The self-serve frozen yogurt café acquired the assets of Let's Yo!

DURANGO, COLO. — Self-serve frozen yogurt cafe operator and franchisor U-Swirl International, a wholly-owned subsidiary of U-Swirl, Inc., has acquired the business assets of Let’s Yo!, L.L.C. The transaction includes all intellectual property and worldwide franchise and license rights, as well as the rights associated with 12 currently operating Let’s Yo! Yogurt stores in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Florida. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed, but U-Swirl said Let’s Yo! will be entitled to an earn-out based on the royalties received over a 24-month earn-out period.

Entrepreneur and Retro Fitness chief executive officer Eric Casaburi founded Let’s Yo! in 2011. The company is headquartered in Colts Neck, N.J.

“The completion of this acquisition increases the size of U-Swirl’s store base to a total of 259 units in 37 states and 4 foreign countries, and allows us to expand into the highly populated northeastern region of the United States,” said Alan Stribling, president of U-Swirl, Inc. “We are pleased to welcome Let’s Yo! to the U-Swirl family of frozen yogurt brands as we continue to expand our competitive footprint within the $6 billion away-from-home frozen desserts market. U-Swirl has experienced dramatic growth during the past 27 months and currently ranks as the fourth-largest self-serve frozen yogurt chain in the industry. The number of cafes in its network has increased 375% since January 2013, largely due to the acquisition of 8 self-serve frozen yogurt franchising companies.”

Mr. Stribling added that with the frozen yogurt market fragmented he believes consolidation will be necessary for the future success of the industry.

“U-Swirl intends to play an important role in this process as we pursue economies of scale through both organic growth and an aggressive acquisition program,” he said. “In addition to our recent acquisitions of frozen yogurt chains, we are pursuing new store openings by franchisees under the U-Swirl, CherryBerry, Yogurtini, Let’s Yo! and Fuzzy Peach brands. We expect 20 to 30 store openings under our current brands during fiscal 2016.”