UK retail giant Tesco has pulled its Yoo yoghurt line two years after launching the product.
A spokesperson for Tesco told just-food today (13 September) it no longer offers Yoo yoghurts but that the brand continues to exist as a flavoured milk across its stores.
“Customers can choose from a huge variety of yoghurts at Tesco including a recently launched new range of own label yoghurts,” the spokesperson said. The retailer did not give a reason for the discontinuation of the product.
Yoo yoghurt was launched in the summer of 2011 in a bid to undercut its branded competitors – including Yoplait, Danone and Muller – by as much as 20%.
The range was subsequently expanded into yogurt drinks and children’s lines, which are still available. The launch was the first of a number of ‘venture brand’ launches by Tesco, including ChokaBlok ice cream brand and Parioli Italian food line.
The Yoo line, Tesco’s first range of yoghurts, offered 21 varieties of product and were positioned at 100% British, displaying the Union Jack on its packaging.
Tesco, however, found itself in hot water with the Yoo brand in the year of its launch, when it became embroiled in a trademark dispute with Austrian drinks company Eckes-Granini. Eckes-Granini had held the European Union trademark to the name since 1999.
