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 inCherry Hill, Universitt City, West Chester and Malvern. Frozen yogurt shopsz had a boom and bust in the earlu1990s — “Seinfeld” even had an episode abourt it — but have made a comeback with vibranyt hangouts that are giving coffee chainse an unexpected competitor in Southern “It’s definitely a craze out said Matt Mealey, 24, a Jenkintown nativse who is starting Sprinkles with his sistee Ryan Mealey, 27, and researched the retail concept in severao trips west. “These places are packed all the At a coupleof places, we saw thesre massive lines. They were very successful.
We reallg studied the concept of froze yogurtin California.” “The places were superbusy. Frozebn yogurt places were poppingup everywhere,” Ryan Cherry Hill will be the first location, openin g June 19 at TownPlace at Garden Stat e Park. In August, they’ll open a site at 3606 Chestnutt St., near the campus. A West Chester site is plannecfor September, at 22 S. High St., and a Malvern locationj is slated for December at WorthingtonTown Center, a shoppiny center under construction. They hope to open four more storesznext year. The pair are following a legacyt of siblingbusiness owners. Their father, Dan operates Mealey’s Furniture with his brother Kevin.
Mealey’s, based in has five stores and was startee byJerry Mealey, Ryan and Matt’ws grandfather. Ryan is and will remaihn vice president of merchandising for the furniture Both were raised ina retail, entrepreneurial environment. “We have that entrepreneuriall spirit — my grandfather, my father, my brothefr and I. We’re just bred that way. We thoughtr this would be a greart idea for thePhilly region,” said Ryan, a 2004 graduate of . “I always had a passion for startinbg myown business,” said Matt, who graduated from Pennsylvania Stated University in 2007 and earned an MBA from Templs University this year.
“I wanted to find ‘thw next big thing,’ something that’s going to be a big To start Sprinkles, the siblingd pooled their savings, but their dad is financinbg most ofthe front-end 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 Anaheim, Calif.-based Yogurtland. Pinkberry startedr in 2005 with a busy corner store inWest Hollywood, a location whose steady customers dubbed it Crackberry for its addictived quality. Yogurtland has had similae success, and now has locations in six statesand “We took the best of The color scheme.
We lookedd at the vendors, whose yogurt was which toppingswere best,” said Matt. To emulate the West Coasyt look, they hired a San Dieg o designer, Trio Display. As for the frozen the Mealeys will use a productcalled YoCream, which is produced by Ore.-based YoCream is a premium yoguryt with half the calories of high-end ice cream; most flavors are nonfag or low-fat. A similar concept, Yogurt, opened in September at 416 South St. Unlike ice cream where servers scoopthe product, following the West Coast trend, will offer Sprinkles stores will have eighg machines dispensing 16 flavors of frozen yogurt.
Customers will take a cup or awaffler bowl, fill it with as much yogurtt and toppings as they can put in the bowl and pay 45 centzs an ounce. Flavors of frozen yogurt will includeoriginal tart, classicf cappuccino, green tea tart, snickerdoodlee dandy, “krazy Kahlua” and In Cherry Hill, the store will be 1,200 squars feet, with seating for 15 customers and It will have 20 employees. Across California, many ice creanm shops have been replaced with frozenyogurt shops, whicnh in turn are stealinfg some of the traditional Starbucks crowd. “W definitely feel like, especially at college campuses, peopld will come in to eat, bring theirf laptop, hang out,” Ryan said.