Frozen yogurt chain comes to Turkey

Cefiore, a California-based frozen yogurt chain, has opened its first shop on Bağdat Street in Istanbul.

Local company AS-PEKCAN announced it has the master franchise for Cefiore during a press conference Wednesday.

Cefiore plans to offer franchises in 20 locations throughout Turkey this year, aiming to gain a 5-percent share in Turkey’s ice cream market. “Cefiore yogurts are ice-cream thick and they give the feeling of eating ice-cream,” said Levent Pekcan, AS-PEKCAN’s founder.

“We made a total investment of $600,000 in order to bring the Cefiore brand to Turkey,” he said. “We expect to have a 5 to 10 percent share in the market within two years.”

“Even though frozen yogurt is a new product in the U.S. market, the product gained a 5-percent share quickly,” Pekcan said. “Turkey’s yogurt consumption per person is 35 kilos but its ice cream consumption is low, at 2.7 liters per capita. This figure is way behind Europe and the United States.”

Cefiore offers non-fat frozen yogurt flavors, such as raspberry-pomegranate, green tea, acai berry and chocolate.

Originally from the tourism business, Levent and Hande Pekcan own four four-star hotels in Antalya. The company entered the food market with Cefiore in July last year.