Pinkberry
 |
|
| Subsidiary | |
| Industry | Restaurants |
| Founded | January 2005 West Hollywood, California |
| Founder | Shelly Hwang Young Lee |
| Headquarters | Scottsdale, Arizona, USA |
|
Number of locations
|
260 restaurants |
|
Key people
|
Jeff Smit, COO of Kahala Brands |
| Products | Frozen yogurt Smoothies Fruit Parfait Fresh Fruit Bowl |
| Owner | MTY Food Group |
| Parent |
Kahala Brands (2015–present) |
| Website | Pinkberry.com |
Pinkberry is an franchise of frozen dessert restaurants headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona. There are currently over 260 stores in 20 countries.
The first store was opened in January 2005 by Hye Kyung (Shelly) Hwang and Young Lee. The tart, frozen dessert has a groupie-like following.
Hwang's first business venture was to open a formal English teahouse on a tiny residential street called Huntley Drive in West Hollywood, California. However, after the city refused to approve an alcohol permit for Hwang and her business partner, architect Young Lee, they decided to go with their second plan, which was a frozen yogurt concept reviving the craze of the 1980s. People were soon driving across town and standing in line for up to 20 to 30 minutes to get their fix of "the taste that launched 1,000 parking tickets." The second store opened in September 2006, and since then, stores began springing up all over Southern California and also branches in New York. In October 2009, Pinkberry opened its first overseas branch in the State of Kuwait at the Avenues shopping mall.
On October 16, 2007, the firm took in a $27.5 million investment from Maveron, the venture fund founded by Starbucks founder Howard Schultz, to expand the firm's concept nationwide.
On May 1, 2009, Pinkberry announced its plans to expand its market both internationally and domestically, after receiving $9 million in second-round funding from investors. As part of its plans, Pinkberry has partnered with Kuwaiti retail conglomerate M.H. Alshaya Co. to open stores in several countries in the Middle East and signed with HMSHost to open locations in airports nationwide, the first of which will open in the late summer 2009. In 2010, the company will start to expand in the Southern United States. In April 2010, the original Pinkberry store in West Hollywood, still lacking adequate parking, was closed and converted into an administrative building for the chain.
The company's success led to the launching of numerous competitors offering similar product, as well as the entry into the U.S. market of Red Mango, an already-existing South Korean company with a similar business model. It was estimated that a single Pinkberry store receives more than 1,500 customers per day and can bring in $250,000 a month.
...
Wikipedia