C
Natural
hoice/Fruit Bars
21%
Total U.S., 52 weeks ending Sept 6, 2008
t
t
Today Julie’s and Alden’s are literally licking the competition. Combined,
hese two brands represent more than 40 percent of the natural ice cream nov-elties sold in 2008 according to SPINS data—ranking above Ben & Jerry’s,
Dreyer’s and Häagen-Dazs.
Another key part of the company’s growth comes from helping others bring
heir ice cream dreams to life. From formulation to distribution, Gleason has
worked with close to 20 different partners, from Green and
Black’s to Safeway, producing
over 400 items at his plant
through various co-packing,
private label—and most recently, licensing—agreements.
After supplying frozen yogurt
to Jamba Juice for years, Oregon Ice Cream Company just
signed a deal to create a Jamba
Juice-branded product slated
to hit supermarket freezers this
fall. Details are still under
wraps (or wrappers).
With all this combined, plus the foodservice side of Gleason’s other ice
cream brand, Cascade Glacier—Gleason has grown Oregon Ice Cream
Company from $11 million in sales to over $50 million. “And that is half way to
$100 million,” Gleason said optimistically.
From SPINS
Häagen-Dazs
4%
Dreyer’s
8%
Happy
Indulgence
6%
Ben & Jerry’s
4%
Repr
Top 50 Novelties-Natural
esenting 80 percent of entire novelty category sales
t
Putting the Sprinkles on Top—Establishing Points of
Difference
When creating new products, Gleason and his team come to the table with
wo types of products in mind—either complete decadence or healthy indulgence. The focus on decadence resulted in the first line of Julie’s super-premium ice cream, an organic version of Häagen-Dazs. Ironically, the
inspiration for creating such a product was the fact that even after buying up
his own ice cream factory, Gleason would still find his wife Julie hiding the
aforementioned competitors product in their freezer. So Gleason set out to
make something even better.
The second area, healthy indulgence, however, is where most of today’s
product innovation is concentrated. “We have become known as the natural
and organic choice with an extra healthful twist,” he said.
Whether it’s low-fat or full-fat, the quality of the company’s products comes
down to investing in two major points of differentiation, according to Gleason—better processing and better ingredients.
Experienced People + Better Ingredients = Innovative
Products
If ingredients are the building blocks for innovation, then the R&D team
members are the architects—and Gleason spared no expense getting the best
of both. From the beginning, Gleason has worked hard to recruit the best food
scientists in the ice cream industry. Currently there are two food scientists on
staff who, along with many of the other ice cream experts employed, honed
their skills working for the likes of Ben & Jerry’s, Cold Stone Creamery and
Schwan’s. While Gleason is the visionary, these experts are the masterminds
behind many of the company’s latest
creations.
One of the biggest sellers is the new
prebiotic/probiotic frozen yogurt
which is sold under the Julie’s brand in
pints with several flavors, including
lemon, coconut, cinnamon apple and
chocolate, just to name a few. The company also produces a bar version of this
product, which has been specially developed in a club-sized pack for
Costco’s Kirkland brand and is said to
be flying off the shelves.
With this product, Gleason’s food
scientists found a way to add in the six
most important bacteria to help aid in
digestion (probiotics), as well food for
the existing bacteria to help it regenerate on its own (prebiotics). Another
difference is that the yogurt is actually
cultured. Gleason said that most frozen
“yogurts” are nothing more than “ice
cream with a gallon bucket of bugs
dumped in right before it is
processed.” In contrast, Gleason said
Julie’s frozen yogurt is made from
scratch—going through the full
process of making yogurt by cooking it
and letting it culture naturally.
Another reason why Julie’s frozen
yogurt tastes better is because rather
than going no-fat, they only went low-fat, keeping the product at about 4 percent. “When you take all the fat out,
you are forced to replace the solids
with other ‘stuff,’” Gleason commented. This “stuff” includes everything from maltodextrin, which leaves
an aftertaste, to rice syrup, which has
proteins that can start to oxidize and
affect the flavor. Even with higher fat,
Julie’s yogurt only has 130 calories per
serving, which is about half the calories
of most ice creams.
Gluten-free is another area where
many manufacturers—who are brave
enough to even attempt it—fail to
merge full flavor and functionality. So
when creating Julie’s latest product, a
