By Aimee Chanthadavongs
Australian yogurt and dessert retailer WOWCOW is looking to expand its business this year.
After seeing the success of its Darlinghurst store in Sydney, WOWCOW is expecting to open four to five more stores this year.
Wowcow founder Carl Harwin told RetailBiz his inspiration to open WOWCOW came from growing up on frozen yoghurt in America.
“I saw the potential for it in Australia in the same way that the smoothie craze took off a few years ago in this market. We opened our first store on the Northern Beaches in early 2007. It was a test case to see how Australians would react to the product and it quickly gained momentum with many customers becoming regulars and returning to the store with friends,” he said.
“Being the first to market meant we were definitely ahead of the curve and it gave us time to tailor our offering to the Australian market and Australian taste buds.”
According to Harwin, the store location selection is based on a mixture of science and gut.
“The science side takes into account demographic, foot traffic and what our customers have been telling us over the years. Gut is a little harder to define but essentially we look for ‘the cool factor’ and where we know our brand will succeed.”
The second WOWCOW store will open in Newtown on March 17, followed by one in Parramatta in mid-April.