- Dreyer's
-
Not to be confused with Breyers.
Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream Holdings, Inc. 
Type Subsidiary Industry Foods Founded 1928 Headquarters Oakland, California, USA Key people Mike Mitchell, CEO Revenue 
$1.588 billion USD (2004)Employees ~10000 (2008) Parent Nestlé Website www.dreyers.com 
Dreyer's headquarters in Oakland
Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream Holdings, Inc., a subsidiary of Nestlé, is a United States-based producer of ice cream and frozen yogurt had originated in 1928 as Edy's Grand Ice Cream, a Northern California business under a partnership of Joseph Edy and William Dreyer. In 1947 the partnership dissolved. In 1953, William Dreyer, Jr. took over and changed the name from Edy's Grand Ice Cream to Dreyer's Grand. In 1981, the company expanded and re-adopted the name Edy's Grand Ice Cream when marketing its product east of the Rocky Mountains, so as to not be confused with another company named Breyers.[1][2] Hence they market under the Dreyer's name in the Western United States and Texas, and under the Edy's name in the Eastern and Midwestern United States.[3]
The two brand names honor the company's founders: Joseph Edy, a confectioner,[4] and William Dreyer, an ice cream maker. Joseph Edy was born in Missouri and raised in Montana. In the 1920s, he and his wife Grace decided to join his brother in California. In 1925, Joseph Edy opened the doors to Edy's Character Candies Shop in Oakland, California. Edy's high-quality candy quickly became recognized as among the best in the East Bay area, and Edy was soon operating six shops. Also in the 1920s, William Dreyer had an ice cream manufacturing venture in the California dairy country community in Visalia. In 1926 he was recruited to run a large new plant in Oakland for National Ice Cream. In Oakland he met Joe Edy.
In 1928, Edy and Dreyer decided to join forces to manufacture high-quality ice cream. They secured a small factory and launched Edy's Grand Ice Cream (the "Grand" reflected their street address on Grand Avenue in Oakland). They focused on creative innovations to fuel their small venture. For example, the two men used Joseph Edy’s knowledge and expertise in candy-making to create the original Rocky Road ice cream, from a combination of flavors which Edy had previously invented. The chocolate, marshmallow and nut flavor was named Rocky Road as a means of describing the ice cream’s texture as well as the troubled economic times of the Great Depression. Edy and Dreyer are also credited with originating the Toasted Almond and Candy Mint flavors. At the time ice cream had limited flavors such as vanilla, chocolate and strawberry, but Rocky Road, introduced in 1929, was one of the first combination of flavors. Because only large marshmallows were manufactured at the time, he used his wife’s sewing scissors to cut marshmallows into bite-sized pieces to make the first batch of Rocky Road. Another flavor called Cookies and Cream, the fifth top-selling U.S. flavor for the last 20 years, was invented by Edy’s employee John Harrison and was the fastest-growing flavor in the history of ice cream.
- 1906 William Dreyer made his first frozen dessert to celebrate his ship's arrival in America from Germany.[5]
- 1981 Dreyer's went public and its shares were traded on NASDAQ under the ticker symbol DRYR. Around this same time, current Dreyer's President Ken Cook went into the vanilla business. Since that time Dreyer's ice cream has been made with Cook's Vanilla which is produced by Cook Flavoring Company.[6]
- 2002 In June Nestlé acquired 67% of Dreyer's.[7] In January 2006 it took full ownership of the company, thus becoming the world's biggest ice cream maker, with a 17.5% market share.[8] Dreyer's has also acquired its own ice cream brands, including the Snelgrove's Ice Cream brand in Utah.
- 2004 Dreyer's began using a new churning processes called low-temperature extrusion.[9] Unlike traditional churning methods, the ice cream does not need to be frozen once it is done churning. Since this freezing stage produces large ice crystals, which gives the ice cream a grainy texture, manufacturers would add milk fat to counterbalance the grainy texture. As this extra freezing process isn't necessary with low-temperature extrusion, the "slow churned" line of ice cream is labeled as containing two-thirds the calories and half the fat of "regular" ice cream. Dreyer's has also extended this process to other brands besides its two flagship brands, such as Häagen-Dazs, which it produces under a license from General Mills.
- 2006 Dreyer's Whiskey Bottom Ice Cream plant in Laurel, Maryland, is expanded to give Dreyer's the two largest ice cream plants in the United States.[10]
Cost-cutting changes
In 2002, Nestlé insisted on a smaller container to increase profits and so the standard US half gallon (2 quarts) container (1.89 L) was down sized to 1.75 quarts (1.65 L) container. In May 2008, the 1.75 quart container was further downsized to 1.5 quarts (1.42 L). Other ice cream manufacturers followed the downsizing move. As of 2008, most of Dreyer's ice cream has been reformulated with cheaper whey or skim milk among the two chief ingredients rather than cream and milk, though both are still present in smaller quantities.[11] These particular flavors are labeled as "frozen dairy dessert" rather than ice cream.
References
- ^ Brown, Paul B., and Kichen, Steve. "The Class of 1983: Breaking the Barriers," Forbes, 7 November 1983, p.168.
- ^ Royall, Roderick. "Ice Cream Wars," Baltimore Business Journal, 28 April 1986, p.1.
- ^ IceCream.com
- ^ Partnering with Dreyer's: Distribution, DreyersInc.com
- ^ About Us: Our History, DreyersInc.com
- ^ About Cook Flavoring Company. CooksVanilla.com
- ^ "Nestle buys US ice cream firm", BBC News, June 17, 2002.
- ^ "Nestle takes world ice cream lead", BBC News, January 19, 2006.
- ^ Moskin, Julia. "Creamy, Healthier Ice Cream? What’s the Catch?", The New York Times, 26 July 2006.
- ^ Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream Manufacturing Facility, Laurel, Maryland, Food Processing Technology
- ^ "New product Wednesday, at Dallas-area stores: Dreyer’s Limited Edition Coconut Pineapple", Pegasus News, August 2008.
External links
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