Since 1932, Little Jimmy's Italian Ice has been a favorite treat throughout the New Jersey area. Over time, the product became popular throughout New York and Pennsylvania. Most recently, the Elizabeth, New Jersey-based family-owned and operated business began offerings its products nationwide. It sells Italian Ices in some 35 states, and that has brought about a significant challenge: finding reliable frozen freight carriers to deliver weekly less-than-truckload (LTL) shipments throughout the United States.
Little Jimmy's Italian Ice has evolved from a manufacturer and seller of Italian Ice into an organization that is the Italian Ice concession business. It wholesales Italian Ices and offers entrepreneur packages that provide everything needed for someone to get started in the Italian Ice concession business — from Italian Ice to pushcarts and trucks to merchandising materials.
“Everything we ship is LTL,” says the company's Dennis Moore. “About five years ago, we started shipping out of New Jersey and across the United States. One of our major challenges has been finding reliable frozen freight carriers to cover the many different areas of the country.”
He notes that his company doesn't have problems shipping its pushcarts. “We ship all of them with one national LTL logistics company that does a great job for us.
“It's the complete opposite situation with LTL frozen carriers. The ones we use are very reliable, but they aren't national in scope and don't go to many areas of the country where our ices are shipped.
“Other LTL frozen carriers we have used that claim to be national haven't been, nor were they reliable or cost-effective.”
For example, last year Little Jimmy's Italian Ice used a frozen freight carrier that was hauling ice from its plant to a cold storage facility in Edison, New Jersey. The carrier waited until it received a full truckload of products — not just the ices — before making deliveries. “We didn't know about this until we started to hear from our customers about melted products and late deliveries,” Moore says.
A bigger problem is that “we've had a lot of companies that claim to specialize in transporting frozen products, yet they refuse to handle ours. I don't understand that.
“A frozen product needs to stay frozen. Our Italian Ice needs to be at 0° F and can defrost up to 7° F. How difficult is that? And our ice isn't even perishable, as it contains no dairy products.”
“You can tell if our product melts because the syrup leaks out,” says Anthony Moore, Dennis' brother. “With other frozen products, such as a box of hamburger or chicken patties, it's hard to detect if something has been defrosted and refrozen because the product is inside the box.”
Hand-made recipe
Little Jimmy's Italian Ice is made from a 75-year-old secret recipe, known only to two of the four Moore brothers: Jeffery and one other who wants to remain anonymous. The brothers, along with their father Harry, own and operate the company.
Jeffery, who is the company's icemaker, says “our Italian Ice is hand made from a mixture of ice, water, sugar, natural and artificial flavorings, and a stabilizer, all mixed together in a large tank.
“This mixture is pumped into old fashion machines that whip the mixture from a liquid into a slush. The slush is then pumped into three or five gallon containers, which are immediately placed in a freezer and frozen solid.”
It takes about two hours to make one batch of Little Jimmy's Italian Ice. One batch produces about 250 gallons of ice. Only one flavor is made per day.
Little Jimmy's Italian Ice comes in 20 flavors. The top flavors have consistently been, in order: cherry, lemon, blueberry, and mango.
Business start
“Our grandfather, Albert Mauro, whose name was changed to Moore when he came to America 75 years ago through Ellis Island, started Little Jimmy's Italian Ice,” says Tommy, another Moore brother. “He took the idea of Italian Ice from his home of Sicily and made a formula for the United States.
“Albert got started by making his ice, putting it in an insulated cooler inside his truck, and selling the Italian Ice to factory workers as they changed shifts. The business grew from there.”
Harry Moore, Albert's son and the father of the four brothers, took over the business, named for Albert's youngest son Jimmy, in 1971. At that time, 25 company-owned trucks — all used postal delivery vehicles — were converted into Italian Ice trucks. Routes were assigned, and drivers were paid hourly, plus commission.
“The drivers were abusing the trucks,” Dennis says. “Our father decided it would be more beneficial for everyone to have the drivers own their trucks. He offered them the opportunity to become independent contractors. All but one driver did.
The focus of the Little Jimmy's Italian Ice significantly changed again in 1986, with the 100th anniversary of the Statue of Liberty. “With all of the celebrations planned for this event,” says Anthony, “we saw a real potential to grow our business.”
Business expansion
The company bid on the concession operations at Liberty State Park and Island Beach State Park, both in New Jersey. It won contracts for both parks and ran the concessions from 1986 to 2004.
“Our employees worked all the concession stands where we sold food, drinks, and souvenirs, in addition to our Italian Ices,” Dennis says. “We also had pushcarts at both parks that just sold our product. We observed that the pushcarts were doing the best of everything else we were selling.
“Our Italian Ice did not sell when it was in a concession stand competing with other foods. The ice was lost. However, when it is sold from a pushcart that just sells Italian Ice, it does much better.”
The Moores came to the realization that they really had never focused on a core business — Italian Ice. When the concessions contracts ended, they decided to once again change the course of the business, this time focusing on selling Italian Ice concessions.
A new logo was created along with new marketing and merchandising materials. The company began experimenting with the Internet “as a way to expand business, and at the same time introduce our product to people who would not otherwise have a chance to enjoy our Italian Ice,” says Dennis.
About six years ago, Little Jimmy's Italian Ice created a website. The first year several people from out of state contacted the company, wanting to get into the Italian Ice business by buying pushcarts and ice. This led to an enhanced website, which has lead to more inquiries and additional sales.
“We have about 100 privately-owned trucks and approximately 200 pushcarts across the US,” says Anthony. “And that has created problems with getting Little Jimmy's Italian Ice transported.”
Growth challenges
“There have been occasions when a refrigerated truck arrives for our product, and we do a temperature reading that shows the inside temperature of the trailer is 30° F,” Dennis says. “We ask the driver to wait until the temperature comes down to 0° F, and he tells us he doesn't want to wait. We have a problem with that, especially when the names of some of these companies have the word ‘frozen’ in their name.”
Compounding the problem is the relatively small quantity of product shipped.
“Our product pallet is 48 by 40 by 70 inches, and weighs 2,400 pounds,” says Dennis. “Our containers are triple stacked with 20 cans per level. During our busy season - spring and summer - we typically ship 15 to 20 pallets per week. Off season, we'll ship three to four pallets per week. It's usually one pallet per destination.”
Because Little Jimmy's Italian Ice has had continual transportation issues, “we tell our customers up front that their delivery will be a ‘window date’ because we can't track the load and it's not in our control,” Anthony explains. “We always tell our customers that whenever they place an order, they need to allow some extra time, and they need to have a buffer amount of our product on hand in case something happens with the delivery, especially if they are ordering product for some type of special event.”
He says the company also has had some difficulties with certain cold storage facilities. “Some are not as reliable as others when it comes to service, especially in checking the temperature of the product before it is accepted.”
A number of Little Jimmy's Italian Ice customers work out of their homes and need to use cold storage facilities because tractor trailers can't easily deliver to residential neighborhoods. These customers pick up the product themselves from these facilities.
“It's just astounding that we continue to have difficulties finding consistent and dependable businesses that specialize in transporting and storing frozen products,” says Dennis. “The frozen carriers we currently use are very good, but they don't cover all areas of the country, and that creates a void that we're currently trying to fill with reliable frozen transporters.”
