The Spain-based franchise eyes India’s fast-growing functional food space as part of its global expansion, which has already scaled across four continents.
Although frozen yoghurt is a dessert by category, the eating occasion can also overlap with snacking, particularly as consumers look for convenient, portionable treats between meals.
Smöoy India director Sangita Nagar said she sees an opportunity among younger urban consumers who want to make healthier choices without giving up the enjoyment associated with dessert.
After encountering Smöoy during a trip to Spain, Nagar secured the rights to establish the brand in India, where she is now leading its expansion.
Her strategy goes beyond expanding Smöoy’s retail footprint, with a focus on building a dessert proposition around product quality, customisation and nutritional attributes.
Nagar sees the strongest opportunity among younger urban consumers who want to make healthier choices without giving up the enjoyment associated with dessert.
“In the context of India, we can observe a significant potential among urban young customers along with individuals aware of their health but at the same time wishing to have a fun dessert experience. The younger customers tend to value engagement and the ability to customise their orders, which results in a wish to do the combinations themselves instead of ordering a ready-made product,” said Nagar.
“Smöoy sees a lot of promise in India due to the developments in its premium dessert sector. Consumers are becoming quite receptive to options that include quality, personalisation, and uniqueness.”
For Nagar, the opportunity extends beyond India’s major cities. She also sees improvements in cold-chain and modern retail infrastructure as potential enablers for wider distribution.
“There is also a chance for growth through the rising interest in healthier and functional products. Additionally, beyond the urban centres, improving cold-chain and modern retail infrastructure can provide more opportunities for the product to be included in daily consumption,” she added.
Nagar also sees an opportunity to combine functional or nutritional attributes with indulgence in India’s frozen dessert market.
What consumers want from healthier frozen desserts
For Nagar, nutritional attributes are becoming increasingly important alongside taste.
“While taste remains an important aspect, attributes like lower fat, fibre, protein, lower sugar, prebiotics, and plant-based options are becoming increasingly significant. Consumers also wish for quality, personalisation, and uniqueness. There is clearly an opportunity to fuse these components to create indulgent yet healthy desserts,” Nagar said.
“In our opinion, health and enjoyment can go hand in hand. Our goal is to create frozen yogurt that caters to customers’ expectations of experiencing pleasure while eating a dessert but also has the healthful benefits of lower fat and fibre. In addition, personalisation matters in this respect since consumers can pick from fruits, chocolates, sauces, nuts and various toppings.”
Smöoy’s India menu illustrates how the same frozen-yoghurt proposition can span different degrees of indulgence, from combinations with kiwi, blueberry, strawberry and nuts to options loaded with Nutella, Oreo, Snickers and chocolate.
The brand has also introduced an Ambrosia Smoothie combining banana, strawberry and natural yoghurt ice cream, alongside a customisable Fashion Smoothie where consumers choose the base and two toppings.
“We view frozen yogurt as more of a treat than as an alternative to a meal. The opportunity lies in the potential of frozen yogurt to deliver balanced indulgence to the consumer. Frozen yogurt’s ability to include products that have protein content, fibre and custom toppings opens the door for it to be used in many ways as long as it does not lose its identity as a dessert,” said Nagar.
“A pivotal lesson is that attention is a valuable factor in persuading people from India to sample something novel. Indian consumers are quite willing to experiment; however, they enjoy establishing relationships between new products and flavours that are familiar to them. This offers an interesting chance for Smöoy to experiment with some exotic fruits, local spices, and novelties while keeping the essence of its concept.”
