Here’s the scoop: Crystal Creamery has something special to mark strong, milestone year
As summer approaches, Crystal Creamery has a couple of reasons to celebrate: a major anniversary and a sunny emergence from a year of coronavirus and COVID-19.
Since the pandemic hit last spring, the Modesto-based company has seen an increase in sales, especially for ice cream.
It’s been hiring, too. Over the last year, it’s added employees across its plants. But, like other local businesses, attracting new employees has been difficult over the past few months. The company now is offering $1,000 signing bonuses to new employees.
Also over the past year, the brand launched new formulations for its ice cream. Ingredients like artificial flavorings and high-fructose corn syrup were scrapped in favor or natural alternatives.
CEO Dennis Roberts said the changes were made following consumer demand for products without “all the ingredients people couldn’t understand or couldn’t pronounce.”
“People want to eat healthier and cleaner labels, so we decided to reformulate our ice cream mix,” ice cream plant manager Eddie Scoto added, “and it’s been wonderful.”
What sets Crystal Creamery apart from other brands, Scoto said, is that it gets all its milk from local farms in the San Joaquin Valley on a daily basis.
“These are all family-owned farms that deliver fresh milk to us every day,” he said. “We have the freshest products around, and we’re always innovative, too.”
Customers seem to be responding. Scoto said sales in the past year have been the best he’s seen in his 31-year tenure at the company.
Grab the scoop and candles
It’s a great position to be in as the company marks its 120th anniversary. To celebrate, Crystal has a limited-edition birthday cake ice cream flavor set to hit stores later this month.
The brand’s new flavor will arrive in freezer cases in a limited, 12,000- to 15,000-unit run on June 21, just in time for the company’s anniversary.
Roberts said the new flavor and surrounding celebrations are an exciting milestone.
“This is kind of a ‘thank you’ to us, as the company and the people (who work here),” he said, “but also a thank you to our customers, because without the customers, we wouldn’t have been around for 120 years.”
Production on the batch of birthday cake ice cream — a cake-flavored ice cream base with chunks of white cake and rainbow sprinkles — began June 9 in the Modesto facility. The ice cream will be sold in 1.5-quart tubs, with special commemorative packaging.
The flavor has been developed and tested by staff, and Scoto said he thinks it will be a hit with adults and children alike. “I’m excited to introduce this birthday cake (flavor) because I love birthday cake, my kids love birthday cake,” he said. “It’s just an exciting flavor that you can share with your family and your kids, and it makes you feel like a kid all over again.”
Crystal’s owned by Foster Farms
The company, which has its main facilities in Modesto just off Kansas Avenue, got its start in 1901 in the back of a grocery store in Sacramento, when George Knox founded Crystal Cream & Butter.
Since then, the company has expanded and increased its product range, selling milk, cottage cheese, sour cream and ice cream, among other products. Crystal Creamery is now owned by the Foster family of Modesto, which runs the Foster Farms poultry operation. Crystal was purchased by the Fosters in 2007, and the name has since been used on all the company’s dairy products.
Crystal sells its products in hundreds of stores from Bakersfield north to the Oregon boarder. Retailers in and near Stanislaus County include O’Brien’s Market, Cost Less Foods, Walmart and Food 4 Less.
Roberts said he attributes Crystal Creamery’s 120-year success to the quality of the products “and the pride that the people in this plant put in.”
“I’m proud to work for the company, and I’m proud to work for these people,” he said. “To be able to have a brand that’s been around 120 years, it’s phenomenal.”
This story was produced with financial support from the Stanislaus Community Foundation, along with the GroundTruth Project’s Report for America initiative. The Modesto Bee maintains full editorial control of this work.
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This story was originally published June 11, 2021 at 4:00 AM.
