The first person in line for last Thursday’s midday opening of Yo-Chi’s first London store had been there since 6:30pm. Not an Aussie, but a Brit. The second person in line was an Australian girl, no older than 12, who had created a home-made cardboard box – her mock-up of a compostable Yo-Chi cup.
Videos circulating on social media about Yo-Chi’s new British outlet in Notting Hill show queues wrapping the block. More than one TikTok creator (styling themselves as “queue correspondents”) have begun tracking how quickly the lines are moving.
“The reception we got was just pinch-yourself kind of stuff,” said Yo-Chi chief brand officer Oliver Allis about the store’s opening.
“It was bonkers, absolutely bonkers. Not even just Aussies, there were a lot of English and locals in the line. There were surprisingly more Brits than I expected.”
Yo-Chi’s fame has spread by word of mouth. Travellers to Australia often visit the brand’s packed, pastel coloured, neon-lit stores that have earned the nickname “youth’s nightclub”. Foreigners become fans and tell friends at home about the frozen yoghurt shop that has become a regular date spot, after-school snack pick-up or meet-up spot after dinner as an alternative to a bar.
In Australia, Yo-Chi’s title as the leading frozen yoghurt chain is not in dispute. Since the Melbourne-founded chain was purchased by the family of Boost founder Janine Allis from George Calombaris in 2020 (who had bought it from toy businessman Manny Stul), it has exploded across the nation from four stores to more than 75. No domestic competitor comes close to its scale and popularity.
Singapore was Yo-Chi’s first step abroad. Its debut in the UK has put it squarely on the global playing field. Two US stores are set to open this year.
International Yo-Chi customers are served yoghurt made from Australian milk that has been freighted frozen. Yo-Chi faces competitors in greek yoghurt players Go Greek and MYKA, which are looking to grow their own global footprints, and Mimi’s in New York, though most are grab-and-go outlets rather than sit-down venues.
Spanning 2000 square feet across two floors with capacity to hold 120 guests, the London outpost is the biggest the Australian chain has built to date. On its second day of trading, Allis spent hours chopping strawberries after four workers called in sick. Before the store closed for the day, staff had to prevent more people joining the long queue.
“What we were offering, which was not just frozen yoghurt and acai and good vibes, it was the space for young people to hang out. This sort of need is in every market,” said Allis. “I said to someone the other day, but I think we’re like – this is a big statement – the new Vegemite,” he said.
“Instead of saying, ‘you got to try Vegemite when you come to Australia’, you got to try Yo-Chi when you come to Australia.”
Like Australia, Britain had its own frozen yoghurt frenzy that came and went in the early to mid-2010s. There are still sceptics who never understood what the big deal was.
“We gotta work hard to debunk those perceptions of what frozen yoghurt was,” said Allis. Most people change their minds when they come in and try it for themselves, he maintains.
A Gen Z-focused brand, Yo-Chi is deft at influencer marketing. To amplify its arrival in london, Allis and his team struck up an official friendship with British YouTubers Sophia Tuxford and Cinzia Baylis-Zullo, the podcasters behind The Girls Bathroom, who tried Yo-Chi two years ago during a visit to Australia and raved about it to their one million followers.
Yo-Chi’s expansion to London was announced in one of their podcast episodes, and the duo was there for the store’s ribbon-cutting ceremony.
“We always knew that we’d want to work with them, but wasn’t sure in what format, and thought they’d be too expensive. And then we thought actually, let’s just shoot our shot and try to do it organically,” he said.
“I don’t want to say it was a masterstroke, but it worked really well,” said Allis. “Rather than being like a multinational company who just does a launch around themselves, it was very community-led, which was really cool.”
Each global market features toppings unique to that country. UK customers can top up their bowl with apple pie and cherry compote. Allis is working on a “cheeky cup of tea” flavour. One day, Yo-Chi intends to be in all of London’s trendiest hotspots: Soho, Clapham, Islington. “Nothing [is] signed,” said Allis. “We want to not get ahead of ourselves.”
Yo-Chi’s American dream
Yo-Chi’s next opening may surprise some: Dallas, Texas.
The way Yo-Chi (which does not franchise domestically) selects which international market to target is less about the market itself and more about finding the right local partner. Allis literally puts potential partners through a pub test. If he doesn’t want to have a beer with them, the chemistry isn’t there.
Yo-Chi’s UK partners are Stral Zarkovic, co-founder of sustainable fashion label Pangaia, and Mitchel Galvin-Farnol, who founded minimal streetwear brand NICCE. Yo-Chi’s Texas partners are Doug Shaw, chief executive of restaurant group Donald Reagan, and Dana and Scott Palmer – two lawyers. Allis declined to reveal the shareholding split across its joint venture partnerships.
In Dallas, Yo-Chi hired a young social media creator to run a stealth social media account called Dallas Deserves Better, which vox-popped locals about the need for third spaces and date spots and filmed skits pretending to convince Allis about opening up in Dallas before the company revealed they were behind it. Faith Ward, a 22-year-old dancer from Perth and a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader, has been engaged by the business to spread the word.
Yo-Chi is toying with the idea of developing a pumpkin spice frozen yoghurt flavour and a sweet Texan barbecue topping, the latter flavour being more of a “talking point”, Allis adds as a caveat.
He is also looking for partners in other US states to open in Miami, LA and New York. “I think the rocket ship has got some fuel at the moment,” he says.
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Jessica Yun is a business reporter covering retail and food for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via X or email.From our partners
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