Everyone told mefroyo was dead.I disagreed.

For the better part of a decade I watched self-serve frozen yogurt shops close all over Canada. People asked what I did for a living and I'd change the subject. But I'd stood behind that counter almost every day of my adult life, and I knew the concept wasn't the problem.

Before all this

I was supposed to be an architect

I grew up in Saskatoon, moved to St. Albert in Elementary school, and spent most of school struggling. I had bad eyes, ADHD, and a stubborn plan to design buildings. I made it as far as architectural technology at NAIT before I figured out that what I actually wanted was to design and build something of my own and run it my way.

I got the design half of that education anyway. Most of what you see in our stores, the labels, the signs, the artwork, I draw myself.

2022

So we built our own

Swirl World opened in Regina and Saskatoon in the Fall of 2022. My dad and I modified the stores with our own hands. My grandma helped us launch in Regina. My mom kept our books for years, right through the move, and she's every bit as proud of what got built as I am.

And every single member of our staff came with us. Moving the whole team over saved all of their jobs. Not one person was left behind.

My wife Amanda has a degree in Nutrition and Food Science from the University of Alberta, and she's behind the part of this you can taste: the recipes, the real ingredients, the nutrition panel on every flavour label. We built this brand together, in between a wedding and a growing family, and we still argue happily about which flavour to launch next.

Everything we'd been told we couldn't do, we did. Made in-store from raw ingredients, from our own family recipes. The biggest toppings bar in the country. Swirlberries, are our fresh strawberries hand-dipped in Belgian chocolate. Fair prices you can count on, from a shop that would rather earn the next store than squeeze this one.

2024

Kelowna, in two days flat

My aunt spotted a post from a local frozen yogurt shop announcing it was closing. I was in the car within two days. The space was in beautiful shape, so we bought it, the equipment, the fit-out, all of it, rather than watch another one go dark.

That's three shops now, and three of them are rooms where somebody else's frozen yogurt store had already given up. Everyone else left the field. It felt a little like these places were waiting for us.

The people in the shop

About twenty-five of us, three stores, one very good job

Erika started with us in Regina in 2015, as a regular employee. It was her first job in Canada. She came over with the rest of the Regina team in 2022, earned her bookkeeping diploma while working, and today she's second-in-command: our store manager and our bookkeeper.

Preet joined Saskatoon in 2023 and has quietly become essential to the whole company. His role keeps growing, and every time we hand him something bigger he makes it look easy.

Kerrianne took over Kelowna in 2025 and has made that shop her own. She places great care into the store and is among the most genuine people I know.

Giving back

The froyo that pays for the team bus

Nobody handed us our fundraising program. We invented it behind the counter, years before Swirl World existed, because a school asked if we could help. It grew every year, moved across with us in 2022, and now runs in all three cities.

This is the part of owning three shops that I'd never trade. We can say yes to a local team the same day they ask, because our family puts community first. We're passionate about giving back to the community who supports us.

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What's next

One more city, when it's the right one

We're still looking for the right fourth city, somewhere in western Canada. It'll happen when it happens.

Tim McGuireFounder, Swirl World Frozen Treats