Self-serve frozen yogurt chain comes to Brownsville

The name of the store is Red Mango Yogurt & Smoothies, but it was the smell of freshly sliced strawberries that greeted customers’ noses on a recent Tuesday afternoon, and that’s a good thing.

The self-serve frozen yogurt shop at 2451 Pablo Kisel Blvd. — the second Red Mango to open in the Rio Grande Valley — will celebrate its grand opening with free yogurt and toppings, giveaways and music on Sept. 24, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Owner/operator Analia Lemus is also in the process of opening a third Red Mango, part of a rapidly growing national chain, in McAllen.

The company, which opened its first store in 2007 in Los Angeles and is now up to more than 130 locations nationwide, was recently named the top frozen yogurt and smoothie chain in the country by Zagat.

Lemus, a former Louisiana State University golfer who studied fashion design, branding and marketing in Italy for two years, had been looking for an investment opportunity when she got a coupon mailer from the Red Mango in Mission. That was in April. Lemus was a manager for Aldo Shoes at the time.

"After that we were hooked," she said. "I’d go five times a week."

She quit her job at Aldo, traveled to Red Mango corporate in Dallas and signed the papers.

At first it was just going to be the Brownsville franchise, though Lemus decided to buy out all of Hidalgo and Cameron counties, which means that, aside from Mission, she and no one else can open Red Mangos in those counties.

Lemus said she looked at Harlingen but couldn’t find a suitable location. Instead, Weslaco is the likely site for store number three. Red Mango corporate is very particular where its stores are located, usually insisting it be grouped with a major national retailer.

Lemus had to go to the mat for her spot, a few doors down from Gazpacho’s.

"We had a hard time with this one because we didn’t have any major tenants in this plaza," she said. "We didn’t have an H-E-B or a Target. They were totally against it."

Corporate eventually relented, however, seeing as how Kmart is right across the street and Best Buy right around the corner. That wasn’t the only wrinkle with the location, though.

"The day after we signed the lease and sent it off we got a letter saying the plaza was in foreclosure and now owned by the bank," Lemus said. "That was February. We had to renegotiate our whole lease. That took us three months. We wanted to open by May, and it just didn’t happen."

The upside is that the rent is less now than under the previous owner. Business, meanwhile, is good. Without doing a "lick of marketing" other than handing out coupons at the mall, the store — which has only been open six weeks — is on track to match Red Mango’s national average of $600,000, she said.

Lemus says the self-serve "fro-yo" concept, which features in addition to smoothies and other products a wide spectrum of yogurt flavors, plain to exotic, and toppings, healthy to not-so-much, is a huge hit with customers because they have total control over the end result.

Corporate says self-serve increases sales by 32 percent compared to the old Red Mango model, which was not self-serve. Then there’s the health aspect: Fro-yo is widely touted as a healthy but delicious alternative to ice cream. Lemus goes through $1,000 worth of fruit a week.

As for her personal favorite, it depends on her mood, she said. Chocolate yogurt topped with fresh strawberries is never a bad idea. Coconut is another matter. Lemus hates it, which apparently puts her in the minority.

"People love it," she said. "We sold out of it and we didn’t have it for a couple of days. We couldn’t even got it from our vendor. These two ladies walked in. They were like, ‘How come you don’t have coconut?’ We’re never coming back.’"

Lemus begged them to reconsider, sweetening the pot with a couple of coupons. They came back. Lemus, meanwhile, is in her element and confident the venture will succeed.

"I’m a business person," she said. "I love sales. I love retail and I’m very operations oriented and organized. Customer service is my number one thing. … I like to work. I like to be independent. I like to make money. I really do love coming to work every day."

Red Mango Yogurt & Smoothies

2451 Pablo Kisel Blvd.

Monday-Saturday: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday: Noon to 10 p.m.

542-6406

Grand opening

Saturday, Sept. 24, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.