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Cold Stone Creamery
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cold Stone Creamery is an ice cream parlor chain based in Scottsdale, Arizona, United States.[1]
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The company was co-founded in 1988 by Susan and Donald Sutherland (unrelated to actor Donald Sutherland), who sought ice cream that was neither hard-packed nor soft-serve. Publicity materials describe it as "smooth and creamy super-premium ice cream." Cold Stone Creamery opened its first store that year in Tempe, Arizona. Originally headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, in 2005 headquarters were relocated to Scottsdale, Arizona.[2]
Cold Stone's name comes from the frozen granite stone used to mix candy, nuts, or other toppings into various flavors of ice creams.
In 1995, Cold Stone Creamery opened its first franchise store in Tucson soon followed by a store in Camarillo, California, its first out of state. Almost 1400 franchises are now in operation. Cold Stone Creamery is now the 6th best-selling brand of ice cream in the U.S. and now operates stores in South Korea, Japan, Puerto Rico, Taiwan and Guam. The company was also named the 11th fastest-growing franchise by Entrepreneur Magazine in January 2006.
In May 2007, Cold Stone Creamery merged with Kahala to form the company Kahala-Cold Stone, which collectively owns 13 brands. Doug Ducey, former president and CEO of Cold Stone Creamery, was named CEO of the new company.[3] Kevin Blackwell, the former CEO of Kahala, became chairman of the board and chief strategist. In September 2007, Ducey announced he was leaving the company.[4] Blackwell was named CEO.[5]
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In the spirit of joviality, and to encourage customers to give tips, Cold Stone instructs employees to sing a Cold Stone song, usually to the tune of recognizable melodies such as "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" or "Bingo", when a customer places money in the tip jar. Lyrics include short, catchy phrases, such as, "This is the ice cream song; it doesn't last you long."
Cold Stone Creamery attempts to present customers with "The Ultimate Ice Cream Experience". Like other franchises, Cold Stone strives to provide similar service at every store by supplying instructional material and training videos to franchise owners.
Its current competitors in the field of premium ice cream (ice cream defined as having more than 12 percent butterfat) include Baskin-Robbins, Carvel, MaggieMoo's (opened in 1989) and Marble Slab Creamery (opened in 1983).[6] The competitors have a significant foothold in the American market with 1400 franchises in the United States but Cold Stone Creamery was recently rated 14th on Entrepreneur magazine's ranking of the top 600 franchise opportunities (ahead of its competitors).
All ice cream creations are offered in three sizes: "Like It" (5 oz), "Love It" (8 oz), and "Gotta Have It" (12 oz). There is also a kids' size (3 oz).
"Cold Stone Signature Creations" are recipes that include the ice cream and mix-ins of any given "Signature Creation."[7] Customers may also choose to alter the Signature Creation if they prefer, by substituting the ice cream it is made with, or one or more of the mix-ins. If a customer does not want a Signature Creation, he or she may choose his or her own tailor-made ice cream creation by picking both the ice cream and mix-ins. To top off the ice cream, customers have a selection of waffle bowls or cones, either plain, dipped in chocolate, or dipped in chocolate and sprinkled with almonds, or rainbow sprinkles. Dipped waffles coated in butterfinger or coconut flakes, or crushed Skittles may also be available. In 2007 Brando Theis, of the Balboa Peninsula Cold Stone, crafted the first Soy cone. In the southern California it was an instant success. Other Cold Stones nearby are picking up on this new soy cone trend. The soy cone is attracting interest in the Midwest because people there are trying to support the soybean farmers. In that area the soy cones are being advertised as "locally processed with local soybeans."
Cold Stone offers a variety of smoothies and shakes, in "Like It" (12 oz) and "Love It" (20 oz) sizes as well as "Original" shake creations such as "Cake N' Shake" which is cake batter ice cream mixed with yellow cake. Cold Stone smoothies are made using Sinless Smoothie Sorbet, essentially a flavorless base sugar and ice. A relatively recent addition to the Cold Stone smoothie menu is the Dew Iced, made with Mountain Dew syrup.
Kevin Blackwell and his family utilize a Pilatus PC-12 for business and leisure travel.
- ^ Duff, Mike. "Target, Cold Stone Creamery sign in-store deal.", RetailNet.com, 2006-05-06. Retrieved on 2006-06-13.
- ^ The Cold Stone Creamery Story. ColdStoneCreamery. Retrieved on 2007-09-12.
- ^ Kahala and Cold Stone Creamery merge creating new category of franchising company (May 11, 2007). Retrieved on 2007-10-10.
- ^ Ryan Randazzo (September 15, 2007). Kahala-Cold Stone CEO leaving job after 12 years. The Arizona Republic. Retrieved on 2007-10-10.
- ^ Kahala•Cold Stone Names New Chief Executive Officer. QSR Magazine (17 September 2007). Retrieved on 2007-10-10.
- ^ Kate Murphy (October 26, 2006). Slabs Are Joining Scoops in Ice Cream Retailing. New York Times. Retrieved on 2007-09-12.
- ^ Signature Creations. ColdStoneCreamery.com. Retrieved on 2007-09-12.