D+1 Holding hits back to defend Yolé, details llaollao franchise dispute

D+1 Holding (D+1) has brought to light new insights on what went down behind its franchise relationship with llaollao Spain HQ, citing conflicts and various obstacles faced in the business relationship. This followed claims that llaollao Spain had been making the past few days in a bid to distance itself from Yolé, the new brand D+1 is promoting in Singapore.In a statement to Marketing, D+1 said it had discovered the business opportunity for frozen yogurt in Asia and after thorough market research, it decided to acquire the rights for llaollao in Asia, which includes Singapore.“We have put in tremendous effort in expanding llaollao across Asia. We have invested a large amount of financial and personal resources to develop the brand and we have expanded the business rapidly with unprecedented standards in the F&B industry. The facts speak for themselves,” the statement read.For further context, it explained that llaollao first opened in Singapore at Marina Square “with little success”. Through its efforts and resources in developing the brand, the spokesperson added that D+1 went on to open outlets in 313 Somerset and Plaza Singapura.“Once llaollao was very successful across Asia, unfortunately, llaollao HQ Spain did not respect the agreement and took advantage of its position as a franchisor, despite our numerous attempts to solve the issues amicably,” the spokesperson added.The statement added that D+1 strongly believes that customers demand included improvements on the menu, wider variety and more flavours.“Llaollao HQ vehemently rejected all our suggestions and imposed many other obstacles in Singapore, as they had already done in the past with other master franchisees in different countries before. This includes Chile, Portugal, Russia, Italy, Slovakia, Belgium, Taiwan, Thailand, etc, that had also left the llaollao brand,” the spokesperson said. The statement added:This unilateral hostile attitude forced D+1 Holding to make the difficult decision to seek for alternatives in order to protect our customers' interest and our position as a corporation.Speaking about the decision to acquire the master franchise rights for Yolé in Singapore, D+1 statement said that the core values of Yolé “mirror that of the demanding Singapore market”. This was after the company had conducted “very profound research”, coupled with “extensive experience in the F&B industry and understanding of the Singapore market”.“Yolé has the components to be a distinguishable market leader with innovation centres in Italy and Spain (artisan experts of the ice cream industry, pioneers in technology and research). Thus, Yolé is able to bring an innovative menu and the latest products to the market,” the statement read.Marketing has reached out to D+1 Holding for additional comment.In case you were unaware of the events that have been unfolding the past couple of days, we have you covered!llaollao Spain recently made a public statement in a bid to distance itself from D+1, its former franchisee, and Yolé brand, the new brand the latter replaced all 29 llaollao stores in Singapore with. In a statement to Marketing at the time, a D+1 Holdings spokesperson said the company felt the llaollao menu was “exhausted after three years” of being in the business.Along with revealing its impending return to Singapore a few days later, llaollao alleged that Yolé was "a totally new brand in the frozen yogurt market that does not exist in Europe, even though it has been advertised as such".Speaking more about the decision to make those statements in later interviews with Marketing, Pedro Espinosa, founder and CEO of llaollao, explained that over its eight years in business, llaollao has always placed primary importance on product quality. As such the decision to make such a public statement lied in untying "llaollao from any other frozen yogurt brand whose quality standards are unknown". Espinosa also revealed that llaollao was currently searching for agencies and collaborators to help with its re-entry into the Singapore market.