It all started over a night of margaritas with friends,' recalls Tracie Ang. Little did she know that the discussion last year would take her from a job in finance to a future in frozen yogurt.
Popular frozen yogurt chains Pinkberry and Red Mango had already spurred a 'fro-yo' craze in the US and South Korea. But when Ang's store, Berrygood, opened its doors on Graham Street, SoHo, in May last year, there was just one other competitor in Hong Kong - Best Berry in Sha Tin, which opened in 2002.
'We took a bet that it would be a while before the major frozen yogurt companies entered the Hong Kong market, and that meant we had a small window of opportunity,' says Ang. Now, 16 months later, new competition is arriving as a handful of boutique shops have jumped on the fro-yo bandwagon.
Yo Mama founder Candice Suen Lai-zee was quick on the heels of Berrygood when she opened her shop on Wing Fung Street in Wan Chai in December. She's launching a second shop at the IFC, which is expected to open this month.
'In California, I noticed all the frozen yogurt stores were packed ... with Chinese people,' Suen says. 'That's when ... I was sure this would work well in Hong Kong.'
California native Dani Hazut is also betting on Hong Kong's appetite for frozen yogurt. He arrived here four months ago with nothing but two suitcases and in June opened Yogurtime on Elgin Street in SoHo.