In 2020 the group that owned Yo-Chi collapsed. Oliver and Riley Allis, two brothers in their 20s, bought the last four stores. Their mum is Janine Allis, who started Boost Juice, so they had grown up around the business of selling something cold over a counter.
The model
Yo-Chi is self-serve. The customer does the serving. Fresh milk, 40+ toppings, and stores designed so people sit down and stay. It is somewhere to be at 9pm.
The growth
- 4 stores in 2020
- About 70 stores now
- Singapore, then London in August, where queues wrapped the block
- Thailand and Dallas reportedly next
The numbers that matter
These are the figures reported at the time. A new store costs about $800,000 to open. It earns that back in about 10 months. The average store turns over $3.1 million a year.
For comparison, Chipotle, Cava and Shake Shack take 1.8 to 2.6 years to pay back a new store.
My read
This is not a tech startup and that is the point. Two founders took a brand that had already failed, kept what worked, and built a store format with payback numbers most restaurant chains would kill for. The lesson is simple: a great unit economy beats a great pitch.