General Mills' Yoplait Launches Response To Greek Yogurt Craze

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- General Mills-owned Yoplait USA was a once-powerhouse yogurt company, but has spent the past two years trying to recover from the Greek yogurt disruption.

"Quite frankly, we missed Greek," said Yoplait USA Vice President of Marketing, Doug Martin. "And what we realized a couple of years ago is, that's OK. The category is always evolving. So rather than continue to chase that revolution, let's lead the next two."

In doing so, it launched two new products: Oui and YQ.

"Oui" is a French-style yogurt in taste and texture, reminiscent of a custard. Martin says Yoplait has been making this in France for more than 40 years.

It comes in a glass jar, which may seem like a nod to younger customers looking for something fit for Instagram, but Martin says it's functional, too. Yoplait needs to use the glass, he says, to heat the milk and cultures up and cool it down in order to get the texture it needs.

Yoplait's newest brand, YQ, is trying to cater more to the Greek yogurt crowd. The plain version has just one gram of sugar, while the flavored ones have up to nine grams. That's roughly half the sugar content of most Greek yogurts.

With all the changes coming to Yoplait's attempt to stay relevant, is there still a place for the company's traditional, red top yogurt? Martin seems to think so.

"Absolutely," he said. "I think the best part about what's happened here is it lets us have our health-first yogurt. It lets us have out pleasure-first yogurt. And it lets us let our red-cup be what it really is, which is the biggest yogurt in the category for families. You know, all these yogurts, quite frankly, have gotten more expensive."

Both YQ and Oui cost about $1.35 at Cub Foods, which is about what you can expect to pay for any of the newer yogurts, Greek or otherwise.