Three Twins Ice Cream Growing Organically

CHIEF TALK

CEOS TELL HOW TECHNOLOGY is TRANSFORMING THEIR BUSINESSES

INTERVIEW BY LEE LUSARDI CONNOR

THREE TWINS ICE CREAM: GROWING ORGANICALLY

FIERCE IDEALISM CRACKS A CROWDED MARKET

Does the world really need another highend specialty ice cream? Maybe not. But it defi nitely wants one, as Neal Gottlieb has proven over the past 10 years while building Three Twins Ice Cream. Made of certifi ed organic ingredients, sourced from local family farms, the Petaluma, California-based company has two factories, 100 employees and fi ve scoop shops, and is sold in 3,000 locations across the United States Gottlieb’s goal is to be as ubiquitous as brands like Ben & Jerry’s or Häagen Dazs. Here, he shares what he’s learned so far:

Make a plan to set your brand apart.

In the ice cream category—as with any food category—one thing you’ll never see is an empty grocery store shelf just waiting for your product. Our initial differentiator was that we were a certifi ed organic product with no stabilizers.

However, not that many people care solely about being consumers of organic ice cream—they’re not going to buy it en masse, at scale, if it doesn’t taste good. So our real differentiator is to be “inconceivably delicious.”

Each fl avor has our own stamp, our own little twist. For example, for our confetti mint with dark chocolate fl avor, instead of using hard, waxy chocolate chips, we take Italian dark chocolate that we melt in a proprietary system and inject as fl ecks into the ice cream. Because our fl avors are unique, people ask for Three Twins ice cream by name.

Find creative ways to send your message.

When we started 10 years ago, there wasn’t any social media. In the beginning, we did things to get attention, like building the world’s biggest ice cream sundae in a bathtub. Right after we opened, Hurricane Katrina happened. We did a “name your own price” promotion where every penny we made went to an environmental nonprofi t. It was an opportunity to say we’re not only here, we exist, but we also really care.

If you’re supporting a cause—such as giving away 1 percent of sales to land trust and environmental non-profi ts, as we do—tell people about it. If you don’t tell them, they won’t know, but if you do, they will buy more and tell friends to buy it. Ultimately, this will benefi t the company much more than blowing a lot of money on television or radio ads.

Pay well.

A lot of companies cry poverty as they’re growing, but they’re only hurting themselves. I learned early on to pay competitively for talent. If people can go elsewhere and make signifi cantly more money, the fact that you’re a fun and fostering company to work for only goes so far.

Use technology to help your company grow.

Be bold when going up against the big guys.

When we went to move into selling in grocery stores, we made a minimal investment, maybe a few hundred pints a week, and about $2,000 to get labels done.

Then we couldn’t keep up with the orders. We were oversold, and scrambling, and we weren’t keeping good track of our inventory. We were tying up huge amounts of cash, not ordering the right packaging. Now we use All Orders inventory software, a QuickBooks add-on that streamlines ordering, inventory, work orders and so on. It has totally changed the business. Even though ice cream is by nature a lowtech business, we knew that we couldn’t grow without upping our tech game.

Years ago Ben & Jerry’s was leading the way with hormonefree ice cream and supporting social and environmental causes, but now they’re owned by a big corporation and they’ve left a void for ice cream companies like Three Twins. We recently put out two very Twins. We recently put out two very popular fl avors, Banana Nut Confetti popular fl avors, Banana Nut Confetti and Cherry Chocolate Chunk [ed. note: [ed. note: similar to Ben & Jerry’s popular Chunky similar to Ben & Jerry’s popular Chunky Monkey and Cherry Garcia fl avors]. Monkey and Cherry Garcia fl avors]. We thought it would be fun and show We thought it would be fun and show people that we are out Ben-and-Jerrying people that we are out Ben-and-Jerrying Ben & Jerry’s; our ice creams are certifi ed organic. People got very excited certifi ed organic. People got very excited about it and it got a lot of coverage. It about it and it got a lot of coverage. It sent a message through the media that sent a message through the media that there’s a new kid on the block.

our quality assurance process. your process. When you go from making ice cream in one small freezer to having two manufacturing plants, you gain a huge amount of knowledge along the way—but you have to make sure your employees have that knowledge too, and are acting on it.

Overall, the market continues to move toward organic food. The trend is to go toward more local, more artisanal products that have accountability in sourcing, and that’s helping us.

We sent a message through the media that there’s a new kid on the block.

—NEAL GOTTLIEB

You can never let your guard down.

This year, we saw both Blue Bell and Jeni’s ice creams recalling products because of listeria. I don’t think that news helped anybody in the ice cream industry. We have defi nitely taken the opportunity to review every aspect of our quality assurance process. The message is not to get complacent in any aspect of your organization, and to continually improve your process. When you go from making ice cream in one small freezer to having two manufacturing plants, you gain a huge amount of knowledge along the way—but you have to make sure your employees have that knowledge too, and are acting on it. Overall, the market continues to move toward organic food. The trend is to go toward more local, more artisanal products that have accountability in sourcing, and that’s helping us.