Van Leeuwen is an ice cream brand that offers its products through more than 30 stores across the country, as well from its online store and through grocery retailers including. Earlier this month, the first Van Leeuwen scoop shop in the state opened in Greenwich, which is something of a homecoming for Ben and Peter Van Leeuwen, the brothers and Greenwich natives who run the business.
The Van Leeuwens first turned entrepreneur in Greenwich from a rented ice cream truck in 2002. In 2008, the brothers along with Laura O”™Neill founded Van Leeuwen Ice Cream, and purchased and worked out of an old $3,000 ice cream truck in New York City before opening their first scoop shop in 2010 in Brooklyn.
“We just wanted to make a simple product with good ingredients because we thought it would make people happy,” Ben Van Leeuwen said.
The early days proved perilous for Van Leeuwen Ice Cream, as the team faced competition on the streets and dealt with the tight profit margins inherent to the seasonal business.
“Probably the most challenging was getting the manufacturing going in Brooklyn,” Ben Van Leeuwen said.
Much of the products made by Van Leeuwen is done at its manufacturing plant, with only some being outsourced, in contrast to most other ice cream brands which are entirely outsourced, according to Ben Van Leeuwen. The plant grants Van Leeuwen freedom in how it crafts its products, resulting in the use of a lot of heavy cream and egg yolks while cutting out any sort of fillers, to create its signature creamy and chewy ice cream. The flavor and texture set the business”™ products apart from others, and in the case of Greenwich, no other shop offers such creamy ice cream, according to the brothers.
Having control over manufacturing also allows Van Leeuwen to experiment and create innovative ice cream products efficiently and under time constraints. Peter Van Leeuwen cited the company”™s Kraft Macaroni & Cheese flavored ice cream as an example of a successfully produced, unique product made on time.
“Kraft came to us and they asked us if we”™d like to collaborate on a mac-and-cheese flavor,” he recalled. “I don”™t know if any other companies that did not own their own manufacturing could have pulled it off in the timeline that we were given because it was relatively short, but we were able to, and we executed on it fairly flawlessly.”
Van Leeuwen offers more than 20 flavors, including vegan options and several seasonal specials with flavors such as royal wedding cake, marionberry cheesecake and hazelnut fudge cookie available. In addition, each new market opening is introduced with a new flavor exclusive to that shop.
For the new shop at 375 Greenwich Ave., Van Leeuwen collaborated with local business Raphaël”™s Bakery to make a rum and vanilla brown sugar ice cream mixed with canelé courtesy of the French bakery.
Like most businesses that revolve around manufacturing, supply chain problems have hit Van Leeuwen hard, with prices for base ingredients like cream and eggs going up 30% and 50% respectively. Freight and trucking costs have gone up as well, according to Peter Van Leeuwen.
“It”™s really hard because we can only charge so much for an ice cream, so we”™re not able to raise our prices to a point that would sort of cover those cost increases, so we take a margin hit,” Ben Van Leeuwen said.
Despite the difficulties, the brothers remain optimistic and ambitious. Van Leeuwen continues to open scoop shops across the country with a goal of 15 to 20 additional shops, seven of which are set to be open by the end of the year according to the brothers. Darien is planned to be Van Leeuwen”™s next local location, with an opening slated for the first quarter of 2023.
