Van Leeuwen Ice Cream: From Food Truck to Multi-Million Dollar Empire
In the summer of 2008, Ben Van Leeuwen started his journey by serving 300 scoops of ice cream from a food truck in New York City. What began as a humble artisanal ice cream venture has since grown into Van Leeuwen Ice Cream, a renowned brand with nearly 50 scoop shops nationwide and products available in over 10,000 stores across the U.S.
The Early Years
Ben, alongside his brother Pete and their friend Laura O'Neill, founded Van Leeuwen with a mission: to craft high-quality ice cream using simple, premium ingredients such as butterfat, egg yolk, Ecuadorian chocolate, Sicilian pistachios, and barrel-aged vanilla. They launched in 2008 with a single food truck, repurposed from a postal van they bought on eBay for $2,500. Facing a steep financial challenge—they had only raised $60,000 of the $250,000 they needed—the trio outsourced production to a factory upstate and started selling scoops on New York streets.
After some initial challenges in finding the right location, they parked their truck at the corner of Green and Prince Streets in Soho, where they quickly built a following. On their first day, they sold over 300 scoops and earned about $2,000.
Van Leeuwen set itself apart with bold, creative flavors like Gianduja and Ginger alongside classics like Chocolate and Vanilla, all crafted with top-tier ingredients. By the end of their first summer, they had expanded to three trucks, despite frequent breakdowns of their repurposed postal vans.
Scaling the Brand
By the following year, Van Leeuwen’s three trucks reportedly generated $900,000 in revenue and $325,000 in profit, allowing them to open their first brick-and-mortar store in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, in 2010. The storefront provided a steady revenue stream and increased brand visibility. By 2012, they expanded into Manhattan’s East Village and Boerum Hill in Brooklyn, and in 2014, Pete moved to Los Angeles to grow their presence on the West Coast.
Manufacturing Shift: In-House Control
Initially, Van Leeuwen’s ice cream was produced by a co-packer, but the team soon realized that outsourcing wasn’t compatible with their commitment to highly customized flavors. Most ice cream shops use pre-pasteurized bases, which simplify production but limit flavor customization. To gain full control over the texture and taste of their ice cream, Van Leeuwen decided to make their own base, despite the complexities and regulatory hurdles that come with in-house pasteurization.
In 2011, they opened their first production facility, a 800-square-foot space equipped with a 12-gallon pasteurizer. By 2016, demand had grown so much that they expanded to a 5,000-square-foot facility, capable of producing 500 gallons of ice cream per day with a 200-gallon pasteurizer. The expansion was financed through a $700,000 Small Business Administration loan, and by purchasing used equipment, they kept costs low. For instance, a refurbished pasteurizer cost them $180,000, compared to $450,000 for a new one.
Shifting Focus: Wholesale Expansion
The expansion in production capacity in 2016 was driven by Van Leeuwen shifting its focus from retail to wholesale distribution. “Wholesale is the better business,” said Ben Van Leeuwen, citing the successes of major brands like Häagen-Dazs and Ben & Jerry’s. Wholesale allowed Van Leeuwen to scale more easily without the high overhead costs associated with retail. While retail operations required hefty investments in storefronts, employees, and utilities, wholesale involved simply distributing pre-packaged pints to grocery stores—a far more scalable model.
The brand’s wholesale business took off, and their products became available in thousands of stores, including Whole Foods and Walmart. Even with the wholesale expansion, the company continued to open scoop shops across the U.S., using retail locations to bolster brand awareness.
Scaling an Ice Cream Empire
In 2018, Van Leeuwen raised $3.9 million in its first institutional funding round to expand its New York storefront presence. By 2020, the company secured an additional $18.7 million from San Francisco-based private equity firm NextWorld, LLC. With this financial backing, the brand expanded both its retail and wholesale operations, reaching more than 10,000 grocery stores nationwide.
Van Leeuwen became famous for its innovative flavors, releasing nearly 500 varieties over the years, including quirky creations like Kraft Mac & Cheese and Hidden Valley Ranch ice cream. These unconventional flavors garnered widespread media attention and helped further elevate the brand’s profile.
Today, the company serves over 40,000 guests daily during the summer season and employs more than 1,000 people. Popular flavors like Honeycomb and Brown Sugar Cookie Dough Chunk continue to draw crowds, while new product lines, including ice cream sandwiches, push the boundaries of the industry.
Looking Ahead
With plans to open an additional 25 to 30 shops in 2024, Van Leeuwen shows no signs of slowing down. The company remains committed to its core values of quality and customer happiness, solidifying its position as a beloved name in the artisanal ice cream world.