TCBY

TCBY

Industry	Chain restaurant/Franchise
Founded	Little Rock, Arkansas (1981 (1981))
Headquarters	Salt Lake City, Utah , United States
Number of locations	More than 470
Area served	North America, Canada, Central, South America, the Middle East and Eastern Asia
Products	Frozen Yogurt
Parent	Mrs. Fields
Website	http://tcby.com

The previous logo for TCBY

TCBY (The Country's Best Yogurt, formerly This Can't Be Yogurt) is an international franchise chain of frozen yogurt stores based in the United States. It is the largest U.S. retailer of soft-serve frozen yogurt with live active cultures.

History

In 1981, the first TCBY store was opened in Little Rock, Arkansas, USA by Frank D. Hickingbotham. TCBY began franchising the next year, and by 1984 there were over 100 stores. As the company grew, the name was applied for a time to the tallest building in Arkansas, known until 2004 as the TCBY Tower, in downtown Little Rock. It is now known as Metropolitan Tower.

Prior to 1984, the company's name was "This Can't Be Yogurt", but a lawsuit from a competitor named "I Can't Believe It's Yogurt!" forced TCBY to create a new name from its initials.

In 2000, TCBY was acquired by Mrs. Fields Famous Brands.

In the summer of 2010, the company opened a prototype store in Salt Lake City, Utah operating under a different business model. Instead of customers ordering and being served in a traditional fashion, they serve themselves using any combination of available yogurt flavors, add their own mix of fruit or candy toppings, and pay by the ounce. The store sports a different logo to match the store's ultramodern, European styling. Numerous stores have since opened across the United States.

Products

TCBY has many flavors of frozen yogurt. Some stores have soft serve and hard scooped yogurt, while some newer stores have only soft serve. The Soft serve only stores use a self service model, with customers being charged by weight. The soft serve yogurts consist of Golden Vanilla, Chocolate, and White Chocolate Mousse that are to be served daily, and then a variety of other flavors. Most stores have at least three soft serve yogurt machines allowing them to serve at least one no sugar added soft serve yogurt flavor. The No Sugar Added yogurt is made with splenda instead of regular sugar. TCBY offers many regular and sugar free toppings. One of the most popular toppings is wet walnuts, which consists of walnuts in hot artificial maple-flavored syrup. TCBY also serves drinks such as Berriyo yogurt smoothies and Frappe Chillers.

In September 2010, TCBY said it was launching the test of breakfast and lunch meal replacement bowls, parfaits and smoothies made from non-frozen “fresh” yogurt called Yovana-Simply Yogurt in two self-service company stores in its headquarters of Salt Lake City. TCBY announced in June 2011, customers may visit stores in Little Rock and Harrison, Arkansas; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Memphis, Tennessee, to taste Yovana, Simply Yogurt. The company plans to launch Yovana, Simply Yogurt nationwide later in 2011.

In May 2011, TCBY launched Super Fro-Yo, a reformulated version of its yogurt with a more nutrient-rich profile. The company brought down the fat content of its yogurt to below 2 percent, so it can be labeled low fat. However, the product has also maintained its rich, creamy texture with the addition of fiber, something American consumers are told to eat more of. The fiber in TCBY’s product also serves as a prebiotic, or food for the healthful bacteria in the yogurt, which boosts the benefit that live-and-active cultures bring to the digestive system. Super Fro-Yo is also higher in protein, vitamin A, vitamin D, and calcium, and the product now includes seven types of probiotics. To qualify as Super Fro-Yo, for example, the yogurt must have fewer than 120 calories per serving, a minimum of 10 percent of the daily recommendation for vitamin A and 20 percent of the recommended level of vitamin D, 1 gram or less of saturated fat, and a minimum of 20 billion live-and-active cultures at the point of manufacture.

Yearly Specials

Every year, TCBY offers mothers across the nation a free frozen yogurt on Mother's Day, and fathers a free frozen yogurt on Father's Day.

Store Giveaway

In October, 2009, TCBY launched the "This Could Be Yours, The Great TCBY Store Giveaway." The contest rewarded one person with his or her own TCBY store. To enter, contestants submitted a video, no longer than two minutes, explaining why they should be the recipient of their very own TCBY, why their town is the perfect location, and what they have to offer the brand. Submissions were judged on creativity, a sense of business acumen and originality. Originally, videos were accepted until November 30, 2009, but the deadline was extended until March 31, 2010. Following the initial entry round, TCBY narrowed all video submissions down to 10 semi-finalists. Beginning in early April 2010, the public was then given the opportunity to help narrow the list down to 5 finalists, who then went through an informal interview process before the winner was chosen. TCBY even offered Conan O'Brien the chance to enter and win when there was talk of him leaving the Tonight Show.

On May 26, 2010, it was announced that the winners of the contest were Jared and Sarah Greer of Fayetteville, Arkansas. The Greer's opened their store in April 2011 in Rogers, Arkansas with TCBY’s new self-serve prototype and store design.

External links

• TCBY
• TCBY Franchises