Lancia's Frozen Yogurt Gets Warm Reception

The seed from which Lancia's Frozen Yogurt sprouted had been planted far away in Sicily, Italy.

As a student at Loyola University's Rome Center, John Lancia would often travel to Sicily, sit in the town square with his cousins and sample the gelato and espresso. His dream wasn't of living in the Italian countryside or swimming in the impossible blue of the Mediterranean, but of opening a coffee shop back in Chesterfield where he was born.

Lancia didn't stick entirely to his original coffee shop dream. Although he does offer espresso, cappuccino and coffee, his focus is on fat-free, frozen yogurt. The change in direction was—in his view—a sound business decision. He read an article in Restaurant Business magazine that listed the top 50 fastest food service businesses of 2010.

“Self-serve yogurt places were number one, two and four,” Lancia said. “So I decided to combine the two.”

The inspiration to open a self-serve frozen yogurt shop came at the right time for Lancia. The store opened early this year. “I had been working in banking, and it wasn't real exciting,” Lancia said. “I wanted to open that coffee shop, then figured out that self-serve yogurt was a trend.”

Lancia's Frozen Yogurt, located at 14844 Clayton Road in Chesterfield, offers 10 different yogurt flavors at any one time. The flavors for each week are selected by customer vote. There's also sugar-free and tart yogurt and both chocolate and vanilla 5-percent butterfat ice cream. His prices are lower and he offers more choices than other self-serve yogurt shops, Lancia said.

“At 40-cents per ounce we're the lowest price in town,” Lancia said. “With over 40 toppings we have the most, and we offer 12 different smoothies and Fitz root beer and cream sodas. We're not a franchise. We use only local producers, and everything is made on the premises.”

Business has grown steadily since opening. “We doubled sales from February to March and will probably do the same in April,” Lancia said. “Our two biggest days were last Saturday and Sunday. I hope to start paying myself for my original investment this month and operate at a profit.”

With the business expanding and the word getting out, Lancia recently ran a Groupon deal. Halfway through the first day the coupon ran, 1,100 servings were sold. Lancia said he doesn't make any money on the Groupon ad. "The discount is for 50 percent and Groupon takes 50 percent, but I'm getting customers and hope to get repeat business.”

In spite of only having opened a few months, people have already approached Lancia with offers to expand, but he's not buying. “I just want to concentrate on this right now and do it as good as I can,” he said. “All I would need is one dog to suck up all the profits. I've seen too many people expand too fast and fail.”

Lancia still visits his cousins in Sicily every few years, but his dream now grows in Chesterfield.