One of the finalists in the International Highlight Award, Oakberry is expanding abroad. The franchise is a member of Franchising Brasil — a sector project for the internationalization of Brazilian franchise brands carried out by means of a partnership between the Brazilian Association of Franchising (ABF) and the Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex-Brasil) —, which is promoting the first edition of the award.

Internationalization is in the brand’s DNA: Oakberry’s first shop in a foreign country was opened in 2018, at the Florida Mall, a traditional mall in the city of Orlando, USA. The idea was to meet the “healthy fast food” demand in the American market and test the concept and the standard of the chain. The expansion occurred by means of master franchisees, and today the smoothies and bowls company that uses 100% natural açaí as the basis of its menu has 235 units, 30 of them overseas.

In the past few years, the brand expanded to the Arab world, China, Spain, Peru and Portugal. “We also continued expanding in the United States and opened the units of Flagship in Miami, New York and California. We created a strong brand, which is positioned as a major international chain and is present in important places in each country, including Bondi Beach in Australia and the Dubai Mall in the United Arab Emirates”, says Georgios Frangulis, CEO and founder of Oakberry.

The company’s plan included an acceleration phase in 2020, and not even the pandemic made Oakberry change its plans. According to the executive, the chain is about to open 10 more units this year. Among the actions taken by the company to ensure its successful global operations is the standardization of products and establishment of an export flow for açaí.

Also, the brand carried out a market and local culture analysis to define specific menus for each country. Branding, on the other hand, is global.

“In 3.5 years, in addition to the 200 units in Brazil, we also took OAKBERRY and Brazil to the four corners of the world, and we were invited to offer our products in events like Super Bowl, US Open, Australian Open and F1. The brand has global power”, completes Georgios.

About the International Highlight Award

The purpose of the award is to recognize chains that, by participating in initiatives developed by the program destined for promotion and qualification, have started or achieved a consistent internationalization process of their brands.

The award ceremony will be announced soon and three franchises will be the winners in the general category and one chain will be the winner in the Strategy and Consolidation category, which was created because of the high quality of the cases submitted to Apex-Brasil and ABF for appreciation. The criteria to be evaluated by the judging panel composed of members of the Franchising Brasil Management Board are: complexity of sector and market; operationalization process; impact of case; innovation of the initiative; and relationship with the participation in the Program.

About Franchising Brasil

Franchising Brasil is a sector project carried out by means of a partnership between the Brazilian Association of Franchising (ABF) and the Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex-Brasil) for the internationalization of Brazilian franchise brands and promotion of their businesses abroad. The initiative was developed to promote this business model that is well recognized in the main international markets.

READ MORE: Meet the shortlisted brands nominated for the International Highlight Award