Why yogurt? “My Samantha,” said Keith Repult, “has always been a yogurt lover and connoisseur,” whose cravings led the couple to a shop in Santa Barbara. The attraction was “the creamy texture and flavors and great toppings; those make a big difference,” and when the couple saw a vacant produce stand in the Pierpont area “We said let’s do it,” and Surf’n Yogurt was born.
“I didn’t even know when we began that Samantha would be so good at it,” as Keith said his wife not only does product development and quality control but also keeps the books and purchases equipment and supplies. “She’s the creative one - I’m good at figuring out how to get them open... we had no knowledge of anything and we didn’t purchase a franchise, we just figured it out.”
And that included figuring out that Santa Paula would be a good location, interest initially piqued by friends and business owners in the area. “We somehow went from the beach to the east end of Ventura and thought, why not Santa Paula?”
Repult said his business philosophy is inherently simple: “You get one chance when people walk in... you have to have good food, a clean place and nice employees, all those things. If people leave happy they will come back... if they leave unhappy they’ll never come back and tell 10 people” of their negative experience.
Repult’s favorite yogurt flavor differs from the one that “seems to be the most popular - I don’t think it’s a yogurt as much as a gelato, oatmeal cookie. If I had to choose my personal favorite, well we own a shop and I try anything,” but Repult prefers plain tart.
It took about three months to open, a process during which “we worked well with the city, which was very polite and helpful to me.” The eight employees are “all local kids... and we’re very happy being in Santa Paula and look forward to serving and helping the community.”
Twenty-year-old Syanne Repult works for the company; the family also includes Sahvon, 19, and “almost” 2-year-old son Jaxon. Repult admitted the spelling of his children’s names could be considered a diversionary tactic: “Yeah,” he said with a laugh, “I figured people would be too busy trying to spell their first names to notice the second one.”
