Aiming new heights

Frozen yogurt market in India is growing immensely with more and more international players entering. In this huge competitive market, Cocoberry, the homegrown yogurt brand, is eyeing greater penetration into markets which are unexplored yet. GS Bhalla, CEO, Cocoberry shares the current brand status and the future plans about the same in an interaction with Gunjan Piplani of indianretailer.com.

Gunjan Piplani (GP): Tell our readers about the brand Cocoberry and the story so far.

GS Bhalla (GSB): Incepted in February 2009, Cocoberry is a blend of the words "Coco" from Cocoa beans and "Berry" from the assortment of fruits that we serve along with freshly made non-fat frozen yogurt. Cocoberry was conceptualised as 'A Frozen Dessert That is Good for You’. Our most unique differentiating factor from most frozen desserts is that we have incorporated the natural goodness of non-fat frozen yogurt such as calcium, protein, live and active culture. Our frozen yogurt is made with fresh probiotic cultures, yogurt and non-fat milk. It offers a scrumptious treat that is healthy at the same time.

 We have also diversified our menu with a selection of hot and cold beverages such as coffees, teas and smoothies. We are currently serving eight flavours of "froyo" in four portions sizes, T,S,M,L and all of which are customisable with fresh fruit such as blueberries, strawberries, kiwi, mango, pomegranate, musk melon and black grapes or dry toppings such as Oreo cookies, snickers, granola, sliced almonds, walnuts. cocoberry also serves a variety of freshly made sandwiches.

 Cocoberry Frozen Yogurt is a meal in itself. Our Yogurt Parfait is a complete nutritious blend of yogurt, granola and fruit, while giving you a tantalising taste of all three delights, i.e. the creaminess of yogurt, the crunchiness of granola and the tartness of berries. Our brand has found popular appeal among customers of all ages.  Cocoberry has a 85 per cent market share in the frozen yogurt chain segment. It is India’s first and largest premium frozen yogurt chain. We continue to innovate when it comes to enhancing the range of products available at Cocoberry and that keeps us ahead of competition.

GP: How have you seen the concept of yogurt changing and being adopted by the Indian consumers? Has it really penetrated into the Indian market?

GSB: Yogurt is an 'anytime of the day' product and it has been vividly consumed as an alternate meal by urban consumers. Over time, the target segment for frozen yogurts has started broadening with more middle class people consuming the product. Majority of this segment perceives yogurt as a healthy substitute to traditional deserts or ice-creams. We also see a lot of kids consuming Cocoberry everyday who may not be aware of the health benefits, however, they are inclined towards its taste. So there are multiple factors driving the consumption of Cocoberry by its customers.

GP: How are you marketing and promoting Cocoberry as a brand and yogurt as a product?

GSB: We are using social media extensively like Twitter and Facebook. We have the world’s largest fan-base of any yogurt brand on Facebook of over 1.6 million fans.

GP: You have tied up with Gold Gym, can you elaborate about this tie up and the idea behind it?

GSB: Cocoberry caters to the health and wellness food market.  The idea behind the tie up is to make people aware about the benefits of exercising and helping them to stay fit.

GP: Talking about your retail presence, what's your current presence and what your plans from here on?

GSB: Cocoberry has an 85 per cent market share in the frozen yogurt chain segment. It is India’s first and largest premium frozen yogurt chain. After rolling out 20 newly designed outlets in the first quarter of the FY 2012 to 13, Cocoberry is all set to roll out 30 additional outlets by the end of this year to take the store count up to 70.

GP: On an average what is the size of the stores you look at, preferred locations and investment involved?

GSB: We look at both high street and mall locations ranging from 250-1000 sq ft.

GP:  Do you plan to expand your product portfolio? If yes, then what new do we see and why?

GSB: Yes, expansion of our product portfolio is a continuous phenomenon at Cocoberry. Moving forward, we are working on some other recipes to add innovative new products on our menu. Packaged exotic fruits are another extension of our product line. This year we started selling fresh frozen packaged berries such as Raspberries, Blueberries and Strawberries under the “Cocoberry Fresh” brand.

GP: What are your expansion plans?

GSB: We currently have 50 outlets with our presence across Delhi & Gurgaon, Mumbai, Nagpur, Goa, Ahmadabad, Jaipur and Chandigarh markets. We will be adding another 25-30 outlets this year in Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune.