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Competing with the big boys Ice cream company sells Northwest products nationwide By DREW DeSILVER The Associated Press EUGENE -- The east wall of Tom Gleason's office could be an ice-cream fanatic's dearest fantasy come true. Five long shelves are stuffed with dozens of pints and half-gallons ("rounds" and "squares" in the industry parlance) in a saliva-inducing profusion of brands and flavors. Dutch Girl's Death By Chocolate. Kodiak Island Fudge from Denali Alaskan Classics. Mount St. Helens Mud Pie by Cascade Avalanche. Cascade Glacier's Northwest Hazelnut & Chocolate or Oregon Cherry Indulgence. For the more health-conscious, if no less indulgent, there's Julie's Organic Fudge Brownie and Mocha Java, not to mention a whole line of Seattle Sorbets -- Blackberry Cabernet, Blueberry Zinfandel, Raspberry Merlot and more -- that might seem more at home in a wine cellar than in the freezer. It's almost too much, even after you know the cartons are all empty. But even as props, the display tells you a lot about Cascade Glacier Ice Cream LLC, the company in west Eugene that Gleason heads and that markets all those different brands. Four years ago, when it was Dutch Girl Ice Cream Co., the company churned out about 3 million gallons of ice cream a year. It made three lines of ice cream (along with ice milk and frozen yogurt) and sold them almost entirely through independent grocers in Oregon. This year, Gleason, 43, said he expects production volume to hit 5 million gallons, as he and his management team lead their battalion of brands and phalanx of flavors into the national ice cream wars. They're betting that the way to survive against the Dreyer's and Haagen-Dazses of the world is to hit as many segments of the highly fractured frozen-dessert industry as possible. "You can't outspend the big guy, but you can outmaneuver him," Gleason said. "If you're a small company with limited resources, you look for opportunities that are in market segments that are too small for those companies to spend money on, but are still significant enough that you can be efficient and produce a high-quality product at a given price point." With its strong Northwest iconography, Cascade Glacier might seem a tough sell to shoppers in Atlanta or Miami. But, Gleason insisted, the opposite is true. "The Northwest sells, man," he exclaimed. "Where do you think all our tourists come from?" Gleason readily acknowledged that manufacturing close to a dozen brands in multiple grades -- not to mention non-ice creams like frozen yogurt and the rice-based confection -- is less efficient and more expensive than sticking with one or two product lines. But, he says, that's what the company must do to survive in today's chilly ice cream market. "You've got to come up with something with market appeal, but you can't come out with something that's the same as one of the nationals," Gleason said. "They have so much money, they can just come into your market and promote you off the shelves." The new owners have pumped money into the company. Cascade Glacier has spent nearly $1.5 million on an expansion of the 45-year-old ice cream plant's production area. Completed last year, the upgrade doubled the plant's capacity, to nine million gallons a year. With another couple of million dollars of investment, Gleason said, Cascade Glacier's plant could produce as much as 20 million gallons annually. After taking over, Gleason sold Dutch Girl's frozen-food distribution business, but kept another division that leases and services juice machines and other beverage-dispensing equipment. What is now Cascade Dispensing Systems should do $7 million to $8 million in sales this year, he said, compared to $2 million four years ago. As for the firm's core business, Gleason expects to sell $14 million to $15 million worth of ice cream this year. Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA