Boulder – Its products come mainly in small dishes or cones, but that doesn’t stop Boulder’s Glacier Ice Cream from having big ambitions.
The 5-year-old ice cream business found success selling its “artisan” ice cream, the same niche as Ben & Jerry’s, Cold Stone Creamery and other sellers of what the industry calls “super premium” ice creams.
Success for Glacier isn’t being measured in how rapidly it expands but in the quality of the cold scoops it dishes out, said Mark Mallen, the company’s president.
“We’re looking to make the best ice cream in the country, not just Boulder,” he said.
Mallen came to Boulder from Iowa looking for a business opportunity. He opened Glacier after realizing no local ice cream shop made its own.
Glacier now has two Boulder stores, a cart serving ice cream on the Pearl Street Mall and a location inside a Colorado Springs Whole Foods store.
Glacier plans its fourth Boulder location to be the largest ice cream store in Colorado. The company leased the former Healthy Habits restaurant space, located at the edge of the Meadows Shopping Center, and expects to open a 3,200-square-foot store there – complete with a coffee bar, lounge seating and a children’s play area – by mid-January.
Offers have been made to franchise Glacier and open stores in Las Vegas, Southern California and Phoenix or eventually grow it nationwide, Mallen said. The company is being cautious not to overextend itself or to be anything other than a Boulder-based business.
The focus of the company, which counts artists and trained chefs among its ice cream makers, is to surprise and delight customers with fresh and inventive flavors.
Glacier produces at least one new flavor every week. A recent show stopper was a raspberry sorbet blended with Tahitian vanilla gelato.
The business has offered more than 400 flavors since it started and keeps about 60 in production at its stores at any given time.
Mallen says Glacier won’t skimp on ingredients, choosing things like fresh hazelnut paste instead of liquid extract or making its own chocolate for some flavors.
The strategy means its ice creams are more expensive to make than many other ice cream sellers.’
But people buy ice cream as a treat and rewarding them with the most luxurious flavor possible is good for business, Mallen said.
About two-thirds of the 17,000 ice cream shops in the United States are independent stores and a majority of those produce their own products, according to the National Ice Cream Retailers Association.
Super-premium ice cream sellers have experienced the biggest sales growth in the ice cream industry recently, said Lynda Utterback, the association’s executive director.
“I think when people decide to go off their diet and treat themselves, they want something that’s very good,” she said.
