A Kuwaiti idea built around one belief: food should not become unhealthy just because life moves quickly.
Then & now
Where it started. Where we are now.
The first PICK YO was a small frozen-yogurt shop in Kaifan. The spaces have grown and the menu has widened, but the idea that began there still shapes every PICK today.
2011
ThenPICK YO · Kaifan
Today
NowPICK · Kuwait & Riyadh
Chapter 012010
Before PICK had a name
It began with a problem they kept running into.
Jassem Alduaij and Bader Aloqaili were working together in Kuwait’s financial sector. Their days moved quickly, and lunch often became a choice between what was convenient and what actually felt right to eat.
Fast food was easy to find. Balanced food was not. The two founders felt that compromise in their own routines, and they knew they were not the only ones. The question was simple: why should eating quickly mean eating carelessly?
They did not begin with a plan for dozens of branches. They began by trying to solve that one everyday problem properly. Through 2010, the idea took shape around fresh food, clear choices and a grab-and-go experience that could fit into real life without asking people to lower their standards.
One question shaped everything
“Why should quick food have to mean a compromise?”
Chapter 0228×
Getting the first thing right
The original mix took a full year—and 28 versions.
The first product had to carry the whole idea. It was frozen yogurt, but they refused to treat it like a simple recipe.
They kept testing and refining until version 28 became the original PICK YO mix. That final recipe opened with the first branch and has never been changed since.
The discipline behind those 28 trials became more important than the number itself. If something was not right, it did not move forward. That instinct—to keep working until a product earned its place—became the meaning of being picky.
Mango soft serve · Made by PICK
Kaifan, KuwaitThe first PICK YO
2011
The doors opened. The idea connected.
The first branch opened in Kaifan in 2011. People came for frozen yogurt, but what made the idea travel was bigger: something quick could still be fresh, considered and genuinely enjoyable.
Chapter 032011—12
From PICK YO to PICK
One successful product became an all-day idea.
A few weeks after Kaifan, Durwaza opened as the first full grab-and-go branch, complete with a coffee menu. PICK was already becoming more than frozen yogurt.
Coffee, balanced meals, salads, sandwiches and snacks expanded the reason to visit. In 2012, the original PICK matcha blend joined the menu—mild, versatile and designed for everyday drinking long before matcha became a global habit.
As the menu grew, the name became shorter and the idea became wider. PICK YO evolved into PICK: a place for breakfast, a coffee between meetings, lunch on the move, or soft serve at the end of the day. Different choices, held together by the same filter.
Jassem Alduaij × Bader Aloqaili
The idea grew. The standard stayed close.
Growth only mattered if PICK could remain responsible for what it served. Product development and production stayed close to the company rather than being handed away.
Working directly with producers and farmers, and making food in-house, meant the team could keep improving without losing control of the details. The business became larger, but the founders’ original question still sat behind every new product.
Chapter 04Today
Kuwait → Riyadh
The first small branch became part of the everyday landscape.
70locations and growing
PICK expanded across Kuwait, then carried the idea into Riyadh. Neighbourhood shops, city branches, mall locations and destination stores all serve different rhythms, but the purpose remains familiar: make a better choice easier to reach.
More than a decade after Kaifan, PICK is much bigger than the first frozen-yogurt counter. Yet size has never been the most useful measure. The real test is whether every new item, space and experience still feels worth picking.
What has not changed
Still picky. Still moving.
01Made by us.
Responsibility stays close—from development to what is served.
02Clear by default.
Nutrition should help people choose without making them work for it.
03Joy belongs in it.
Healthy living should feel good enough to become part of real life.
If we would not pick it ourselves, it does not pass. That was the standard in 2010. It is still the standard now.
2011
Today