After closing last October, CherryBerry Springfield reopened on May 10 in the same location with the same ownership. However, owner Jeff Cash said the difference is that he has now moved to Illinois so that he will be able to personally manage the store, located at 2671 Chatham Road.
“I’ve always owned it; my sister and my son managed it when it first opened back in 2011,” said Cash, who was living in Tulsa, Oklahoma, until recently moving to Springfield. The CherryBerry franchise is based out of Oklahoma and now has nearly two dozen stores nationwide, including Decatur and Fairview Heights, Illinois.
“I wanted to come back and run it for a little bit and see how it goes,” explained Cash, who retired last year from a career in law enforcement. “But I’ve never worked at CherryBerry, so I have to get my feet wet.”
Cash said he was fortunate to be able to rehire many of the previous employees. “Some of my really good high school and college kids came back; they actually know more about certain things than I do. They had to show me how to work the cash register.”
Cash’s sister who was previously managing the store, Denise Hlad, cited declining sales in an interview with SBJ shortly before the location closed last fall. Cash said the other major change to the business is that it will close during the winter months. “We’re probably going to remain a seasonal store, unless the business is really good.”
For now, CherryBerry Springfield is operating on a limited schedule to allow Cash time to finish moving his family to join him in Illinois and get settled in. However, he anticipates quickly resuming the previous hours of operation.
“Everything should be back to normal within the next couple of weeks,” he said.
