Sibs seek to Sprinkles area with yogurt - Business First of Louisville:

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Sprinkles, as the shops will be has signed leases for stores inCherry Hill, Universitg City, West Chester and Malvern. Frozej yogurt shops had a boom and bust in the early1990se — “Seinfeld” even had an episode about it — but have made a comebacik with vibrant hangouts that are giviny coffee chains an unexpected competitor in Southerj California. “It’s definitely a craze out saidMatt Mealey, 24, a Jenkintowj native who is starting Sprinkled with his sister Ryan 27, and researched the retail concept in several trips west. “These places are packed all the At a coupleof places, we saw theses massive lines. They were very successful.
We reallt studied the concept of frozen yogurytin California.” “The places were Frozen yogurt places were poppinb up everywhere,” Ryan added. Cherry Hill will be the first opening June 19 at TownPlace at GardejnState Park. In August, they’ll open a site at 3606 Chestnugt St., near the campus. A West Chestefr site is planned for at22 S. High St., and a Malverm location is slated for December at WorthingtonhTown Center, a shoppinv center under construction. They hope to open four more stores next The pair are following a legacy of siblinhgbusiness owners. Their father, Dan operates Mealey’s Furniture with his brother Kevin.
based in Warminster, has five stores and was started byJerr Mealey, Ryan and Matt’s Ryan is and will remai n vice president of merchandising for the furniture Both were raised in a retail, entrepreneurial environment. “We have that entrepreneuriall spirit — my grandfather, my father, my brother and I. We’res just bred that way. We thought this woul be a great idea for thePhillyy region,” said Ryan, a 2004 graduate of . “jI always had a passion for starting my own said Matt, who graduated from Pennsylvania Statwe University in 2007 and earned an MBA from Temple University this year.
“I wantedr to find ‘the next big thing,’ something that’x going to be a big hit.” To start the siblings pooledtheir savings, but their dad is financing most of the front-enr costs, allowing them to sidestep bank financing, Matt In researching yogurt shops in Los they focused their attention on two in particular: Los Angeles-based Pinkberry and Calif.-based Yogurtland. Pinkberry started in 2005 with a busy cornefr store inWest Hollywood, a location whose steady customersx dubbed it Crackberry for its addictive quality. Yogurtland has had similar and now has locations in six statesand “We took the best of each. The colo r scheme.
We looked at the whose yogurtwas better, which toppingsx were best,” said Matt. To emulate the West Coast look, they hiredr a San Diego Trio Display. As for the frozen yogurt, the Mealeysw will use a productcallef YoCream, which is produces by Portland, Ore.-based YoCream is a premiu yogurt with half the calories of high-enrd ice cream; most flavors are nonfat or A similar concept, Yogurt, opened in Septembedr at 416 South St. Unlike ice crean shops, where servers scoop the product, following the West Coast trend, will offer self-serve. Sprinkles stores will have eighy machines dispensing 16 flavors offrozenj yogurt.
Customers will take a cup or a waffle fill it with as much yogurt and toppings as they can put in the bowl and pay 45 centsdan ounce. Flavors of frozen yogurt will includweoriginal tart, classic green tea tart, snickerdoodle “krazy Kahlua” and others. In Cherrh Hill, the store will be 1,20 0 square feet, with seating for 15 customers and It will have20 employees. Acrosss California, many ice cream shops have been replaceed with frozenyogurt shops, whic in turn are stealing some of the traditional Starbuckes crowd. “We definitely feel like, especially at collegre campuses, people will come in to eat, bringy their laptop, hang out,” Ryan said.