EBS STAFF
BIG SKY – Local company The Emperor of Ice Cream announced on Nov. 8 that it intends to start producing ice cream in Montana. Since the company’s beginnings in 2016, owner Alex McKenzie has been developing his own ice cream flavors—like bourbon pecan pie and mojito sorbet—and trucking them to Big Sky from Seattle.
However, the young company hopes to begin producing and packaging its own all-natural ice cream in Montana and would distribute the product nationwide.
“We are eager to share our all-natural ice cream and ice cream alternatives with the rest of the country, and we hope that Montanans will be excited to support a homegrown boot-strap operation with some pretty big goals,” said McKenzie in a press release.
“We’ve already got a stated interest in distributing our ice cream from Bozeman-based QFD, and Town & Country Foods has expressed a desire to carry our products locally too,” he added.
The Emperor of Ice Cream also hopes to develop a prototype ice cream truck.
“With an ice cream truck, we’ll be able to expand our hours considerably, and just set up at the same location regularly. And then of course we’ll still have the mobility to travel for special events when we want to do that,” McKenzie said in an email to EBS.
McKenzie said that if the truck is successful, he’s like to see it expand to other markets. “My ultimate dream is not one ice cream truck, but more like 300 all over the U.S. … And I think our ice cream truck concept would go over like gangbusters in the southwestern U.S., where the sales season would be year-round.”
In addition to selling ice cream at the Big Sky Farmers’ Market, the summer concert series Music in the Mountains, and other outdoor events, The Emperor of Ice Cream sells its flavors at Bozmean’s Sola Market, Red Tractor Pizza, and multiple restaurants in the Big Sky area.
Over the past year, The Emperor of Ice Cream has partnered with Prospera Business Network and the Headwaters RC&D and has recently launched an investment campaign as the first step toward producing ice cream in Montana.
To learn more about The Emperor of Ice Cream, visit eoicbigsky.com.
