To prevent the natural downturns an Italian ice company experiences in the colder months, Philadelphia’s Rosati Ice took its products to school.
Rich Trotter, president of the 102-year-old company, said, “Typically the water ice business makes money in the summer and loses money in the winter, and if the summer is better than the winter, you have a plus season. If not, it’s minus. Either way, you just watch helplessly as profits melt away over the winter.”
To smooth out sales, Trotter, along with his “VP of Great Taste” Al Everetts, decided to reformulate the company’s original product to make it qualify as an acceptable serving of fruit in compliance with the federal school lunch guidelines. Ever since, Rosati Ice has been serving up its 4-oz. cups of Italian ice as a part of school lunch programs.
Starting with the Norristown, Pa., school system, Rosati Ice now sells ices all year long to school systems throughout the U.S.
The program has been so successful that winter sales equaled summer sales this year.
“Don’t get me wrong—2014 was a great summer,” Trotter said. “The weather was perfectly hot, water ice weather. It’s just that with our new business model, Rosati Ice now is a 12-month-a-year business.
“We’ve found a way to make lunch choices more appealing to students of all ages,” he added. “Let’s be honest, more kids will choose a tasty Rosati Italian Ice over skipping eating fruit any day.”
Schools can order several flavors of the school lunch cups, including seasonal favorites like Chillin’ Bat (for Halloween), Swee’Heart (Valentine’s Day) and Luck O’ The Ice (St. Patrick’s Day).
One of Rosati Ice’s most popular flavors in schools, Happy Birthday Ice, with a taste reminiscent of birthday cake, not only has quickly become one of the company’s best sellers, but its fruit-based properties has made it a favorite in-school birthday party treat and substitute for cakes and cupcakes, which many school districts have banned.
Rosati Ice was founded in 1912 by Sam Rosati, an Italian immigrant who made his first Italian ices cranked by hand in the basement of his west Philadelphia home. The company grew and Rosati soon became known as “The King of Water Ice,” selling his ices from horse-drawn wagons throughout the city and at the New Jersey shore. In the mid-50s, the company moved to its current headquarters in Clifton Heights, Pa., and management was taken over by Sam’s daughter Rosemary and her husband Jim Salomone.
In 1997, the company was sold to their son-in-law, Dave Schumacher, and Trotter, who is owner.
Incidentally, founder Sam Rosati invented putting Italian ices into Dixie cups in the 1950s, the company says.
At retail, Rosati Ice is sold at Acme Markets in Party Pails.
