#Golden halo ice cream how to

Some see it as the type of business that can succeed through the strength of its brand alone. Third parties manufacture and distribute the 25 flavors sold in every major U.S. The staff gets together on a varying schedule at the co-working space and the rest of the time communicates electronically or by smartphone. 'There is literally no reason for us to have our own offices,' said Woolverton, who usually works at home or on the road, as do the rest of his employees. There's no fancy headquarters building filled with hipster offices, just a low-rent co-working space in LA's Fairfax District. The company has stuck close to its frugal beginnings, and the 38-year-old fitness buff sees no reason to change the recipe. Deborah Cours, Cal State Northridge marketing professor and interim dean, on Halo Top ice cream This is a way that small businesses can really be successful. Justin Woolverton, Halo Top founderĬoming up with a longer-lasting formula took Woolverton to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo's Dairy Innovation Institute.

#Golden halo ice cream how to

It took me a year to figure out how to really make ice cream. 'As it sits and goes through truck after truck and different altitudes and all that,' Woolverton said, 'sometimes it didn't hold up well.' There were also formulation problems to rectify, tweaking the proprietary mixture of no-calorie stevia and erythritol in addition to the usual milk, cream and eggs. Persuading a big grocery chain to take your product 'was a totally different world,' he said, 'like what do you even say to a store? I didn't have a background in this.'Īs he landed the new accounts, fresh pressures developed, such as a longer supply and distribution chain. In 2012, Halo Top carved out shelf space in Sprouts, Erewhon and Whole Foods in a cold-call process Woolverton found nerve-racking in spite of his experience as a litigator. In response, Halo Top issued a statement saying only that it had previously received buyout offers and rejected them all.Ī lawsuit forced a name change from the original Eden Creamery to Halo Top, ultimately leading to a better-looking brand, Woolverton said. Reuters reported last month that Halo Top was exploring a sale of the company, citing anonymous sources. That kind of track record draws attention. 'It's crazy that someone can just come into an established industry and do this.' It's a remarkable story,' said John Crawford, vice president of the western dairy region for Chicago-based IRI.

'It didn't happen just once it's sustained. Still, experts consider the conquest a major achievement for a small company. industry with 2016 sales of $6.6 billion, according to Nielsen. To be fair, Halo Top rules just one supermarket category, not counting sales of sherbet or gelato or sizes other than pints, in a U.S. 6, IRI said, Halo Top had sales of $86.9 million, compared with $83.3 million for Ben & Jerry's and $78.6 million for Haagen-Dazs.

It closed the gap with leaders Ben & Jerry's and Haagen-Dazs the next month and landed the top spot in July.