It’s been a hot summer across much of Canada, but that’s cold comfort for ice cream truck operators like Meedo Falou, who says inflation and high fuel costs are melting away his profits.
On a sweltering Thursday morning, the owner of Rainbow Ice Cream in Coquitlam, British Columbia, is poring over a computer spreadsheet and talking to drivers about their routes.
Some flavors are in short supply, and Falu is focusing on the efficiency of his 10-truck fleet.
The problem isn’t just high gas prices, Falu said.
“Support has gone up. Truck parts went up in price. Mechanical parts have become more expensive,” he said in an interview.
“Ice cream is up over 60 percent. We had to raise the price by a dollar. We couldn’t do more because of the users. We just want them to be able to afford ice cream.”
Steve Christensen, executive director of the North American Ice Cream Association, said vendors face a number of challenges.
“Gas prices are up,” Christensen said, speaking from Missouri. “So a lot of everything — cones, cups, different things — anything that has to be trucked in has gone up in price as well.”
Lots of challenges
Ice cream prices typically rise three to five percent a year, Christensen said. But he said prices are up 10 to 15 percent this year, although that may not be across the menu.
Falu said he tried to keep prices under control.
“In this business, you don’t make money from just one number,” he said. “You also earn from volumes. Want [people] to be able to afford to buy ice cream from the ice cream truck. I don’t want to give a bad impression that the ice cream truck is so expensive, you know.”
Falu hopes to “earn quite a bit” without having to dip into her savings like she did during the last two years of the pandemic.
It’s been a tough year, said Fallow, who closes Rainbow Ice Cream from late September through April each year.
“We were hit by bad weather in the spring. This was the wettest time in June. So it affects our sales significantly. And definitely the profit is much smaller than previous years.”
Like everything else, the price of ice cream has increased at a much faster rate than normal this year. (Nina Westervelt/Bloomberg)
It’s not just the local time. Global climate events are also affecting the ice cream business, Christensen said.
For example, Madagascar provides about 70 percent of the world’s vanilla, and when there is a storm there or a short flowering season, it affects the world market.
“Which again, you know, affects the ice cream,” he said.
The Curse of “Ghost Kitchens”
Christensen said old-school ice cream truck vendors also have to deal with new challenges, such as delivery apps and competitors in so-called “ghost kitchens” that don’t have a storefront but sell ice cream online.
“Overheads [for a ghost kitchen] it is very cheap. They use social media to promote their ice cream, sell it online and people come to pick it up from the kitchen or on location.”
Fallu started driving an ice cream truck in the 1990s, which he calls the “golden days” of the business. He said he made a lot more money then.
To overcome the hurdles of apps, weather, gas prices and inflation, Falu said he hopes to see a return to corporate events and other scheduled bookings that were curtailed during the pandemic but are now returning.
“We really suffered,” he said, shaking his head. “We rely a lot on corporate events, birthdays, parades and weddings and all that. So this year they are starting to make a comeback. Some of them, not all. So hopefully next year we’ll get them all back.”
But gone are the days when an ice cream truck could drive business by just driving around and playing a happy tune, Christensen said.
Trucks should be moving now
“Ice cream truck owners should be looking for catering opportunities, food truck events, going to offices and hospitals and saying, ‘Hey, we can do a corporate event for you,'” he said.
“They have to hustle now a little bit more than they probably ever have before.”
Christensen recalled his first exposure to the ice cream business as a child listening to the traditional clatter of the truck in his native Australia.
“And little Steve Christensen goes and gets some money from mom’s dresser and goes out and buys the cone with the flakes in it,” he said with a laugh.
“I’d like to think people still love those experiences. So the process of helping your local ice cream van, I think, is very important because it keeps those memories alive for kids these days.”
Add Comment