RiyadhCiti.com - Lifestyle Magazine

The FreshBerry menu features exclusive frozen yogurts. All natural fresh berry Tart, All Natural Decadent Dark Chocolate, No Sugar Added Vanilla, and Classic Strawberry, just to name a few.

They also offer fresh fruit and yogurt smoothies with an ample choice of fruits including strawberry, blueberry, raspberry, blackberry, kiwi, pineapple, orange and mango. Additional highlights of the menu include additives and flavor bursts for the Smoothie Bar, and FreshPops frozen yogurt pops made from FreshBerry frozen yogurt.

Owners of Tulsa-based FreshBerry Frozen Yogurt Cafe have signed a deal to put 120 restaurants throughout the Middle East in places such as Dubai and Riyadh. Tulsa-based Beautiful Brands International, which owns restaurant concepts such as Camille’s Sidewalk Cafe and Coney Beach, has an agreement with Saudi Arabia-based United Food Co. for exclusive rights to put the restaurants in eight Middle Eastern nations. “It’s amazing how the world has shrunk,” said David Rutkauskas, founder, president and CEO of Beautiful Brands International.

The new FreshBerry deal will put 120 of the stores over the next 10 years in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman. The first locations are expected to open this summer in the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh.

The FreshBerry menu features all-natural frozen yogurt with fresh fruit and other toppings. Also available are fruit smoothies with additives and flavor bursts; yogurt by the pint or quart; and FreshPops frozen yogurt pops. Rutkauskas said the Saudi group approached Beautiful Brands in October. United Food Co., based in Riyadh, is one of the world’s largest franchisees with hundreds of Pizza Inn locations throughout the Middle East. “They have the resources to make this happen,” Rutkauskas said. BBI officials see the Middle East deal as a major coup for a concept that is less than 18 months old. FreshBerry opened its first location in Tulsa in January 2008 at 111th Street and Memorial Drive. Since then, another local FreshBerry location has been added in Jenks and othersave opened in Arizona, Texas and South Carolina. So far, five FreshBerrys are open and 35 more are in development, not including the Middle East deal.

Other states where locations are planned include Illinois, California, Florida and New York. FreshBerry’s sister company, Camille’s Sidewalk Cafe, recently opened its first Middle Eastern location in Bahrain and has a deal with the Jawad Business Group, a retail and industrial company. That group plans to open 25 more of the sandwich shops there. Rutkauskas said FreshBerry won’t need to make any changes to the menu, except language, to adapt the frozen yogurt and fruit concept to the Arab world. With Camille’s, Rutkauskas said the company removed pork bacon, which is forbidden by Islamic customs, from menus. Rutkauskas said in many instances they simply substituted turkey bacon for pork. However, there are no rules against frozen yogurt and fresh fruit. Most of all, Rutkauskas said the deal is huge in light of the worldwide recession. “You know how the economy has been for the last six months; it just makes it that much more satisfying,” Rutkauskas said. Rutkauskas has said several times during FreshBerry’s development that he believes the concept eventually will be as big or bigger than Camille’s, BBI’s first restaurant and the one that put the company on the map in the franchise world. There now are more than 100 Camille’s open worldwide and 800 in development. The first location opened in Tulsa in 1996. Other BBI-franchised brands include Coney Beach, Dixie Cream Donuts, Crusty Croissant and Greenz.

- First Fresh Berry now open on Tahlyia St., Granada Mall, Riyadh Gallery Mall Riyadh, Saudi Arabia