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Success Story
"Joy Cone Sees Opportunities to GrowLargest ice-cream cone maker in U.S. will expandBy Hal JohnsonAt the St. Louis World's Fair in July 1904, a pastry vendor, Ernest A. Harmwi, was selling his "zalabias" next to an ice cream stand. Harmwi saw the ice cream vendor had run out of serving bowls. So he walked over with one of his sugar wafers while it was still warm and pliable.Harmwi shaped the wafer into a shape that could hold a scoop of ice cream. And voila! The vendors' collaboration became the hit of the World's Fair.This account is one of many about how the ice cream cone came to be invented. A century later, the production of ice cream cones is marked by cutthroat price wars as manufacturers seek to survive.Five ice-cream cone manufacturers have folded over the last decade years and a sixth will likely fold soon, says Joseph George, president of Joy Cone Co. in Hermitage, Pa., and Flagstaff, Ariz. Joy gives every indication it will be not just one of the survivors but remain a force in producing ice cream cones. George believes his company has no choice but to enlarge its plant in Hermitage.One of Joy's largest competitors, Turnbull Cone Co. of Chattanooga, Tenn., a division of Bakeline Group, has declared bankruptcy, George reports. "We're hoping to pick up most of their business," he says."Turnbull Cone is the fifth company in the last 10 years to go out of business," George says. His competition, he says, has been winnowed to two large companies, a medium company and four small companies. He anticipates the medium company, which he declined to identify, to soon go out of business soon."It's fierce competition. … People are just so hungry for market share. So they cut their prices below what they can afford," George comments.The family-owned cone maker has taken a different route. "We're surviving. Our explanation is that our quality and service, for the most part, is better than our competition. Our overall prices are a little higher than our competitors‚ not a lot, just a little," he says."We invest in our production and in technology. Technology cuts our costs a little more," George continues. "We're able to get by while others are folding."In 2003, Joy turned out the equivalent of 1.3 billion cones, prompting George to say, "We believe we are the largest cone producer in the world."By year end, George projects Joy will turn out the equivalent of 1.75 billion cones. He uses the term "equivalents of cones" because some cones are larger than the standard cone, some smaller.George's claim to the top producer of ice cream cones would appear to stand up -- unless there is a larger producer overseas. Joy Cone's major rival, the Keebler division of Kellogg, produced 793,541,822 cones last year, a Keebler spokesman says.With its fleet of 12 tractor-trailers in Hermitage and two in Flagstaff as well as common carriers, Joy Cone Co. delivers its cones overnight, George says, to its customers in the food service industry. Among them are Dairy Queen, Friendly's and Ben and Jerry. Retailers who get their cones from Joy include Wal-Mart, Giant Eagle and other supermarket chains. Besides selling Joy cones in its stores, Giant Eagle contracts with Joy to make ice cream cones in boxes that bear its house label, he adds.When the expansion in Hermitage is complete, Joy will produce two billion "equivalent of cones" a year, George projects, if not more.The Hermitage Zoning Board of Appeals has given Joy permission to build an addition of 104,191 square feet to its plant, says City Manager Gary Hinkson, just under half of the existing plant's 210,000 square feet of floor space.Hinkson acknowledges Joy originally sought to build an addition of 180,000 square feet, and that city laws restricted the addition to half its existing space.Hermitage city commissioners are considering a revision to the local zoning ordinance that would allow Joy Cone Co. to expand up to double its present size."The city and the company will continue to work to meet other needs of the company," Hinkson states, adding both Joy and Hermitage have options that would allow for an expansion greater than that granted.Joy Cone employs 500 in Hermitage and Flagstaff, and the addition in Hermitage would add 100 more employees, George says.The expansion will not allow Joy Cone to corner the market, "but it will solidify our position," George says. "It will make us a stronger company so we are not vulnerable to market conditions," he says.George will not disclose much Joy will pay to build its addition except to say it is "significant. Although we are applying for state aid," he adds, "the bulk of the funding will be private financing."The addition should put the company in a position such that a third generation of Georges can own and run it. George's father and aunt, Albert George and Rose Thomas, founded the company in 1918 in Masury. They moved it to Irvine Avenue in Sharon, but fire twice destroyed that plant in 1947 and 1964. After the second fire, Joy Cone chose to rebuild at its current location on Lamor Road.George's two sons, his daughter and a nephew are all working in the business, and he is optimistic the third generation will be as successful."