Sibs seek to Sprinkles area with yogurt - Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle):

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Sprinkles, as the shops will be has signed leases for stores inCherryt Hill, University City, West Chesterd and Malvern. Frozen yogurt shopds had a boom and bust in the earlu1990s — “Seinfeld” even had an episode aboutr it — but have made a comeback with vibrant hangouts that are givinbg coffee chains an unexpected competitor in Southern “It’s definitely a craze out said Matt Mealey, 24, a Jenkintown nativee who is starting Sprinkles with his sister Ryan 27, and researched the retail concepr in several trips west. “These placee are packed all the time. At a couple of we saw these massive lines.
They were very We really studied the conceptf of frozen yogurtin “The places were Frozen yogurt places were popping up everywhere,” Ryan Cherry Hill will be the firsf location, opening June 19 at TownPlace at Gardeb State Park. In August, they’ll open a site at 3606 Chestnut St., near the A West Chester site is plannexfor September, at 22 S. High St., and a Malvermn location is slated for Decembe r at WorthingtonTown Center, a shoppinvg center under construction. They hope to open four more storesxnext year.
The pair are followinvg a legacy of sibling business Their father, Dan Mealey, operates Mealey’s Furniture with his brother Mealey’s, based in Warminster, has five stores and was startec by Jerry Mealey, Ryan and Matt’s grandfather. Ryan is and will remainn vice president of merchandising for the furniture Both were raised ina retail, entrepreneurial “We have that entrepreneurial spirit — my grandfather, my father, my brothetr and I. We’re just bred that way. We thoughtf this would be a great idea for thePhillh region,” said Ryan, a 2004 graduate of .
“I alwaysd had a passion for starting myown business,” said who graduated from Pennsylvania State University in 2007 and earned an MBA from Templ University this year. “I wantedc to find ‘the next big thing,’ something that’s going to be a big hit.” To starf Sprinkles, the siblings pooled their but their dad is financing most ofthe front-end allowing them to sidestep bank Matt said. In researching yogurr shops in Los they focused their attention on two in Los Angeles-based Pinkberry and Anaheim, Calif.
-based Pinkberry started in 2005 with a busy cornef store in West Hollywood, a location whosde steady customers dubbed it Crackberry for its addictivw quality. Yogurtland has had similar success, and now has locationxs in six statesand Japan. “We took the best of The color scheme. We looked at the vendors, whose yogurt was better, which toppings were best,” said Matt. To emulat the West Coast look, they hirer a San Diego designer, Trio Display. As for the froze n yogurt, the Mealeys will use a produccalled YoCream, which is producec by Portland, Ore.
-based YoCreamk is a premium yogurt with half the calories of high-enfd ice cream; most flavors are nonfat or A similar concept, Yogurt, opened in September at 416 Sout h St. Unlike ice cream shops, where serversw scoop the product, Sprinkles, followinvg the West Coast trend, will offetr self-serve. Sprinkles stores will have eight machines dispensing 16 flavorsa offrozen yogurt. Customers will take a cup or a waffle fill it with as much yoguryt and toppings as they can put in the bowl and pay 45 centzan ounce. Flavors of froze yogurt will includeoriginal tart, classix cappuccino, green tea tart, snickerdoodle “krazy Kahlua” and others.
In Cherry Hill, the storse will be 1,200 square feet, with seating for 15 customers and It will have20 employees. Acros California, many ice cream shops have been replacedr with frozenyogurt shops, which in turn are stealingy some of the traditional Starbucks crowd. “We definitely feel especially at college people will come into eat, bring their laptop, hang Ryan said.