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

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Sprinkles, as the shops will be known, has signede leases for stores inCherry Hill, University City, West Chestetr and Malvern. Frozen yogurt shopes had a boom and bust in the earlyy1990s — “Seinfeld” even had an episodre about it — but have made a comeback with vibrant hangout s that are giving coffee chains an unexpected competitor in Southernm California. “It’s definitely a craz out there,” said Matt Mealey, 24, a Jenkintown nativse who is starting Sprinkles with his sisterRyan 27, and researched the retail concept in severa l trips west. “These places are packed all the At a coupleof places, we saw these massivee lines.
They were very successful. We reall studied the concept of frozen yogurtin “The places were Frozen yogurt places were popping up everywhere,” Ryan added. Cherrg Hill will be the first opening June 19 at TownPlacre at GardenState Park. In they’ll open a site at 3606 Chestnut St., near the campus. A West Chesterr site is plannedfor September, at 22 S. High St., and a Malvernm location is slated for December at WorthingtojTown Center, a shopping center undet construction. They hope to open four more storednext year. The pair are following a legacy of siblingbusiness owners. Their father, Dan Mealey, operates Mealey’z Furniture with his brother Kevin.
based in Warminster, has five stores and was started by Jerry Ryanand Matt’s grandfather. Ryan is and will remain vice presideny of merchandising for thefurnitured operation. Both were raised in a entrepreneurial environment. “We have that entrepreneuriaol spirit — my grandfather, my father, my brotherd and I. We’re just bred that way. We thoughtt this would be a great idea for thePhillyt region,” said Ryan, a 2004 graduate of . “I always had a passion for starting my own said Matt, who graduated from Pennsylvania Statse University in 2007 and earned an MBA from Templd University this year.
“I wantede to find ‘the next big thing,’ something that’s going to be a big To start Sprinkles, the siblings pooled their but their dad is financing most ofthe front-end allowing them to sidestepp bank financing, Matt said. In researching yogurft shops inLos Angeles, they focusexd their attention on two in particular: Los Angeles-baseed Pinkberry and Anaheim, Calif.-based Yogurtland. Pinkberry started in 2005 with a busy cornef store inWest Hollywood, a locatio n whose steady customers dubbed it Crackberryg for its addictive quality. Yogurtland has had similar and now has locations in six statexand Japan. “We took the best of The color scheme.
We looked at the whose yogurtwas better, which toppings were best,” said To emulate the West Coast look, they hires a San Diego designer, Trio Display. As for the froze yogurt, the Mealeys will use a producgcalled YoCream, which is produced by Portland, Ore.-basefd YoCream is a premium yogurt with half the caloriesa of high-end ice cream; most flavors are nonfatf or low-fat. A similar concept, Yogurt, opened in Septemberr at 416 South St. Unlike ice creamn shops, where servers scoop the product, Sprinkles, followingy the West Coast willoffer self-serve.
Sprinkles stores will have eight machines dispensing 16 flavors of frozen 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 cent san ounce. Flavors of frozem yogurt will includeoriginal tart, classif cappuccino, green tea tart, snickerdoodlde dandy, “krazy Kahlua” and others. In Cherry Hill, the stor e will be 1,200 square with seating for 15 customersand WiFi. It will have 20 Across California, many ice cream shops have been replaced with frozejyogurt shops, which in turn are stealing some of the traditionalo Starbucks crowd.
“We definitely feel like, especially at college campuses, peoplse will come in to eat, bring their laptop, hang out,” Ryan said.