Thrifty Ice Cream Plant
Ice cream shop · El Monte ·
Ice cream production facility offering classic flavors and modernizations
Ice cream production facility offering classic flavors and modernizations
"A large ice cream production facility opened in 1976 that reportedly produces about 60,000 gallons of ice cream per day, supplying retail tubs and wholesale food-service customers; it remains the primary manufacturing site for the brand even as the parent company faces financial uncertainty." - Matthew Kang
"I toured the 55,000-square-foot Thrifty Ice Cream plant tucked between the 10 Freeway and Rosemead Boulevard in El Monte, less than 20 miles east of Downtown Los Angeles, and saw how this compact, hockey-rink–size factory has churned out the brand’s ice cream since 1976. The operation still leans on decades-old recipes and processes—bases for families of flavors, liquid-ammonia freezers that instantly freeze mix, a fruit feeder that adds chunky inclusions, and flash-freeze hardener tunnels—but recent modernization has speeded production (moving from two or three seconds per take-home container to about one per second) and added real-time machine and logistics monitoring. The plant’s 110 workers, many with 20+ years on the job, run 10-hour shifts to produce about 60,000 gallons (1.5 million scoops) daily and roughly 5 million gallons annually for other brands, with capacity to spare for expansion. On tour I tasted pistachio in its prefrozen, softer state—plentiful roasted nuts, a bold amaretto note up front and a lingering salty finish—and sampled a best-selling pink-lemonade seasonal that may become permanent. Thrifty’s distinctive barrel-shaped metal scoop (a proprietary, two-pronged trigger design) guarantees uniform portions, and a single scoop at retail remains an affordable $2.49 served in a cup or atop a paper-wrapped Joycake or sugar cone. Rooted in a history that began with Thrifty drugstores in 1929 and in-house production after the 1940 Borden purchase, the plant’s combination of low price, recognizable scoop shape, long-running flavors (the original trio included concord grape-pineapple, rocky road, and fruit cake), and careful modernization gives me confidence the brand can endure despite corporate changes." - Cathy Chaplin
"Operating out of Eastern Market, Ice Cream Plant is a vegan and allergy-safe ice cream company that pivoted from primarily self-distributing to restaurants and grocery stores to offering online ordering with door-to-door delivery during the pandemic. The change helped keep the company’s four part-time employees paid as many restaurant accounts temporarily closed; delivery carries a $40 minimum (about four pints) and the company is doing roughly ten $40+ delivery orders per week in addition to regular wholesale replenishment for freezer aisles. The owners have been impressed by the sales volume, but they’ve also had to limit their delivery area (deliveries are often made in a 2010 Volkswagen and long hops are only feasible if multiple orders come from the same distant area), and they expect more muted overall sales than the 50 percent growth they had been preparing for. Going forward, Ice Cream Plant plans to invest more in vegan soft serve and explore packaging its ice cream sandwiches for sale at grocery stores." - Brenna Houck
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