Freedom Pizza Acquires Coco Yogo Raw Vegan Kitchen
The Dubai-based vegan dessert brand will complement Freedom's ethos of making healthier food easy and available to everyone on demand.
KRSH Investments, the investment arm that owns Freedom Pizza, Big Dwarf Food Tech and is in a joint venture partner in Wild Peeta Hand Crafted Shawarma recently completed the acquisition of Coco Yogo Vegan Kitchen, the region's premier vegan, raw and gluten-free kitchen.
Coco Yogo founder, Turner Francis created Coco Yogo in 2013 in aid of her quest to find tasty foods that wouldn't aggravate her debilitating allergies. Coco Yogo products are all free from dairy, soy, corn, gluten, eggs, preservatives & refined sugar. Freedom Pizza is Coco Yogo's largest customer. Coco Yogo offers a range that includes cheesecakes, ice-cream sandwiches, yoghurts, coconut butter and cream cheese. Turner has worked tirelessly to create products that only include a small number of ingredients, experimenting with flavours to ensure the experience and enjoyment of eating a dessert is not lost. Coco Yogo will continue to operate from its 100% raw vegan kitchen in the Green Community in Dubai.
Ian Ohan, KRSH Investment Founder and CEO comments, "We view veganism as an immutable and rapidly expanding, global food paradigm. Our acquisition of Coco Yogo is strategically important in the context of our broader vision of making healthy food easy, convenient and available to everyone on demand.
"When Turner decided to relocate to Mexico, she came to us to see if we would continue her legacy. We are honored to do just that and Turner will stay on board with us as Founder, Chef, Spokesperson and Creative Visionary for the company. We will ramp up investment and also apply our technology, delivery and operating infrastructure to grow Coco Yogo into the global company it is destined to be."
The growth and success of Coco Yogo to date is largely down to the raw vegan recipes that Turner has created and developed. Turner has garnered a huge amount of credibility and her products are trusted by the vegan community. With the growing trend towards veganism as a lifestyle choice and not exclusive to allergy suffers, the demand for Coco Yogo products have surpassed all of Turner's initial expectations. 'I often have to pinch myself. I cannot believe how many people are aware of the brand, and the number of shops that are stocking our products.'
Speaking about the acquisition, she comments "I founded Coco Yogo six years ago and I wanted to make sure that it ended up in capable hands. Once I put the word out, I had many interested parties coming to the table, but my objective was about finding the right team that would be able to take Coco Yogo to the next level. My relationship with Freedom Pizza was faultless and the conscious effort that they make to provide vegan offerings coupled with their excellent online delivery platform provided me with the comfort that they were the best fit. Coco Yogo is the first raw vegan gluten free grab and go concept in region. With the amazing team that we now have in place, I am confident that Coco Yogo will not only expand across the UAE but also regionally and internationally."
Freedom Pizza makes honest food with organic produce from Greenheart Organic Farms, using multi-grain pizza dough for the base, and for those who are Vegan, Vegetarian or Gluten-free, Freedom's got their back too. Freedom knows exactly where its ingredients come from and how they are made; from production to the ride. Freedom is committed to food integrity and quality, and supporting local businesses creating relationships that are personal.
