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

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Sprinkles, as the shops will be known, has signer leases for stores inCherry Hill, University City, West Cheste r and Malvern. Frozen yogurt shopss had a boom and bust in the early1990zs — “Seinfeld” even had an episode about it but have made a comeback with vibrant hangoutsd that are giving coffee chains an unexpectef competitor in Southern “It’s definitely a craze out there,” said Matt Mealey, 24, a Jenkintown native who is starting Sprinkles with his sister Ryan Mealey, 27, and researchex the retail concept in several tripws west. “These places are packed all the time. At a couple of we saw these massive lines.
They were very We really studied the concept of frozen yogurtin California.” “Ths places were superbusy. Frozen yogurt placess were poppingup everywhere,” Ryan added. Cherry Hill will be the firs location, opening June 19 at TownPlace at GardenStat Park. In August, they’ll open a site at 3606 Chestnu St., near the campus. A West Chester site is planned for at22 S. High St., and a Malvern locatiohn is slated for December at WorthingtonjTown Center, a shopping cente under construction. They hope to open four more storessnext year. The pair are following a legacyt of siblingbusiness owners.
Their father, Dan Mealey, operates Mealey’s Furniture with his brothedr Kevin. Mealey’s, based in Warminster, has five stores and was started byJerr Mealey, Ryan and Matt’s grandfather. Ryan is and will remaij vice president of merchandising for thefurniturde operation. Both were raised in a retail, entrepreneuriao environment. “We have that entrepreneurial spirit — my grandfather, my my brother and I. We’rwe just bred that way. We thought this would be a great idea for thePhillyh region,” said Ryan, a 2004 graduate of .
“ always had a passion for startingv myown business,” said Matt, who graduates from Pennsylvania State Universit in 2007 and earned an MBA from Templ e University this year. “I wanted to find ‘ther next big thing,’ something that’ s going to be a big hit.” To starf Sprinkles, the siblings pooled their savings, but their dad is financing most ofthe front-ened costs, allowing them to sidestep bank Matt said. In researching yogurt shops in Los they focused their attention on two in Los Angeles-based Pinkberry and Anaheim, Calif.-based Yogurtland.
Pinkberryg started in 2005 with a busy cornefr store inWest Hollywood, a location whose steady customera dubbed it Crackberry for its addictive Yogurtland has had similar and now has locations in six statesx and Japan. “We took the best of The color scheme. We looked at the whose yogurtwas better, which toppings were said Matt. To emulate the West Coast they hired a SanDieglo designer, Trio Display. As for the frozen the Mealeys will use a producttcalled YoCream, which is produced by Portland, Ore.-based YoCreanm is a premium yogurt with half the calories of high-end ice most flavors are nonfat or low-fat. A similafr concept, Yogurt, opened in September at 416 South St.
Unlike ice cream shops, where serverx scoop the product, Sprinkles, following the West Coasr trend, will offer self-serve. Sprinkles stores will have eighy machines dispensing 16 flavors offrozen yogurt. Customerz will take a cup or awaffle bowl, fill it with as much yogurt and toppings as they can put in the bowl and pay 45 centsw an ounce. Flavors of frozen yogurt will include original classic cappuccino, green tea tart, snickerdoodle dandy, “krazt Kahlua” and others.
In Cherrhy Hill, the store will be 1,20p0 square feet, with seating for 15 customers and It will have 20 Across California, many ice cream shops have been replaced with frozen yogurt shops, which in turn are stealing some of the traditionap Starbucks crowd. “We definitely feel especially atcollege campuses, people will come in to eat, brinh their laptop, hang out,” Ryan