OAKBERRY may have originated in Brazil, but founder and CEO Georgios Frangulis always had his sights set on expanding in the U.S. In fact, he initially planned to launch the brand in Southern California, where his vision of serving up blended açai bowls with unlimited toppings first took shape.
The idea came when he noticed açai’s rising popularity as a celebrated superfood nearly a decade ago. Born and raised in Brazil, the world’s leading producer of açai, Frangulis was no stranger to the berry’s myriad health benefits. He saw it become a trendy health food while living on the West Coast but knew consumers weren’t getting “the real açai experience” that he enjoyed growing up.
“The açai that was available in juice and smoothie shops just wasn’t very good, so I drew up my own plans for an açai-inspired fast-food concept,” Frangulis says. “I really wanted to open the business in California, but when I started talking to landlords, I couldn’t find anyone willing to rent me a spot.”
Founders: Georgios Frangulis
Headquarters: Miami
Year Started: 2016
Annual Sales: Undisclosed
Total Units: ~700 shops worldwide with 150+ new openings in 2023
Franchised Units: ~90 percent
He headed back to Brazil in late 2016 and opened the first shop in São Paulo. Scalability was a priority from day one, with an emphasis on small footprints and easy execution.
“We didn’t have the money to make something really big or pay crazy rents, and we knew the best strategy would be to expand through franchising,” Frangulis says. “We wanted everything to be as simple as possible in order for us to accelerate growth in a healthy and organic way by having our customers become our franchisees.”
OAKBERRY opened two additional corporate locations before shifting its focus toward franchising. It reached 25 units by the end of 2017, just one year after opening the first store. Two years later, it was approaching 200 units, and Frangulis was ready to prove the concept in different markets.
International expansion kicked off in January 2019 when the brand launched in Australia. It entered Dubai right after that, followed by Portugal a few months later. The momentum only accelerated from there. The footprint spans over 600 units in nearly three dozen countries today, the vast majority of which are franchised. Over 70 percent of revenues come from overseas operations.
Frangulis says customers in some parts of the world had never heard of açai before they encountered OAKBERRY, and in countries like Saudi Arabia, the name quickly became synonymous with the ingredient itself.
It’s a different story in the U.S., where açai is the core menu item for a growing number of health-forward juice and smoothie chains, and OAKBERRY is a newer player in an increasingly crowded category.
The brand launched in Miami in 2019 and has steadily grown to nearly two dozen locations across Florida, Pennsylvania, New York, Colorado, and Washington, D.C. through a mix of corporate and franchised locations. It expects to close out the year with approximately 40 units in North America, including a handful of stores in Canada.
“At first, it still wasn’t easy to find a good location and convince landlords to rent us prime real estate,” Frangulis says. “We had to really endure in the beginning in order for people to understand that we’re a serious brand with serious expansion plans, and this is actually where we plan to operate from and where we’re going to have our headquarters.”
The chain unveiled on Tuesday that it secured $67 million in fundraising to support worldwide expansion, with a focus on the U.S. This significant funding initiative was orchestrated in collaboration with BTG Pactual (BPAC11), the largest investment bank in Latin America. The brand expects to reach over $200 million in revenue and nearly 1,000 stores globally by the end of 2024.
There are currently 35 domestic locations, and the goal is to reach 200-plus—while also tripling the European footprint—by 2026.
OAKBERRY last summer enlisted two quick-service veterans to help accelerate franchise expansion in the U.S. and guide the business through its next chapter of growth. Former Popeyes CMO Bruno Cardinali was tapped to head up global marketing. Leandro Gasparin, who previously oversaw the chicken chain’s franchise operations, was brought on to lead the brand’s North American business.
“Low CapEx, low labor intensity, and low complexity—those are the key levers that really caught my attention,” Gasparin says. “The sweet spot for us is around 500 square feet, and we’re talking about in-line locations with investments between $100,000 to $320,000, depending on how the big space is and what needs to be done inside the store.”
Layouts and processes are optimized to maximize labor efficiency, he adds. The average shift requires just one person on the clock, with peak hours typically requiring no more than three employees.
“The more I learned about the business, the more I realized this is something I can scale really quickly,” Gasparin says. “I’m not here to open 40 stores per year. That’s a great accomplishment when we’re just getting started, but we want much more than that. The U.S. market is huge, and we’re working hard to have several hundred stores in the near future.”
For his part, Cardinali was drawn to OAKBERRY’s strong branding and laser-like focus on quality and consistency.
“I think the brand is a massive asset that we have on our side,” he says. “As a Brazilian myself, I have a little extra motivation to bring a bit of Brazil everywhere. When you go out and talk to people that have experienced the brand, it’s really hard to find someone who went in and never came back. We have a really strong following and a lot of dedicated fans. You can talk to people here, in Malta, in Cyprus, or anywhere else and that’s true.”
OAKBERRY uses organic açai pulp, organic brown sugar, and organic blue agave syrup in its products. It hasn’t altered the proprietary recipe that Frangulis developed when he opened the first shop seven years ago.
Another point of difference is the fact that every bowl served at every location comes directly from the same factory in Brazil. The supply chain is fully verticalized, which helps the brand maintain consistent quality across its global footprint.
“Açai is native to the Amazonian region, so it encourages economic growth and encourages local communities to preserve the environment,” Frangulis says. “With a fully controlled and fully monitored supply chain, I think we’re the only brand that’s 100 percent sure we’ll have enough supply to support our growth and expansion. That’s something that really helps when you’re selling a franchise in the U.S. and talking to candidates about multi-unit deals.”
