Golden Spoon returning to Wasatch Front

Golden Spoon frozen yogurt is returning to the Wasatch Front this summer, with plans to have as many as 30 of the specialty soft-serve treat locations open in the next four years.

In making the announcement Tuesday, corporate officers said they've restructured and plan to grow using franchising agreements here and abroad. They already have more than 100 stores in the Southwest and in Japan; they hope to have 500 new stores under contract internationally by the end of the year.

Chief Executive Officer Roger Clawson and President Ed Evans were in Salt Lake on Tuesday to meet with potential franchisees. While the Wasatch Front market is too broad for a single franchisee, they said, they believe they'll find folks interested in running between three and 10 stores each, with the first frozen yogurt store open in Utah by midsummer.

Evans said the fact that Golden Spoon is 100 percent franchised as a business means that people who buy a franchise won't have to worry about competing with corporate-owned locations. It has proven to be a success model for a product that's well-loved, he said.

A typical franchise likely would hire about 10 to 15 people part time, as well as a couple of full-time employees, said Clawson.

He said Golden Spoon is "built on core values of creating premium-quality products and the active healthy lifestyles of today. The result is a responsible wealth-creation model for franchisees, which starts with having responsible products." A third corporate value, he notes, is social responsibility.

The California-based company was a staple on the Wasatch Front in the mid-'80s and early '90s until internal management issues developed and it withdrew. In 1993, founder Jeff Barnes reacquired full ownership of his original Southern California stores. The Utah locations were renamed Golden Swirl and changed hands several times over the next 15 years, before each closed.

Evans and Clawson were both raised in Utah and view the re-entry here as a welcome "homecoming," they said.

E-MAIL: lois@desnews.com