Red Mango, Nation’s Restaurant News’ 2009 Hot Concepts! award-winning tart frozen-yogurt concept, gets its name from the color of a mango just before it reaches its ripest state and turns yellow.
The name reflects the company’s commitment to healthfulness and continuous improvement, Red Mango officials say, and those values have supported the chain’s aggressive growth strategy that has taken it to more than 50 units in two years.
And that number, they forecast, could reach as high as 550 locations by 2015.
Founder, president and chief executive Dan Kim says Red Mango will end this year with about 70 units and is on track to open 100 stores next year. To help fuel this supercharged growth, Red Mango recently awarded Gaithersburg, S.C.-based contract foodservice provider Sodexo USA a 10-year master license agreement to open outlets at its various foodservice accounts. The first of those units opened at the GE Building at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York, where NBC Studios is located.
To further stoke the chain’s growth and express its “commitment to develop a system of satisfied franchisees,” Red Mango earlier this year unveiled a program in which it agreed to buy back a store for up to $275,000 if a franchisee is dissatisfied within six months of opening. The chain’s “Red’s Real Deal” program, also lowered the initial $35,000 by $10,000 for franchisees who sign new agreements in 2009 and provides an additional $10,000 to the franchised location for local-store marketing.
RED MANGO USA OWNERS: Red Mango is a California corporation whose investors include John Antioco, CIC Partners, Stone Canyon Venture Partners, and West Coast Asset ManagementHEADQUARTERS: Sherman Oaks, Calif.NO. OF UNITS: 55AVERAGE UNIT VOLUME: Not disclosedSTATES WHERE LOCATED: California, New York, Washington, Illinois, Nevada, Utah, Hawaii, New Jersey, Indiana, ArizonaTYPE OF CONCEPT: Frozen treatAVERAGE CHECK: Not disclosedYEAR FOUNDED: 2007
Red Mango, which has emerged in this country as a popular and fast-growing purveyor of tart, nonfat frozen yogurt, was founded in South Korea in 2002. In 2006, then-28-year-old Dan Kim established Red Mango USA to import the concept to Los Angeles, opening the first U.S. location in 2007. Kim says Red Mango USA operates in North and South America independently of Red Mango in South Korea, although the two companies work together on international projects.
In California, the concept attracted a following among customers that chief marketing officer Jim Notarnicola describes as “a Starbucks kind of customer in a treat environment.” Red Mango patrons tend to be active people who are conscious of the healthfulness of their various dining choices, even when they’re looking for treats or indulgences, he says.
Frozen yogurt has a long history as a “guiltless” indulgence in the United States, but the style of frozen yogurt that was popular 20 years ago has a very different taste profile from that which has caught the public’s interest more recently.
“When TCBY came into the market over 20 years ago and introduced the idea of frozen yogurt, their challenge was that the American appetite and the interest in yogurt and yogurt flavor had not really taken off the way it has today,” Notarnicola says. “So they eventually formulated their product to taste as much like ice cream as possible, so it’s very sweet and very custardy.
“From the beginning, Dan [Kim] had the idea that our yogurt was going to be authentic yogurt in frozen form,” he says. “So it does have that natural, tart yogurt taste profile.”
Nancy Kruse, president of The Kruse Company, an Atlanta-based menu trends consulting firm, says tart yogurt has emerged as a contemporary trend for several reasons.
First, “it has an Asian connection, which puts it square in the middle of the biggest ethnic trend of the decade,” she says. It also has a healthful profile and allows customers to customize their orders with toppings and add-ons, and perceived healthfulness and customizability are “two other major trends of the moment,” Kruse adds.
What sets Red Mango apart from other concepts selling tart frozen yogurt is its commitment to authenticity, Kim says.
“For us, authentic frozen yogurt really goes to the core of what frozen yogurt is, which is yogurt,” he says. “In order for our product to be authentic, you have to deliver what a product is really about, which is an all-natural fermented-milk product that is good for you because of the live and active yogurt cultures in it.”
Kim says Red Mango’s fermented, authentic yogurt-making process is what gives its frozen yogurt the tart flavor that is so trendy right now.
“‘Tart’ has been confused lately with ‘healthy,’” Kim says. “A lot of people will say they have tart frozen yogurt, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it is a healthful product. The reason Red Mango is tart is not that we make it tart on purpose. It is because the yogurt is manufactured through a fermentation process, which is what converts milk into yogurt and gives it those live, active yogurt cultures and creates that tart flavor profile.”
Red Mango’s authentic fermentation process leads to a product that tests well with consumers, Notarnicola says.
“Customers are reporting that Red Mango has the best balance between tart and sweet and between creaminess and iciness,” he says. “We’re generally described as creamier than other frozen yogurts, and we have that balance between creaminess and iciness. And the final thing that they talk about is that because of [their] formulations, a lot of other frozen yogurts have a powdery aftertaste. Red Mango has no aftertaste and no unpleasant residual flavors. It’s just a clean, crisp, refreshing yogurt flavor.”
In keeping with Red Mango’s young, active customer base, the company relies heavily on its Web presence to communicate with its guests. It maintains pages on Facebook and Twitter, which are updated regularly by Kim himself, Notarnicola says.
The frozen-yogurt resurgence appears to be going strong, but frozen yogurt was a major trend before. The segment seemed unstoppable in the 1980s and ’90s, and the sudden second wind of popularity in the tart frozen treats raise questions about their longevity. But Kim is not worried about Red Mango’s staying power and insists the concept’s core values are in line with those of the contemporary consumer.
“We believe that consumers are going to continue to embrace healthful living and healthful eating,” he says, “and they’re always going to want the best-tasting products.
“I do think there will be only a few companies that ultimately succeed in this category,” he continues. “Companies that don’t embrace the types of values that Red Mango embraces are going to have a hard time going forward because they’re not embracing the things that are important to the consumer.”— [email protected]
