Full transcript of How Handel’s Ice Cream Stays Fresh — Jennifer Schuler — episode 335 of the Restaurant Technology Guys podcast, with Jennifer Schuler, Handel’s Homemade Ice Cream. Speaker labels preserved; lightly edited for readability.
What this episode covers. Jennifer Schuler on how Handel’s has kept quality consistent while growing well past its 1945 origins in Youngstown, Ohio, where Alice Handel started it. The conversation is about what happens to a beloved brand as it scales: 28 flavours available every day, franchisees who increasingly drive the brand forward, patios and softball leagues and the community role a scoop shop plays, and what the team does when a location does slip. Jennifer is candid about not wanting to become the brand that gets it wrong.
- In this transcript:
- How Jennifer Came to Handel’s
- The Original Gathering Place
- Every Bite, Every Time
- Not Wanting to Be the Brand That Slips
- Alice Handel and the Origins
- Patios, Softball Leagues and Community
- Twenty-Eight Flavours Every Day
- Franchisees and How They Are Changing
- Handling It When Something Goes Wrong
- What to Order
- Why Handel’s Keeps Thriving
- How to Find a Handel’s
Jeremy Julian (0:00): Welcome back to the Restaurant Technology Guys podcast. I thank everyone out there for joining us. As I like to say each and every episode, I know you guys have got lots of choices, so thank you for hanging out. Today, I am so excited. You have no idea. anybody that’s watching on video can see Jennifer’s smile because we talked a little bit pre-show. I have, top five brands that I enjoy engaging with had reached out to be on the show. And I was like, I couldn’t hit the send button fast enough. Jennifer, why don’t you introduce yourself, send button fast enough to say, yes, yes, yes, I want them on. But Jennifer, why don’t you introduce yourself a little bit about your background and what you get to do for a living. And then we’ll kind of talk about the brand that you get to work with that I’m certain some people are huge fans of. I know I am, but there’s probably some that it’s going to be the first time they’ve heard about your guys’s brand. But why don’t you introduce yourself real quick.
How Jennifer Came to Handel’s
Jennifer Schuler (0:47): Yeah. Yeah, sure. Yeah, people generally don’t say no to ice cream, Jeremy, whether that’s in an email for a podcast or a scoop, it’s hard to say no. So thanks for having me. I can give a little bit of background about me and really though in the context of the Handle story and what drew me here. So for people who don’t know the brand, Handle’s ice cream has been around for over 80 years. It started in 1945 in Youngstown, Ohio. by woman named Alice Handel, so a very uh early entrepreneur who made her ice creams from scratch every day in store, which is something we still do today. And she basically protected that one store and her style of ice cream making for about 40 years and started expanding her flavors. And it just became a real local favorite. And then the brand was bought by a gentleman named Lenny Fisher, who really saw the potential to see this thing scale at a different level and he did two things. He started expanding store counts and over 40 years got it up to just about 50 stores and he also started expanding flavors and so today we are at over 150 flavors. So I think what we do better than any other ice cream out there that I can tell is unlike most ice cream players we are making that ice cream from scratch in store by hand and in the summertime the ice cream you’re eating today was probably probably made the day before, know, when it’s a high volume season. So it’s very fresh and I think guests taste the difference. And then I think we just do our flavor so spot on. So when you taste Handel’s Banana Cream Pie flavored ice cream, it tastes like banana cream pie in ice cream. And, you know, I’ve spent a lot of my career in marketing and marketing for food businesses in particular. I spent over a decade at Wetzel’s Pretzels where we also did um fresh dough from scratch, so I know how important that freshness is for the guests. But for me, when I made the move to Handles over a couple years ago, I lived down the road from one of our top stores in the nation here in Pasadena. And not only did we just adore the ice cream, like you just unmatched, I felt like, in the flavor quality and the variety.
Jeremy Julian (3:01): Mm-hmm.
The Original Gathering Place
Jennifer Schuler (3:05): It was a really special little gathering place for our community. It’s a national brand that has that very local community kind of feel. And when my kids were celebrating good grades, the first thing they wanted to do was go to Handles. When we were trying to get over a disappointment or teeth pulled, the first thing they’d want to do was go to Handles. I think that’s a really, uh and it’s high schoolers’ favorite first job, uh where they’re learning to interact. with guests the first time, work a register, try to leave someone with a smile, try to make their day a little bit better than when they walked in. And so I think that’s a really special intersection to be in, uh know, celebrating those moments with families, giving them a moment to disconnect from an increasingly fast-paced world and reconnect over some, you know, kind of a shared love across the generations, which is ice cream. And I just believe we do it better than anybody else out there.
Jeremy Julian (4:03): uh So I would concur and as as as we were teasing at the beginning, know, I started I started with a long time listeners know I’ve got four kids and my wife is also a Self-proclaimed ice cream connoisseur and so she she loves herself some handles and so with that when we first got introduced to it I was blown away because I was living in Southern California at the time you guys had opened a store in Orange County and I just went holy smokes because
Jennifer Schuler (4:26): Oh, yeah, yeah.
Jeremy Julian (4:30): You know, at the beginning, I mean, the line was out the door and it was insane. The thing that always struck me, and I guess I’d love for you to talk a little bit about it, Jennifer, is just the fact that you guys execute, you know, fresh flavors so well, but. the franchise level. I guess, and again, back then, my wife was running the softball league. And so she got to connect to the owner. And, you know, he sponsored some of the girls for softball that were in the community. it became kind of back to your point, this communal experience where the girls would go after the softball game and everybody would, you know, caravan over because it was five minutes from the field and it turned into kind of a meeting place, a celebratory place. But again, the thing that still just blew me away is the variety of options and the fact that
Jennifer Schuler (5:01): Yeah. Yes.
Jeremy Julian (5:11): I had no idea actually up until a couple minutes ago that you guys made everything in house. I assumed it was from a commissary and then came over. the fact that you guys do that. So I’d love for you to kind of talk, I guess first about the flavor selections because it blew me away. And every time I go in, I’m just like, how do they do this? And there’s never a time that I’ve had a bite of ice cream and gone, well, that was just okay. Cause honestly, it always blows me away. like, I, know, so I guess I’d love for you to talk a little bit about that and what makes you guys unique and how you guys execute at that level.
Every Bite, Every Time
Jennifer Schuler (5:15): Right. know, right? Yeah, well thank you. I’m glad to hear you feel that way. That’s how I feel about it too. But you know what I think, fundamentally, The reason the brand does so well is because that ice cream quality is so great. And then you layer on top of that, you know, good real estate selection where we put ourselves in the heart of the community and then operators who care about giving back. so happy to hear that experience we have in Orange County because one of the values and the tenants of this brand is a spirit of generosity and a commitment to community. um There’s something special about ice cream that brings people together. And so that is like a stated value for us. That’s something we look for in our franchise.
Jeremy Julian (6:16): Mm-hmm.
Jennifer Schuler (6:21): partners. But that’s the cherry on top. I the core of it is tradition of craftsmanship. And that, you know, that’s our third, third value, but probably the centerpiece of what we’re talking about here. And I think for us, we have always stayed very true to the way Alice did it in 1945. Like it’s the, it’s a, it’s the same machine she used. Now that machine has changed over time, but it’s the same machine she’s used. And we can look back at some of her recipes even. keep copies of our recipes, we see the handwritten ones, and in some of them they are barely changed from 1945. More importantly though, what we pay attention to is her ethos, and there’s a recipe, I remember this, it was her caramel cashew recipe, and in it she talked about, you know, put a large handful of nuts. Now we’ve gotten a lot better, like we’ve got very prescriptive, how many nuts, at what point in the process, during what layer, but the note she wrote on her recipe handwritten was, be stingy. And I actually put that on t-shirts for our team. We got these sweatshirts that are going to stingy. And I think what that’s about is when you come to Handel’s, when you go through our training, we are going to talk to you about, I think you said before the call, your daughter likes black cherry. When I was in my training and I was learning how to make black cherry, we were literally with each layer of ice cream we put down, you were dropping in whole cherries. We don’t use like a little side. We don’t use a whole cherry. It is a whole cherry.
Jeremy Julian (7:25): That’s really cool. Oh yeah. There’s one in every bite almost. I mean, it’s insane.
Jennifer Schuler (7:50): Jeremy, exactly that. It is every bite. We do not want you to be disappointed in a bite. The worst thing ever is you order cookie dough ice cream and you leave and you’re like, well, that was vanilla with one bite of cookie dough.
Jeremy Julian (8:02): Mm-hmm.
Jennifer Schuler (8:02): So we never want that to happen. So we pay a lot of attention to detail and craftsmanship. So I remember doing the cherries and I was dropping them in and my trainer stopped me and my trainer has worked for handles for over 25 years, a woman named Leslie. And she said, no, Jen, the spacing needs to be, and I can’t remember if it’s an inch versus two inches apart, you’re spacing them out too much. And I’m like, but they roll with it. And she’s like, no, no, then move it back. And so we pay a lot of attention to those details in the training. And even things like when we’re scooping, teaching people to scoop like, okay, make sure that scoop, nah, you missed it. That scoop didn’t have a cherry. Go back, re-scoop that. Get that scoop right. we do, we take our time. the lines aren’t fast at the handles, usually because they’re long. Yeah, but the scoop like.
Jeremy Julian (8:42): Mm-hmm. I can attest to that. Because now there’s a store 10 minutes from me. It’s like, hey, if we’re going to handles, we better not be in a rush. Because if there’s a line, it might take a bit, but it’s still the quality is there and the team truly you can see them putting effort into into creating an experience for you even while they’re scooping the ice cream.
Not Wanting to Be the Brand That Slips
Jennifer Schuler (9:10): Yes, and we don’t want to be the place that you go to because you just got five minutes and you’re on the run. Like we want it to be the decision that you just made, Jeremy. Like, no, we’re going to go and stay. And when we’re in line, you know, your wife’s going to tell someone, do they have apple pie? If they have apple pie, you have to try it. Cause it’s only here in the fall. And it’s my favorite, you know, like there are seasonal flavors that are flavors that come and go. We are not like an always on 24 seven serve you a 30 second business. That’s not what we intend to be. Um, and so I think it’s those two things. It’s like the attention to detail with the product, the willingness to slow down and do it right. And then.
Jeremy Julian (9:19): Mm-hmm.
Jennifer Schuler (9:45): give people that experience when they come to you that I think you feel it when you’re there. When people have slowed down and taken care in the product they’re serving you, I think you feel it. I think it comes through. But to your earlier point there, I we are…
Jeremy Julian (9:56): Well, as a, as a consumer, absolutely has so far. mean, I, again, and I’m teasing about it, but almost every time I’m traveling and I see when I’m like, Hey, I gotta go hit that one up. I’ve now live in Texas and I’ve got one close to the house. And anytime we’re on that side of town, the kids are, they’ll be like, Hey, can we get candles after dinner? And it’s like, sure, let’s go, you know, we’ll go figure it out, you know, if we’ve got the capacity. So sorry to be, to cut you off. But I just, I do believe it is, it is part of the ethos that I have felt as a consumer that you don’t always get.
Jennifer Schuler (10:25): Yes. Yes.
Jeremy Julian (10:25): in other brands. And I think it’s great. It’s a testament to kind of what, you know, the founder is built and kind of what you guys continue to carry on.
Alice Handel and the Origins
Jennifer Schuler (10:30): Yeah. Yeah, I mean, came from Alice and then Lenny Fisher, who owned and ran that business for 40 years. Same thing. like really kind of keeps us focused on that still to this day, that craftsmanship, the attention to the quality and, you know, slowing down with the guests. I mean, the one thing I was going to tell you that was interesting when you said you’re in Orange County, you didn’t realize we made ice cream. That’s why our footprint is a little bit bigger than most stores, because we’re actually a certified dairy manufacturer, if you can believe that. it is a little each one of these is a little dairy ice cream plant. So it differentiates us, think, any other, nearly any other national player out there.
Jeremy Julian (11:10): Well, that was one of the things that I’ve noticed is that the size of the stores, both of the stores that are kind of my home stores, I’ve been to other shops over the years, but my two were both in line stores. But when you walk in, the amount of space even for the consumers is about a third of what you have for the staff. And I guess I’d love for you to talk a little bit about that because as you guys are expanding, I’m sure that creates some opportunities and great opportunities and then some challenges because
Jennifer Schuler (11:28): Yeah. Yeah.
Jeremy Julian (11:40): you know, it’s different than another ice cream shop that might be able to open in a smaller space, I guess.
Jennifer Schuler (11:45): Yeah, no, you’re totally right, Jeremy. That’s one of the challenges because we have to look for a bigger footprint because we… not only do we need room for ice cream making, we’re going to hold 48 flavors. Like this isn’t 31, this isn’t 20, this isn’t 10. We want the breadth of flavors because we want people to come and explore and experience and try new things. So that also creates a larger footprint for us. You know, but I think with every negative, there’s also positives. Like when you have a larger footprint, you’re going to be a bigger store. You’re going to have more visibility. You’re more likely to be that gathering place. And so I think that in many ways that also is a strength. for the brand. For us, don’t know what formats, which store in Orange County you would frequent, but our preferred format is a walk-up, which is more of like that. Is that what you had in Orange County? Okay. Oh no, that’s a walk-in. That’s a walk-in too.
Jeremy Julian (12:34): was the one in Lake Forest and it was a corner spot and a strip mall. So it’s a walk-in store. And then the one in South Lake is my other home store now. And that one is kind of an inline next to a Starbucks. um And other than parking at that store in South Lake, the store is fantastic. it’s got a little bit of a different ingress and egress from the store. But the one, that store in Lake Forest was great because you could walk up huge parking lot in a shopping center with a pretty large grocery store. ah It was kind of a corner spot that had fantastic visibility. There’s an energy as well. And I guess that’s, was one of the things I was, I was going to ask you, Jennifer’s is because there’s so much going on, you’ve got a line, there’s noise, there’s, there’s typically, you know, especially in the summertime, four or five, six team members behind the counter scooping ice cream, calling out names, calling out numbers. And there’s a big almost assembly line of like them passing out the, ice cream at the end. I guess.
Jennifer Schuler (13:12): Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Jeremy Julian (13:27): Sorry, I know that I kind of went off a little bit there, but I’m trying to set uh a visual for those listeners that haven’t gotten to experience the brand because it is this high energy. again, from a total fanboy, I apologize. ah So, So I guess talk a little bit about the format and kind of the sizing that you were starting to talk about that. For me, the Lake Forest store was my home store before I moved to Texas and now it’s South Lake.
Patios, Softball Leagues and Community
Jennifer Schuler (13:42): I love it. I had no idea. Yeah. So the original format for the store is a walk-up, more retro-format, think Dairy Queen, where there’s no lobby, there’s no entry, it’s all served through uh windows on the outside. And that’s probably 70 % of our system today is that walk-up format, uh which we like even better because I think uh it’s actually fascinating uh because the experience for the guests is even better because they come up to the window, a bright, cheery person opens, pops open the window, they have a fun conversation, about ice cream flavors, they’re sampling, they’re tasting, they’re trying, the window gets shut, they disappear, and they come back with these perfectly scooped cones. So we actually see that even our guest satisfaction scores are higher in the walk up versus the walk in, because the walk in, as you experienced, Jeremy, you’re like right on top, you’re like inside the kitchen. You kind of feel like you’ve walked into the back of house. And so that’s a little bit… uh We get a little less satisfied guests as a result of that. And we get a little, it’s like a little bit intense for the crew because the guest is like, it was magic if you walked in the back of McDonald’s. Yeah, you’re in McDonald’s and you’re someone watching you like fry those fries faster. So we like the walkup for that reason. We also like the walkup because we generally design these great.
Jeremy Julian (15:00): staring at them scooping ice cream they can’t go hide behind a closed window I guess.
Jennifer Schuler (15:14): patios outside of them, like so people can sit, gather, enjoy ice cream together. And when we look at the demographic for this customer, uh it is generally the outdoor loving family. So I think you said your wife was running the little league or the baseball.
Jeremy Julian (15:28): Yeah, the softball league in Mission Viejo. So she was the president of the softball in Mission Viejo for a couple of years. And the amount of times that we would go to that store in Lake Forest and it turned into kind of the meeting place and, hey, we’re going to handles after the game. Does anybody want to go with us?
Jennifer Schuler (15:41): Yeah, that’s like spot on the kind of family that works for us. And so they tend to like the outdoor patio, you can sit outside, enjoy it. And then, you know, a line becomes a line. And so if you’re standing, if you’ve got an outdoor walk up and you see that line, people are like, huh, two or three people, what is that? What’s going on? And it creates that party, that vibe, the energy that you’re talking about. And you know, there’s no long lines for bad ice cream, I can tell you that. So it gets a signal to people.
Jeremy Julian (15:58): Yeah, what’s going on over there?
Jennifer Schuler (16:09): that there’s something good that’s happening here. And people are hanging out and it feels energetic.
Jeremy Julian (16:14): I love that. Let’s talk a little bit about flavor selection. I know you talked about the fact that you got 150 flavors that you guys will typically produce. I’m sure you guys always keep certain classics on the menu, but as we were telling before I hit the record button, my wife’s favorite is apple pie, and apple pie only is around during that fall season. So guess talk to me a little bit about how you guys even, is that? at the local unit level? this something corporate brand wise? I’d love to talk a little bit about how you guys define what the stores are able to have on any given day. And then we can talk a little bit about how you guys go create new flavors. Cause I know we were talking about that as well before we hit the record button.
Twenty-Eight Flavours Every Day
Jennifer Schuler (16:40): Oh yeah. Yeah, that’s a great question Jeremy and one we are always working on. there’s 150 and counting, could be more, because I tried eight new ones last night, but there’s 150 flavors in our vault. Every franchisee is required to carry 20 and those are what we see as like the classics, the top 20 generally across the country. And so that way we create some consistency from a brand perspective. Like your daughter’s gonna be able to get Blue Monster I think anywhere she goes. You know, it’s just a kid favorite. We’re gonna get that on the menu.
Jeremy Julian (17:26): Yep, that’s my 10 year old’s favorite for sure.
Jennifer Schuler (17:32): And then they’ve got 28 flavors every day that they can choose to rotate from, which I think is part of the fun for an owner. They can figure out, what is my community like? What are they really into? Is it the nut flavors? Is it chocolatey flavors? Is it fruity flavors? And they might even respond to a guest, a beloved guest who’s like, I just grew up with your butter pecan in Ohio. there any way you can carry that next month? And so we really try to balance being a national chain with that level of consistency and quality with still a local connection and so that franchise owner can make the decision locally. We aim to launch about four new flavors a year, which is probably less than other brands. We are not trying to spin through every limited time offer flavor combination you can imagine. Like as we talked about earlier, we are perfectionists when it comes to flavors and we will not launch unless we really think like, oh my gosh, that tastes like cherry pie, like in an ice cream or that tastes like a, know, an Andy’s mint, whatever the item is that we’re using as our point of inspiration. So em we really are patient about our flavors. And then you asked about the process. know, our franchisees are all ice cream makers. You know, they are making ice cream or they have a key operator in their store making ice cream. We certify those operators. Side note, we can talk about that a little bit, but they will come to us with recipes like, Hey, I love this new pretzel ripple. I think it would taste great if you used it in this way. and we have a submission process for franchisees to share with us their recipe ideas. And last year, two of the launches were from franchisees and two came from the corporate team and we kind of liked that balance. So we seek to really pay attention to what we’re hearing from the franchisees because they’re at the they’re at the guest level. They know what works on the machines. They know what guests are asking for. So we do try to really pay attention to the ideas that are coming from them.
Jeremy Julian (19:28): Yeah, that’s great. And I love that you guys are listening to the franchise community because I’ll say this, having done restaurant tech for a long time, there’s a lot of brands that don’t really, they’re going to do what they’re going to do. And it’s like, Hey, I don’t really care that you got these ideas. This is who we are. This is what we do. And then there’s other brands that, truly draw inspiration from where those, where, you guys are hearing and seeing in the field. How do you guys create a consistent product? I guess. Jennifer, because that’s tough. Across the entire chain, you’ve got these recipes, it’s a science, but it’s also a little bit of an art, I guess. And so I’d love to have you talk a little bit about, to our listeners that are going, hey, I’ve always wanted to add this to my portfolio. We’ll get towards the end of talking a little bit about how they might want to learn more.
Jennifer Schuler (19:53): Yeah. Yeah.
Jeremy Julian (20:14): as they’re out there and you’ve now got these new recipes, how do you guys create the consistency and ensure that if I go to a store in Ohio and I go to a store in Texas and I go to a store in California and I get the Blue Monster, it’s gonna be the same since it is now distributed at the store level the way that you guys are doing it.
Franchisees and How They Are Changing
Jennifer Schuler (20:19): Yeah. Yeah. It’s a good question. And I think it’s really important when you think about national brand and national brand consistency and franchisees opening in different parts of the country. And as that brand grows, that quality is consistent. I think an easy analogy might be to think about like a bakery. And if you em went to a bakery for their croissants and you just love their croissants, you love their plain croissant, you love the croissant with chocolate, you love the croissant with jam or cheese or fruit. And the reason you love it is because the base croissant is so tasty, and then that you’re choosing kind of best in class ingredients to layer that in there. So like, I’m not choosing a cheap chocolate, I’m choosing a really high quality, good, delicious chocolate. So that is similar for us. Franchisees are getting, when they get to the stores, at the store level, getting delivered to them an ice cream base that has milk cream at our portioned level. So there’s a level of that that is managed and that’s about, you know, 65 % of their cost of goods comes out of that mix. So we’ve got, when that mix comes out and we control at that level, then you’re just talking about how you’re layering in ingredients and layering those ingredients in. We are sourcing what we believe to to be best tasting ingredients out there. And then em the last leg of that is training the franchisee and their ice cream makers on how to do it. And that’s where there’s, you can’t control for every variability in a handmade product. And that’s where we have to just literally continuously train and retrain and reinforce and be in stores and tasting and coaching. And they said, we started last year an ice cream maker certification, which was really cool.
Jeremy Julian (21:57): Yeah.
Jennifer Schuler (22:13): that the franchisees are more and more of them moving into multi-unit ownership. They’re gonna have designated managers and designated ice cream makers. And those tend to be people who are very different than the rest of the crew. Like the crew is out there, they’re scooping, they’re extroverted, they’re people oriented. The ice cream makers are way more detail oriented. They’re very methodical.
Jeremy Julian (22:24): you
Jennifer Schuler (22:35): They get in the zone, they come in the morning, they get really organized with their ingredients. And it’s a very different type of personality, I think, that franchisees recruit and then we go in and certify. So we will go in, our ops team will sit side by side with them. And once they’re done, they get a certificate, they get a pin, like, and we really want, because we have pride in our craftsmanship, we really want to share that and have our ice cream makers feel a sense of pride in that craft as well.
Jeremy Julian (23:04): That’s awesome. Yeah, you guys are going to have to create the ice cream nerd, you know, ice cream nerd position within the stores or something along those lines. So awesome. I guess one more question really about flavor selection, Jennifer, and I’d love to tease this out a little bit. How do you guys get people to expand their portfolio or expand their palette? I’m sure there’s people that come in and it’s like, Hey, I always get the mint chocolate chip because that’s one of the top 20. And I’m going always get that. I’m going to always get the vanilla. I’m going always get the chocolate. But you guys are constantly not only one coming up with new stuff, but you’ve always got so many different items that are on your guys’s palette. And so I guess I’d love to understand because for me, again, I go to, you know, I think, and I have a friend that talks about this. He’s like, you know, you always go to this brand for this thing. I want to ask my daughter and my wife this morning, Hey, what do you go to handle for? I always get the blue monster. I was like the apple apple pie. And if it’s not the apple pie, it’s, it’s whatever my wife said. All of that being said, but
Jennifer Schuler (23:38): Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
Jeremy Julian (24:00): The thing that I love about what you guys do is you guys are constantly innovating and you’re trying to move people around so that you can get a second and a third instance, because they might not feel like mint chocolate chip, but now if they try the Blue Monster, oh, I really like that. Oh, I really like the banana cream pie. Oh, I really like whatever these things might be. And so I’d love for you to talk through, you come from a marketing background, I’d love for you to talk a little bit about how you guys get people to move around their selection.
Handling It When Something Goes Wrong
Jennifer Schuler (24:09): Yeah, yeah. Yeah. It’s a really good question. And I share that like my son who is 14 is mint chocolate chip all day, every day. Like, and I, when I came through with the samples and we were trying them all, he’s like, but is there mint chocolate chip? And I’m like, are you kidding me? No, but there’s this mint fudge brownie that’s incredible. And I’m the kind of person who’s like my flavor, favorite flavor is the one I haven’t tried next. You know, like that. think some people are wired towards experimentation and some people are wired towards give me the thing I know and love and stick
Jeremy Julian (24:38): You Mm-hmm.
Jennifer Schuler (24:55): with that. And so I think we try to be, we try to be both of those things as I talked about by having the classics available. So like the mint chocolate chip kit is never disappointed. And then using the other 28 flavors for variety, I think that’s one way. But I think the other way we do it is through our four scoop sampler. Like I don’t know if you’ve seen that item on the menu. It’s from a price point perspective, it’s a very affordable, good price value for what you’re getting and getting to sample four flavors. And so that’s one of the ones we use to encourage people to experiment and okay that way you can get your favorite and add two. And then I think you put your finger on it. A lot of it is down to marketing and we hired just I think it’s a year, it’s a year and a half about. em In our chief marketing officer who joined us Hillary Frey and she came from, she and I have a shared background at General Mills and she’s a fantastic marketer. In fact, she just got nominated for a fast casuals like top 30 restaurant marketer list. So we’ll see how high on the list she ends up, but em fantastic marketer. And I think there’s a lot we can still do when we introduce new flavors. Before we did them pretty quietly, em sort of come up on the menu and you’d show up Jeremy back oh I didn’t know they do this. uh
Jeremy Julian (26:16): that happened to me, I’d go and be like, oh, that’s new. And, you fortunately, you guys do a good job of sampling. So it’s like, hey, can you get me a, you know, one of the little scoops of that, but, but to your point, yeah. And, and I’m one of those people when I see them, you know, bonkers busy, I’m like, I don’t want to go sample anything. I’ll just go back with the classics. But I think to your point, it’s, it’s a, it’s a great opportunity to expand people’s horizon. And I noticed that you guys do also have digital menu boards, at least in the stores that I’ve come through. So ah I’ve seen a little bit of highlighting there and then some POP around the store that feels like it’s expanded over the years. I guess I’d love to just kind of, guess, if that’s something that’s new and or if it’s maybe just something I’ve noticed, but I’ve definitely noticed it feels like there’s more of a highlight on some of the newer things that are coming out as time has gone on. And I’ve experienced the brand over the last five or six years, however long it’s been.
Jennifer Schuler (27:01): Yes. Yep, you’re, yep, exactly right. So one of the things, you we talked about this like national brand versus your local mom and pop. All of our franchisees have their own social media channels, which is different for brands. Like generally they’ll hold it at the brand level. So one of the things we’re starting to do is, or Hillary’s doing is creating uh much like. higher quality, more quantity on our social media content and around new flavors. And that’s stuff that we can post at the brand level, but also distribute to our franchisees so that they have news to share with their audience when we launch Circus Animal. They can highlight that and they have reels and content immediately accessible for them to do that. And then, so that’s what we’re doing on the local side, giving them ideas and reasons to share that information. And then you’re gonna start to see at the store level, we’re building more… uh more signage, but not just more signage, more like, okay, here’s where the classics get promoted. Here’s where the new get promoted. It’s kind of building the planogram for how we show that off in stores so that guests can see it when they’re there in stores as well. So we’re, you know, that’s still, I think definitely an evolution work in progress. We’ve gotten a lot better over the last year and I think we can see it when we promote them just a little bit in a few little ways. You can start to see them, the new flavors move up in the flavor ranking. So I think there’s still a lot more room there for us to promote them even more strongly.
What to Order
Jeremy Julian (28:35): love that. All right. This is my favorite question to ask people. So what is your, I’ve never been to Handles. What is the go-to, you maybe the sampler, like I’m a brand new consumer to Handles. I want to go check it out. And then what is Jennifer’s go-to? You you already talked about your son being the, you know, the mint chocolate chip person. My 10 year old, she’s a blue monster person. My wife is apple pie in the fall. And quite honestly, I think she’s, she’s one of those people that loves to try the new flavors. So for her, she’s always looking for the new one. She spends more time in line.
Jennifer Schuler (29:03): Yeah, yeah.
Jeremy Julian (29:04): trying to figure out what she wants. a classic person. what is kind of the go to, you’re going to get the experience that you would want a new consumer to get for those listeners that see one in their local town and go, I got to try it. I just heard Jennifer on the call.
Jennifer Schuler (29:20): Oh my gosh, that’s very, hard. Cause as I told you, it’s like always the next flavor I try. I think I’ve tried maybe 80 flavors so far. I haven’t gotten them all. I, I’m, I’m like very diligent about that. So asking me to narrow that down is, very hard. I would probably tell someone. to get a four scoop sampler because I would want the variety. I kind of like, one of our franchisees does a very good job when she trains her crew members and someone asks them, what’s your favorite flavor? She trains them not to start with, oh, I love birthday cake. Instead she has them ask, well, what do you like? Do you like fruit, chocolate, coffees, vanilla? Like what category are you in? And that really then helps people usually right away know I’m a fruit person, I’m a chocolate person. And then from there we can narrow down the recommendation. mean, our dream is to be like that you have like a sommelier experience about ice cream when it comes to the store. Like if we can really like my dream some days that we get to that level that the crew members can like sit there and advise you like, Jeremy, what do you like? What do you try? Okay, let me put together the perfect for scoop sampler for you. So for me, would say, okay, I would do a four scoots sampler and I would have a fruit flavor, a chocolate flavor, maybe like a coffee based flavor. And what I think is our strength is our vanilla based flavors, like vanilla with some sort of, um, brittles or caramel or any of those. Like I think we do exceptionally well. So what I would pick for mine would be on the fruit. I would go with a mango sorbet. On the chocolate, I would probably go with our think it’s called like confetti brownie batter, just because it’s a little bit different on the chocolate. It’s not just a pure chocolate. It’s like a deep, rich, dark chocolate. And it’s kind of fun. I would do a coffee chocolate chip and then on the vanilla based ones, I would like very much struggle because I think we’re fantastic there. I would, I love our monkey business, which is like a banana cake batter, caramel brownie. It’s just like fantastic. I love our spouse, like a house. Um, I love oh any of our cheesecake flavors. So if you were like a cheesecake person, I would say try an Oreo cheesecake or strawberry cheesecake. But yeah, getting me down to one that’s about as narrow as I can get.
Jeremy Julian (31:16): That’s really good.
Jennifer Schuler (31:36): Okay.
Jeremy Julian (31:37): Well, I appreciate you sharing and I think for our listeners that have gotten to this point on the show, they’re going to be like, okay, I’m blown away. There’s more flavors than I even know what to do with. So Jennifer, talk to me a little bit about what your guys’ expansion strategy is. I know you guys are looking for local operators. guess what specifically are you guys looking for? Are you guys a hub and spoke where you buy a whole region? Do you buy just a single store? I’d love to have you talk to our listeners out there. They’re like,
Jennifer Schuler (31:55): Yeah.
Jeremy Julian (32:02): I need to add a dessert category. It’s blowing up. I really need this and handles is the place to go.
Why Handel’s Keeps Thriving
Jennifer Schuler (32:07): Yeah. I mean, I think Handles is exceptional. We were just looking at this like 80 year history as far back as we can look at same store sales over the last 16 years, same store sales have been consecutively positive. So it’s just a very consistent, steady, stable business. And in a time right now when people feel like they’re being price gouged or the world is so uncertain, a place where you can find an affordable luxury, a treat for your family that doesn’t break the bank, I think
Jeremy Julian (32:21): Wow.
Jennifer Schuler (32:38): is going to continue to thrive. I think you’re going to see, you know, we’ve already, we already see it. I mean, this year, the business is off to a roaring start in terms of like same store sales year over year. So I think it has longevity, I guess is what I would say. And we pay a lot of attention to the price value to make sure we keep that in the right spot for guests, like an in and out. um So that it is that affordable luxury. So then from there, think about growth. we’re about 180 units today, which I think for a prospective franchise owner, it’s this really like uh exceptional point in time where you can be like, oh my gosh, here’s a brand with like 80 years of history, very, very proven and steady same store sales, kind of recession proof, but only 180 units. And Baskin-Robbins is out there with over 2000, know, Cold Stone Creamery, a thousand, like there is a lot of room for the brand to grow. We’re in about 20 states today, but we have, you know, our distribution can expand beyond that. uh And so generally, we’re looking for people who are multi unit operators, not buying up like regions and then sell like sub selling not area developers, but someone who’s going to come in and buy own and operate their own stores, but who come from a food service experience background or have like the real estate experience background to be able to grow at pace. And then people who we think are really aligned, like taking it back to what we talked about those three values, tradition of craftsmanship, like they want to. uh They want to like see that product as sacred and attend to the details. Commitment to community. They’re excited about becoming the gathering place for the community and spirit of generosity. They’re going to be very cautious about the price point. Keep that price value right. Look for opportunities to sponsor the little league to make sure that portion size is really big and generous. And we find that when we get those three values aligned along with some of the criteria experience we’re looking for, but when we get alignment there, those operators tend to do very well.
Jeremy Julian (34:43): uh Again, as a consumer of the brand, I’ve watched those values play out. And so that’s great. How do people, I guess, engage and what does the process look like if they’re interested? This resonates with them. They’re like, hey, to your point, I go to handles all the time. I didn’t even realize it was something I had the opportunity to open one of my own, or this is the first time they’ve learned about them and they’re like, hey, I want something like this in my community. How do they engage? Where do they go? And what does that look like?
How to Find a Handel’s
Jennifer Schuler (35:11): Yeah. I think the best way to do it is like hit the website and there’s a little bit of information about franchising there that gives you a sense of what we’re looking for from an operator. But then you can fill out the lead form there and you’ll get connected really quickly with our team. First point of contact is a woman on our team who’s been with Handles, I think was her first job. I want to say she’s been with the company 10 to 15 years, so she knows it inside and out. She’s a great resource for prospective franchisees because she really
Jeremy Julian (35:37): Wow.
Jennifer Schuler (35:41): understands the business and she’s incredible for us because she really understands what it takes to find the right owner operator. So I would encourage folks to have that first conversation.
Jeremy Julian (35:52): Awesome. Well, Jennifer, I appreciate you coming on again. Huge fan boy uh of the brand and I love what you guys are doing. So I want to see you guys expand to hit that, know, oh 1000 stores, whatever your guys’ goals are. I’m excited to see it because I do think it’s one of the best products out there. And from a dessert segment perspective, the uniqueness, the flavors, just awesome. So thank you for coming on to our listeners, guys. As I said at the onset, I know you guys got lots of choices. So thank you for hanging out. If you haven’t already done so, please go subscribe to the show.
Jennifer Schuler (36:03): Yeah.
Jeremy Julian (36:21): check out handles and their website and kind of learn a little bit more if you guys are interested and make it a great day.
Jennifer Schuler (36:27): Awesome. Thank you, Jeremy.
