Ice cream, ice cream or ice cream?

The founders of The Fuzzy Peach wanted to give Wilmington a new option when they opened their doors in July 2010. Instead of asking for one scoop or two and a cone or a cup, patrons of The Fuzzy Peach help themselves to as much or as little fat free frozen yogurt as they would like, choosing between flavors like tart, peach, chocolate and red velvet cake — to name a few — or any combination. Moving along in the self-serve line, customers may top their yogurt with sprinkles, coconut, candy pieces and even Captain Crunch – and Girl Scout cookies – while they last). And if there is any room left in their cup after all that, they may scoop up all the fresh fruit — strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, kiwi, mango, watermelon, lychee, cantaloupe and, of course, peaches — their heart desires.

The three co-founders of The Fuzzy Peach, Rocco Quaranto, Wells Struble and Jason Nista graduated from UNCW in 2008. The three lived together in a dorm freshman year and were all on the track team. With business degrees in hand and some money saved, the entrepreneurs opened The Fuzzy Peach two years after graduation.

“We jumped, and we went hard after we knew we had a solid idea,” said Quaranto. He said they were “filling a gap in the market” by opening a frozen yogurt shop, the first of its kind in Wilmington.

The Fuzzy Peach’s second location will open next week in the Oak Landing shopping center in Porter’s Neck. A location downtown is in the works for spring, and a fourth store will be opening in Monkey Junction this summer.

Nista said by next winter they will have even more locations. Leland, Jacksonville, Surf City, Myrtle Beach and Carolina Beach are some of the population centers they are considering. “We leverage the brand by slowly moving outward,” said Quaranto.

Without a loan the three scraped together everything they had, “bootstrapping,” in Struble’s words. With the help of family members, they opened the store in July. “Anything we could save money on we did,” said Quaranto, adding that they refused to sacrifice the quality of their product to save money.

“There was no way to get a loan,” Nista said. “That is going to be the case for anyone our age.” The trio manned all of the hours themselves working 14 hours a day, seven days a week, until September. The Fuzzy Peach currently employs 20 workers in addition to engineers and contractors. “We’re putting Wilmington back to work,” said Quaranto.

In order to afford to open new locations, the owners reinvest all profits into the business. “We don’t pay ourselves,” said Quaranto. Without children to support, the recent college grads continue to live frugally while developing their business.

As a final note, the three each offered their own kernel of wisdom to the young entrepreneur.

“The biggest thing is to just do it,” said Nista.

“Don’t be afraid of no. As your income goes up, don’t raise your standard of living. Extra cash will start to build up and that can be the base for your business,” Struble said.

Quaranto added, “Many people don’t do the research on the location or the idea. ‘Just do it’ after you’ve done your research.”