Donald Murray and Martyn Pollock are bringing the coolest New York snack trend to British lips

With shops in Islington and Notting Hill, and the catering choice for the fashion parties of Vogue and DKNY, the healthy, fat-free, organic and low in calories yoghurt is like ice-cream only without the guilt.

It's the brainchild of best friends Donald Murray (pictured left) and Martyn Pollock, both 28, two Scots who studied law together at Glasgow University and trained at firms in Edinburgh before heading south to work. Even then, they had their sights set on something else.

"We became disillusioned with the whole thing," says Murray. "It was just having a contract in front of us every day. We really weren't that interested in law; we found it quite cumbersome and boring. The corporate office environment wasn't for either of us. We both wanted to own our own business and to be our own bosses; that was the primary reason we bailed. Pretty much as soon as we got to London we started working on ideas to do something else."

They were in New York in 2008 when they came across the concept of frozen yoghurt. "It was just taking off there. Big companies were springing up all over the place, much like coffee was in the early days, companies like Pinkberry and Red Mango. Pinkberry has expanded hugely in a very short period. I think they went from one to 72 stores in about four years, so we're not quite on that aggressive growth strategy, but we took the bones of the concept from them. We were looking for an emerging market; something we could get into at the beginning and make a name for ourselves."

They opened their first shop in Islington in June 2009, then Notting Hill opened just two months ago, both offering three flavours of frozen yoghurt - natural, green tea and a seasonal special - as well as numerous toppings, including everything from fresh banana, kiwi, pineapple and blueberries to granola, Kit-Kat, Oreos and chocolate brownie.

The locations were chosen very deliberately. "At the very start we thought, 'Could we open one in Glasgow?' And we thought, 'Possibly not. It's a little bit cold up there'. Martyn and I like the trendier, young areas of London. The affluence of Islington and Notting Hill were certainly big factors in our choice of location."

Still, they had possibly the worst start to their first year of trading. "We went through the wettest July on record then we had the coldest winter in decades," laughs Murray. "So we weathered the storm in the sense that the conditions were a lot tougher than we thought they'd be. But the great thing is that we have a lot of regulars. We've got friends in Islington, it's a little community, and they got into a habit. It was like, 'There's snow on the ground but why not have a Frae?'"

Ah yes - that name. "It's old Scots for 'from'," explains Murray, "and it's a concept completely lost on the English. Our staff are well rehearsed in explaining what the name means. It goes back to the origin of our product and caring about where our fruit comes from. Our yoghurt is from a small organic farm, our toppings are fresh from Spittalfields market every morning; our berries at present are all from Scotland."

And that health aspect is paramount when you discover both Murray and Pollock are a pair of gym bunnies. "Guilty as charged," he fesses up. "Martyn and I are both active boys. That has certainly had some kind of bearing on the sector we've chosen.

"A lot of people we know at our gym, they say, 'What about doing protein powder in one of your smoothies?' or they suggest different toppings. So we've introduced a gym smoothie on the back of that and they've been flying out the door."

The company has also thrived on no small amount of celebrity attention - and the benefit of the Scots mafia. "There are quite a few Scots kicking around Islington," says Murray. "Ross King from GMTV lives round the corner and Kaye Adams pops in quite a lot as well. Notting Hill is a very celeb-heavy area so we get a lot of famous faces coming in. "

So what of the future? Can they see the concept heading to the frozen north after all? "We are primarily focusing on London at the moment," says Murray. "Don't get me wrong, we are very ambitious, but at the same time we're almost at school at the moment. We're learning something new every day and we'll expand when we're ready.

"Frozen yoghurt is going to be the next big thing, but there's no great rush. We've seen other retailers fail when they've expanded too fast. It would be amazing to have Frae in Sainsbury's but we'll see."

www.frae.co.uk

• This article was first published in the Scotland on Sunday on August 29, 2010