February 12, 2007

Baskin & Robbins

And the men behind the brand are...
Burton Baskin & Irvine Robbins

Irvine Robbins grew up on his father’s dairy farm outside Tacoma, Washington. He helped process and sell the milk, ice cream and other products. When it came time to count up the profits each month Irvine saw that the real profits were not coming in selling to groceries and drugstores but from sales made from the family’s little store in a Tacoma alley known as “Court C.”

With the end of World War II Robbins remembered his lessons from the farm and set up his own ice cream shop. Robbins, then 27, opened the Snowbird ice cream store in Glendale, California. Down the road in Pasadena his brother-in-law Burton Baskin started another store in 1946. The goal was to make $75 a week and have some fun.

The early years forged the business philosophy that would weld into Baskin-Robbins when the two became partners shortly thereafter:
sell nothing but ice cream and offer a vast array of fun-to-choose flavors. Baskin-Robbins sold nothing but ice cream and sold it only in their shops.
And they sold it even in the winter.

Soon there were eight stores and sales were booming but the partners had no money. They decided to sell the stores to the managers; the company would supply the ice cream and merchandising ideas. The formula worked. Baskin and Robbins collected the payments and concentrated on the ice cream.

Baskin and Robbins inaugurated a rotating stable of 31 flavors, one for each day of the month. They had hundreds of exotic flavors to choose from.
The names were as appealing as the flavors. When the Dodgers arrived in Los Angeles from Brooklyn in 1958 they were welcomed by baseball-nut ice cream: raspberries (for “razzing” the umpires) and cashews (for peanuts in the bleachers) mixed into vanilla (the all-time winning flavor). Lunar cheesecake ice cream commemorated the first moon landing in 1969.

All flavors were subject to a test panel. Not all flavors survived the scrutiny. Goody Goody Gumdrop - a seemingly ideal Baskin-Robbins fun combination of gum drops and ice cream - was withdrawn because of its tiny tooth-threatening frozen gumdrops. Ketchup ice cream and lox and bagels were allowed to quietly melt in the lab.

In 1967 Baskin and Robbins sold their company for $20,000,000.
Burton Baskin died suddenly only six months later but Robbins carried on with the business. When Baskin-Robbins’s 31 Flavors celebrated its 31st birthday in 1976 the 1600 stores had a flavorful roster of over 500 flavors to choose from.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

ralph lauren, birkin bag, babyliss, reebok shoes, p90x workout, nfl jerseys, abercrombie and fitch, soccer jerseys, nike air max, jimmy choo shoes, north face outlet, beats by dre, valentino shoes, insanity workout, hollister, nike huarache, timberland boots, mac cosmetics, new balance, north face outlet, lancel, louboutin, chi flat iron, ray ban, vans, instyler, lululemon, baseball bats, mcm handbags, nike roshe, iphone cases, ferragamo shoes, hollister, nike air max, longchamp, bottega veneta, asics running shoes, ghd, wedding dresses, mont blanc, soccer shoes, nike trainers, herve leger, celine handbags, converse outlet, giuseppe zanotti, hollister, gucci, oakley, vans shoes

Unknown said...

moncler, supra shoes, moncler, ugg,ugg australia,ugg italia, doudoune canada goose, canada goose uk, canada goose outlet, karen millen, louis vuitton, canada goose, ugg,uggs,uggs canada, swarovski crystal, canada goose, sac louis vuitton pas cher, pandora jewelry, moncler, moncler outlet, canada goose outlet, moncler, pandora charms, louis vuitton, thomas sabo, montre pas cher, louis vuitton, moncler, louis vuitton, juicy couture outlet, marc jacobs, bottes ugg, toms shoes, swarovski, juicy couture outlet, moncler, pandora charms, links of london, moncler, coach outlet, hollister, replica watches, ugg pas cher, canada goose, ugg boots uk, wedding dresses, pandora jewelry, canada goose

Unknown said...

ugg boots, nike air max, replica watches, louis vuitton outlet, air jordan pas cher, prada outlet, oakley sunglasses, replica watches, longchamp outlet, nike free, oakley sunglasses, louis vuitton outlet, ray ban sunglasses, polo ralph lauren outlet, louis vuitton, louis vuitton, tory burch outlet, christian louboutin outlet, nike air max, prada handbags, louboutin outlet, cheap oakley sunglasses, chanel handbags, kate spade outlet, longchamp, nike free, ray ban sunglasses, polo ralph lauren outlet, nike roshe run, tiffany and co, michael kors, uggs on sale, ralph lauren pas cher, sac longchamp, jordan shoes, oakley sunglasses, tiffany jewelry, louis vuitton, nike outlet, louboutin pas cher, gucci outlet, longchamp pas cher, ray ban sunglasses, longchamp outlet, louboutin, oakley sunglasses, air max, louboutin shoes, burberry, ugg boots