Mandira, the fresh yoghurt bar concept, is looking to expand into the City and Canary Wharf as it looks to capitalise on shifting preferences for healthier eating.
The concept opened its first store in Covent Garden earlier this year, and plans to open number two next year, and reach a total of five or six in the capital, before going to university towns such as Oxford and Cambridge.
The food to go oriented concept serves fresh yoghurt pots with sweet and savoury Eastern Mediterranean style toppings, a trend that has swept the US.
Mandira co-founder Deyvi Sidi-Sarfati, who is originally from Turkey, the birthplace of yoghurt, said a key challenge was communicating the offer to new customers, with the UK audience more familiar with frozen yoghurt than fresh yoghurt pots.
He said office workers in the Covent Garden area had been the biggest customers so far, a demographic he hopes to capitalise on further with delivery to offices and strategically located new sites.
Sidi-Sarfati told MCA there would be strong emphasis on delivery to consumers and offices going forward, with the pot packaging a good receptacle for food to go.
