 2008 figures from the International Dairy Food Association, regular ice cream made up 61.1 percent of the frozen food market, with reduced-fat, low-fat and nonfat ice cream coming in at 25.4 percent of the market.
Yogurt was next at 4.8 percent, according to the association’s figure, but Traikos is hoping to tap into the healthy-eating trend and grow those numbers.
“Fro-Yo (for frozen yogurt) is one of the fastest growing franchise categories out there, especially in light of our country’s focus on improving wellness and reducing obesity, diabetes and the costs of treating these health problems,” Traikos said.
It helps that frozen yogurt has 150 calories, he said, but “tastes like it has 1,000 calories.”
“I can talk all day about the product, but it’s hard to explain taste,” Traikos said. “Once people try it, they get hooked on it. It’s great.”
