Frozen yoghurts are like little pots of gold

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10 April 2012

Frozen yoghurt is set to become the next big thing, this year's answer to the cupcake. Leading the way - with a little help from Kate Middleton - is frozen yoghurt company Snog, run by Rob Baines and Pablo Uribe.

Middleton, it is rumoured, wants Snog served at the royal buffet after her wedding. The bride-to-be is a recent convert to the dessert and a regular Snog customer. "One day, after her last visit, the South Kensington branch staff received a call about the possibility of offering Snog at the royal wedding reception," says Baines. "They wanted to know who officially to write to."

"We'd be very honoured and would love to offer a special one - 'Posh Snog' which is our natural Snog with summer berries and chocolate shavings," says Baines, happily.

Frozen yoghurt isn't new, but London has recently seen a huge rise in a new kind of frozen yoghurt shop with the emphasis on healthy ingredients and fresh fruit toppings. Snog uses organic skimmed milk and agave nectar instead of sugar, employs dishy young staff and the shops are big on fancy interior design.

When Baines and Uribe, who are self-confessed health freaks, opened their first London store almost two years ago, there was nothing to compare. Today at least a dozen companies sell the new fro-yo.

I've come to the Soho branch of Snog to meet the couple and try for myself what they refer to as their "boutique premium frozen yoghurt". Both men are in their forties and are, they say, "total gym freaks who exercise all the time". Baines came to London 20 years ago from Vancouver, where he was a lifeguard and competitive swimmer before becoming an investment banker. Once in London he set up, then sold, catering outlets at Westminster Abbey and St Paul's Cathedral.

Uribe is Colombian and came to live in London in 1996 to study at the Architectural Association. Before Snog, he ran his own architecture and interior design practice, specialising in top-end properties in London, the Hamptons and Miami, including a beachfront apartment for Calvin Klein.

The partners met 14 years ago at a dinner party and have been an item ever since. They live, work and go to the gym together. They finish each other's sentences without interrupting or contradicting. They don't smoke or drink, they eat a gluten-free diet and swim or do yoga almost every day.

Their Notting Hill flat, which Uribe renovated from scratch, is immaculately decorated with lots of distressed surfaces, bare floorboards and furniture upholstered in off-white vintage linens. Not that they spend much time there, preferring to eat out most nights after the gym.

They also have an apartment in Miami and homes in Colombia and the Hamptons, where they've built 25-metre pools for exercising.

These are clearly guys with good taste who have made plenty of money, who value their health highly and are also extremely driven. They spend a lot of time travelling but consider London to be their home and the right launchpad for Snog.

"London is our platform, our laboratory if you like, and the right place for us to be because it acts as a window to the rest of the world."

Since May 2008, they have opened five London shops, each one a variation on a garish theme of electric-pink walls, white toadstool seats designed by Marcel Wanders, grass-print flooring and trippy coloured LED-lit ceilings. The newest Snog on King's Road has an interactive photo booth for customers to upload their pictures straight on to Facebook - popular with tourists, especially the Japanese and the young.

"We're going to open up a few more in London, but we're not going to roll out," says Baines. "On average we get seven enquiries a day. We've already been approached by a lot of VCs [venture capitalists], private equity and other big retail chains to sell."

Julian Metcalfe (Pret A Manger/Itsu) was apparently among potential buyers although Itsu now sells its own frozen yoghurt. "I I love it," says Metcalfe. "It makes a perfect light pudding or healthy snack and it's still relatively unknown in this country."

With a tendency to lapse into business jargon, Baines and Uribe explain that while Snog may not be about to open on every London street corner, their fro-yo will soon be appearing on the shelves of Waitrose. I can just see the pink-and-white tubs alongside the Ben & Jerry's. Meanwhile, they are going all out to sell Snog shop franchises in other parts of the world, including in South America and the Middle East, where there's still nothing else like it.

They have also just put the name to a new book, the Snog Healthy Treats Cookbook, chosen as Waitrose's Book of the Month for March. Chocolate avocado cream pie may sound like a heart attack waiting to happen but it's made with brown rice flour, agave nectar and
Macadamia nuts.

Rebecca McGuire, founder of the very first British fro-yo chain, Yog, which opened in Brent Cross in April 2008, agrees the market has a lot of potential. Apparently competitors come into her shops and make notes.

She and her partner now have five stores both in and outside London and aim to grow slowly.

Likewise, ex-Snog employee Paul Kali has just launched Bee Me on Portobello Road and plans to open two more branches by the summer.

Baines and Uribe shrug off the competition, crediting their delicious formula and catchy shop fittings. "Listen, we're a very hot product, a big commodity," says Baines. And with that level of confidence, he may well be right.

BEST OF THE FRO-YOS
Snog

5 London brances; ifancyasnog.com
Sweetened with agave nectar, flavours include natural, passion fruit, green tea, chocolate, and pink guava. A small cup with one topping costs £3.65.

Yuforia
38 Beak Street, W1 and Covent Garden Market, WC2; yu-foria.com Sweetened with fructose. Small portion £2.80, plus 70p for unlimited toppings.

Frae
47 Notting Hill Gate and 27 Camden Passage, N1; frae.co.uk Made with organic unrefined sugar. Small portion £2.80, 70p per topping.

Yoomoo
Harrods, SW3, selected Yo Sushi! branches, Canada Square shop opens this month; yoomoo.com Made with milk from British cows. Fearne Cotton loves a Yoomoo (right). Without toppings £2.70, regular with three toppings, £6.

Itsu
18 branches in London; itsu.com
Sweetened with sugar. From £1.39 a mini portion, £1.59 with toppings.

Yog
45 Charlotte Street, W1, plus outlets in Brent Cross and three more outside London; yogyogurt.com Sweetened with natural raw sugar. A small portion is £2.25, plus 50p per topping.

Bee Me
251 Portobello Road, W11; beeme.co.uk With fructose. Small portion £2.50, 50p per topping.

Yogurtry
66 Hampstead High Street, NW3; yogurtry.com Flavours include peanut butter. Helena Bonham Carter's a fan. Small one with toppings is £3.50.

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