FARK.com: (7220891) Baskin-Robbins closes last North American ice cream factory to focus on "core skills," which do not include making ice cream

If you can read this, either the style sheet didn't load or you have an older browser that doesn't support style sheets. Try clearing your browser cache and refreshing the page.

		Baskin-Robbins closes last North American ice cream factory to focus on "core skills," which do not include making ice cream (patriotledger.com)		96
		More: Misc, Baskin-Robbins, North American, Dunkin' Brands, international business, factory, product innovations, outplacement, Peterborough

• • •

2835 clicks; posted to Business » on 19 Jul 2012 at 12:10 AM | Favorite | share:

Share this link:

URL:

http://fark.com/go/7220891

Bookmark:

Article Comments close

96 Comments (+0 »)

View Voting Results: Smartest and Funniest

Archived thread

First | « | 1 | 2 | » | Last | Show all

verbaltoxin		2012-07-19 10:08:13 AM

From the wikis:

On December 12, 2005, Pernod Ricard, who had just taken control of Allied Domecq, announced plans to sell the Dunkin' Brands group. Dunkin' Brands was later sold to a consortium of private equity firms consisting of Bain Capital, The Carlyle Group and Thomas H. Lee Partners for $2.425 billion in cash.

Look, another well-known American brand whose product is easy as F*CK to sell, and should never go out of business or have to downsize or outsource (It's F*CKIGN ICE CREAM, FOR GOD SAKES!!), has been gutted and chopped up by a private equity firm that leverage debt against its assets and skimmed cream off the top via management fees.

evilmrsock		2012-07-19 10:19:04 AM

Hey. Hey corporate profiteers.

You touch Stewart's Ice Cream, you lay a goddamn finger on my chocolate peanut butter cup, and I'll hunt you down and gut you like a fish.

cyrus_hunter		2012-07-19 10:19:17 AM

People in that area eat Kawartha Dairy ice cream anyway.

/ Moose tracks are the best.

feuerwehrmann		2012-07-19 10:21:38 AM

Onkel Buck: More people going on public assistance. Obama is pleased

RTFA -- this is in Canada

/ Probably was just trolled by this herpy derpy comment

Galloping Galoshes		2012-07-19 10:25:16 AM

Talk about a confusing article. The plant that is closing apparently makes ice cream for INTERNATIONAL sales. And they're moving Canadian production offshore to... Nova Scotia. Well, I guess it is offshore, technically. Poorly titled, poorly written. Sorry to all of you up in arms about outsourcing, but it appears that Baskin Robbins is moving some of their production for overseas sales, overseas.

verbaltoxin		2012-07-19 10:42:05 AM

Galloping Galoshes: Talk about a confusing article. The plant that is closing apparently makes ice cream for INTERNATIONAL sales. And they're moving Canadian production offshore to... Nova Scotia. Well, I guess it is offshore, technically. Poorly titled, poorly written. Sorry to all of you up in arms about outsourcing, but it appears that Baskin Robbins is moving some of their production for overseas sales, overseas.

Only 1/3 of the Canton' plants products went to international sales. The other 2/3 were domestic. There were also only 80 workers at this plant. That's a paltry sum. Savings will only be $3-4 million and the penalty for closing will be $12 million. So for this to save Dunkin' Brands money they have to prove it was worth it in about 4 years. That's ridiculously short-sighted. It's f*cking ice cream. It's not hard to make or sell. Want to make more money? Sell more f*cking ice cream. It's not hard if you aren't a f*cking corporate boardroom piece of sh*t.

Also we're taking into consideration the shrinking amount of Baskin-Robbins franchises in North America, combined with the noted drop in quality of those franchises. This is also a move toward subcontracting, yet another sign of PE firms cutting costs at the expense of product quality. It's like Pabst Brewing Co. Years ago they consolidated a ton of brewers, cut the sh*t out of their operations and advertising, and now PBC subcontracts all its brewing. None of it is done in house. Subsequently, the quality of the beer and accessibility of it has declined to the point where it resurfaced mainly due to ironic appreciation of it. That's where B-R is headed.

All that happened due to bad management, not from paying decent wages and operating costs to plant with all of 80 workers supplying B-R franchises around the world with ice cream, one of the easiest products to sell ever.

Spin it how you want, this is yet another example of vulture capitalism caring only about margins, not products.

paulleah		2012-07-19 10:44:12 AM

This is very confusing. Are they saying that Baskin Robbins is no longer going to service ice cream made in North America, or that they just are not going to run any operations?

I am assuming ice cream is still made here, they are just using other companies to make it for them. Most likely in N. America.

I dont think they are running ice cream sweat shops in India.

d3		2012-07-19 10:51:07 AM

germ78: Peki: Not a loss. Anyone else notice that ice cream tastes like crap these days? I don't know what filler they are using, but the 31 flavors taste like 31 variations of whipped gum to me. There's just something so fake and rubbery about it.

And the stuff that tastes like real ice cream used to now is called gelatto or some stuff like that.

/off my lawn
//and no, you can't have my ice cream either

I got a tub of Breyers the other week and two things stood out to me immediately: it was disgustingly sweet and there was something weird about the texture of the melted ice cream - like it had the consistency of a thick milkshake. It was almost as if they put too much carageenan in it like McD's does.

/and the flaws stood out worse because the ice cream I had just before that was Blue Bunny, which is damn fine ice cream

You shut your whore mouth! Take one look at the ingredients list for their Mint Chip. Breyers = 100 Natural ingredients. Blue Bunny = Processed crap and artificial colors!

tcan		2012-07-19 11:08:35 AM

Thats_right_ALL_the_tea: sno man:
ummm, kids, your core business is ice cream, and you are not making it anymore. Why do I need to buy ice cream made by someone else, that I can get for less at the supermarket, from you again?

Unfortunately, they apparently view their core business as marketing and branding, as do quite a lot of US companies these days. Basically, they think they'll do better if the answer to your question is "because you subconsciously associate our signs, logos, and decor with fun and other positive feelings".

Nailed it! There are all kinds of companies out there providing average products with intense marketing and charging premium prices ( Nike comes to mind, a brand marketed almost exclusively to young men) but there are lots of examples of companies competing with one another using products from the same chinese factories.

Geotpf		2012-07-19 11:10:02 AM

paulleah: This is very confusing. Are they saying that Baskin Robbins is no longer going to service ice cream made in North America, or that they just are not going to run any operations?

I am assuming ice cream is still made here, they are just using other companies to make it for them. Most likely in N. America.

I dont think they are running ice cream sweat shops in India.

Yeah, that's it. They will contract out all the making of the ice cream to various local dairys, as far as I can tell.

Not really a big deal, IMHO. Now whether or not this makes long term fiscal sense for the company, who knows?

Geotpf		2012-07-19 11:18:49 AM

ZAZ: WhyteRaven74

A one time charge is a game, not a loss. Accountants gather $16 million in costs from the next few decades and put them on this year's books with a note saying "this was a freak occurrence, it won't happen again."

Well, it depends. If you buy or sell a company, or get fined by the government, or have some other sort of, um, one time charge, then it's marked as, um, a one time charge.

Towermonkey		2012-07-19 11:20:14 AM

60 posts in and not a single Blue Bell mention... I haz a sad.

Key Lime Pie is in season right now.

saintstryfe		2012-07-19 11:20:14 AM

evilmrsock: Hey. Hey corporate profiteers.

You touch Stewart's Ice Cream, you lay a goddamn finger on my chocolate peanut butter cup, and I'll hunt you down and gut you like a fish.

Amen. Stewart's Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup is just a about the most perfect ice cream ever devised, and I hate chocolate ice cream for the most part. But I can make a big exception for that. Nothing, NOTHING makes you feel as good as getting that big chunk of peanut butter.

/their Peanut Butter Pandemonium is also very good, it's a vanilla version of CBPC with little peanut butter cups right in it. Not quite as perfectly balanced, but delicious none the less
//Upstate New Yorkers unite.

guilt by association		2012-07-19 11:22:09 AM

Not surprising. I worked at a BR/candy/fudge franchise combo store in my teens, and the quality was shiat back then too. Our boss did not seem particularly concerned with store aesthetics and freshness; you could tell when a particular tub of ice cream had been sitting in the case for some time.

Geotpf		2012-07-19 11:25:20 AM

tomWright: Winktologist: I hate seeing crap like this. No one ever does business to make and sell quality products anymore; it's all about owning a brand and getting the lowest bidder to fuel your supply.

Capitalism fail.

A lot of this is due to the expenses of having employees, which are increased by the costs of complying with government bureaucracies enforcing all the various wage and hour, safety and employee protection laws. While the majority of the laws may be based on rational need, the compliance costs often are not.

Not to mention that there are tax differences between earning money from sales and earning money from capital gains, royalties and myriad other sources. It's easier to finagle numbers on paper than machinery and people in a plant that occupies real land and buildings, and deal with all the regulations all those things bring into play.

When it becomes cheaper to hire another company, in the same country, to do your actual business, there is a problem.

Governments need to simplify rules and regulations, and lower compliance costs. Fat chance of that.

None of that makes any sense. The company you subcontract the work to has to pay those compliance costs just like you do.

I am personally of the opinion that keeping as much stuff in house as possible is usually the most long term profitable move, although that's not always the case.

Scarrio		2012-07-19 11:49:15 AM

I'll be happy to not go to BR anymore. There are lots of other options in Toronto. Or, I'll just go to just about any grocery store and get some Chapman's, whose quality is a hell of a lot better.

Mcavity		2012-07-19 11:56:23 AM

once a company stops manufacturing its own product its on a death spiral.
there's no real point any more. If you work for them - find another job.

Debeo Summa Credo		2012-07-19 12:24:50 PM

Geotpf: ZAZ: WhyteRaven74

A one time charge is a game, not a loss. Accountants gather $16 million in costs from the next few decades and put them on this year's books with a note saying "this was a freak occurrence, it won't happen again."

Well, it depends. If you buy or sell a company, or get fined by the government, or have some other sort of, um, one time charge, then it's marked as, um, a one time charge.

Yeah in this case it probably includes severance for the laid off employees, buying out of their lease, writing off any intangible assets related to the old plant etc.

Although ZAZ is correct in that sometimes companys will try to kitchen sink stuff into one time charges to improve future profitability.

Asako		2012-07-19 01:12:35 PM

Mcavity: once a company stops manufacturing its own product its on a death spiral.
there's no real point any more. If you work for them - find another job.

Kind of funny but I work in an industry where most of the companies don't actually make anything that we sell. Web hosting is a strange world.

ajgeek		2012-07-19 01:48:40 PM

Baskin Robbins is almost the perfect company.
This mythical company provides nothing and gets paid to do so. Only a few have existed in human history.

nmemkha		2012-07-19 02:15:15 PM

Debeo Summa Credo: nmemkha: Many touched on the core point:

Companies in business for the sole purpose to make their investors money is detrimental to long-term viability of our society.

Except, like, that has been the sole purpose of companies since forever. So we've been able to advance and improve our society so far despite the hindrance of for-profit companies being, you know, for profit.

Bullshiat. Making money has not always been an end unto itself. For most of history, people who made money without actually producing anything were reviled as morally repugnant. Most ancient societies forbade loaning money at interest and most considered it to be criminal (i.e. usury).

Galloping Galoshes		2012-07-19 03:21:27 PM

verbaltoxin: Only 1/3 of the Canton' plants products went to international sales. The other 2/3 were domestic.

From the article: "The Peterborough plant makes ice cream for about one-third of Baskin-Robbins' shops outside of the U.S."

Reading comprehension is a wonderful thing.verbaltoxin: Savings will only be $3-4 million and the penalty for closing will be $12 million. So for this to save Dunkin' Brands money they have to prove it was worth it in about 4 years. That's ridiculously short-sighted.

Actually, that's long-term thinking. After 10 years, the savings will be $28M - $38M.

verbaltoxin: All that happened due to bad management, not from paying decent wages and operating costs to plant with all of 80 workers supplying B-R franchises around the world with ice cream, one of the easiest products to sell ever.

Nowhere do you provide any evidence to back up a single assertion in your diatribe.

verbaltoxin: Spin it how you want, this is yet another example of vulture capitalism caring only about margins, not products.

Ah, I see. Business isn't about making a profit. I see a bright future for you... working for someone else and biatching about how dumb the owner is and how you could do it better.

Nowhere could I find an evidence backing up your point that the number of B-R franchises is shrinking, other than in 1999 about 200 franchise agreements were terminated. The stores were free to continue operation, just not as B-R. So I can only conclude that you're using this news to bolster your own pre-formed ideology, not actually in any thoughtful manner.

Buffalo77		2012-07-19 04:29:59 PM

sno man

Well at least the Canadian Shops will still get ice cream made in Canada...

But focus on your core business...
ummm, kids, your core business is ice cream, and you are not making it anymore. Why do I need to buy ice cream made by someone else, that I can get for less at the supermarket, from you again?

Their core business is selling ice cream, not making ice cream.

They will continue with this but not have the headaches of manufacturing the ice cream.

Net Canadians still have jobs.

natazha		2012-07-19 05:09:02 PM

Fred Meyers' "Private Selection" ice creams are every bit as good and a fraction of the price. About the only downside, you have a whole carton of ice cream to deal with, rather than one cone. It's been a long time since I purchased BR.

Kwai Lo		2012-07-19 05:09:36 PM

germ78: Breyer

I find it depends on which Breyer's you buy. Up here, the blue tub isn't actually ice cream, it is frozen dessert. The black tub is triple churned ice cream, (whatever that means) and still tastes like ice cream should.

eagles95		2012-07-19 06:22:57 PM

FU Baskin Robbins

Culvers is amazing. Plus made fresh daily in store

/also FU Bain Capital

tomWright		2012-07-19 06:42:47 PM

Geotpf: tomWright: Winktologist: I hate seeing crap like this. No one ever does business to make and sell quality products anymore; it's all about owning a brand and getting the lowest bidder to fuel your supply.

Capitalism fail.

A lot of this is due to the expenses of having employees, which are increased by the costs of complying with government bureaucracies enforcing all the various wage and hour, safety and employee protection laws. While the majority of the laws may be based on rational need, the compliance costs often are not.

Not to mention that there are tax differences between earning money from sales and earning money from capital gains, royalties and myriad other sources. It's easier to finagle numbers on paper than machinery and people in a plant that occupies real land and buildings, and deal with all the regulations all those things bring into play.

When it becomes cheaper to hire another company, in the same country, to do your actual business, there is a problem.

Governments need to simplify rules and regulations, and lower compliance costs. Fat chance of that.

None of that makes any sense. The company you subcontract the work to has to pay those compliance costs just like you do.

I am personally of the opinion that keeping as much stuff in house as possible is usually the most long term profitable move, although that's not always the case.

Of course it makes no sense, except that maybe you save on the cost of the building to house them while they work, as well as the HR and other people needed to support them. But as you say, that other company need to pay them as well. I am just trying to make sense of what many corps are doing, using what I have read concerning this issue.

I agree that keeping things in-house makes more sense, or seems to. So this whole thing has always puzzled me as to how the finances work out. But work out they must, some how, or this many companies wouldn't be doing it.

Of course, there is always insanity as an unknowable factor.

yagottabefarkinkiddinme		2012-07-19 07:13:24 PM

I miss this place. : (

TexanBoy		2012-07-19 07:20:25 PM

Wow. There's a lotta armchair quarterbacks when it comes to business huh?

DanInKansas		2012-07-19 07:40:27 PM

nmemkha: Bullshiat. Making money has not always been an end unto itself. For most of history, people who made money without actually producing anything were reviled as morally repugnant. Most ancient societies forbade loaning money at interest and most considered it to be criminal (i.e. usury).

You'll also note that through most of history, the vast majority of people were slaves or little better than slaves, that most people were illiterate, that famine and plagues were frequent, that people mostly worked themselves to death, and that technology and innovation proceeded with a snail's pace, usually against the wishes of the elites.

So, yeah, I'll take money lenders making fat cash if it means I have things like toilet paper, medicines, and labor saving devices.

nmemkha		2012-07-19 08:23:55 PM

DanInKansas: nmemkha: Bullshiat. Making money has not always been an end unto itself. For most of history, people who made money without actually producing anything were reviled as morally repugnant. Most ancient societies forbade loaning money at interest and most considered it to be criminal (i.e. usury).

You'll also note that through most of history, the vast majority of people were slaves or little better than slaves, that most people were illiterate, that famine and plagues were frequent, that people mostly worked themselves to death, and that technology and innovation proceeded with a snail's pace, usually against the wishes of the elites.

So, yeah, I'll take money lenders making fat cash if it means I have things like toilet paper, medicines, and labor saving devices.

Correlation != Causation

Yes, banker's invented toilet paper and medicine. Come on.

sno man		2012-07-19 08:45:55 PM

Buffalo77: sno man

Well at least the Canadian Shops will still get ice cream made in Canada...

But focus on your core business...
ummm, kids, your core business is ice cream, and you are not making it anymore. Why do I need to buy ice cream made by someone else, that I can get for less at the supermarket, from you again?

Their core business is selling ice cream, not making ice cream.

They will continue with this but not have the headaches of manufacturing the ice cream.

Net Canadians still have jobs.

Baskin Robbins core business used to be ice cream. Period. The making and selling of 31 unique flavours. Some bozo rookie MBA along the way, only looking at the numbers decided that they could get someone else to make their ice cream cheaper. (no need to worry about quality, our customers are too stupid to notice or too fat to care.)
If I go to an Ice Cream Store, I want ice cream they made... That's kinda the whole point. As I said earlier, I can go to the supermarket for someone else's ice cream.

And about the net jobs point, maybe the new provider of ice cream needs the same number of workers, and pays them less, or (more probably) needs less workers. Or do these magic cost savings appear out of thin air? And there is now 80 people in Peterborough now looking for work. And probably only going to find a lower paying job. Win win!

WordsnCollision		2012-07-19 10:41:41 PM

/inconsolable

Otto_E_Rodika		2012-07-19 11:58:34 PM

Bain Capital's president is one of Obama's biggest bundlers. Romney hasn't been at Bain for years. Baskin Robbins closes plant, blame Romney.

/keep farking that chicken, libs
//according to Obama, somebody else made that happen

FormlessOne		2012-07-20 12:20:44 AM

Winktologist: I hate seeing crap like this. No one ever does business to make and sell quality products anymore; it's all about owning a brand and getting the lowest bidder to fuel your supply.

Yep, and it's been that way ever since the 80's, when we realized that people bought brands, not products. A brand used to signify a product - now, the brand is more important than the product itself, so much so that a company whose brand was grown by producing ice cream feels that the ice cream itself just isn't friggin' important any more. The brand remains intact, but the ice cream is manufactured by the lowest bidder in a factory in, say, Argentina, or China.

I can buy ice cream made by the lowest bidder at the grocery store. I don't need to be overcharged for it because someone who can't follow basic hygiene instructions served "Salmonella & Saliva Swirl" in a three-day-old waffle cone.

Fark that.

Buffalo77		2012-07-20 12:41:45 AM

Sno Man you need to get a degree in business before you start talking about what Baskins Robbins core business is. I know you won't believe this but I have been in the ice cream marketing business. I also know that what business want is predictability of cost, outsourcing this to Nova Scotia goes a long way toward that. As far as Peterborough, who cares. Did they care about the plant. Did the city cut back on their taxes and city services, did the union make concessions to keep the plant open. No they sucked that tit till it was dry. If it would have been beneficial to keep the plant open, they would have. Peterborough reaped what they sowed. Its that simple.

Gough		2012-07-20 01:34:09 AM

Glad to see that at least part of this thread has turned into an ice cream thread. I have to say that I've had Farrells (recently, Rancho Cucamonga), Culvers, Chapmans, and a host of others, but my favorites are still Farquhars and Ferdinand's. It is a bit of a problem in there there is a 2100-mile gap between those two markets, but we just try to drive it as fast as we can.

puffy999		2012-07-20 03:29:16 AM

germ78: I got a tub of Breyers the other week and two things stood out to me immediately

Was it one of their "Frozen Dairy Desserts" or was it actually ice cream?

puffy999		2012-07-20 03:36:10 AM

Galloping Galoshes: Actually, that's long-term thinking. After 10 years, the savings will be $28M - $38M.

With the track record of the company's ownership, I don't think "long term" is part of the picture...

insertsnarkyusername		2012-07-20 03:36:18 AM

Otto_E_Rodika: Bain Capital's president is one of Obama's biggest bundlers. Romney hasn't been at Bain for years. Baskin Robbins closes plant, blame Romney.

/keep farking that chicken, libs
//according to Obama, somebody else made that happen

I agree this isn't Romney's fault but don't defend that scumbag. You are better than that.

puffy999		2012-07-20 03:39:26 AM

Otto_E_Rodika: Bain Capital's president is one of Obama's biggest bundlers. Romney hasn't been at Bain for years. Baskin Robbins closes plant, blame Romney.

/keep farking that chicken, libs
//according to Obama, somebody else made that happen

And Dick Cheney never had anything to do with Halliburton once he left the company.

Huck And Molly Ziegler		2012-07-20 03:46:55 AM

When Baskin-Robbins came to a small Southern town in the mid-'70s, it was quite a novelty - mainly because you had to take a number and wait in line to be served. I happened to love Two Scoops of Chocolate Chip in a Cup.

/never cared for cones
//reminiscence off

meanmutton		2012-07-20 09:20:36 AM

RoyBatty: WhyteRaven74: Funk Brothers: Is Baskin-Robbins owned by Bane Capital?

Ownership is split between Bain, the Carlyle Group and Thomas H. Lee Partners.

chance4510: Worth noting I suppose:

Our Owners

Dunkin' Brands, Inc. is owned by a consortium of global private equity firms: Bain Capital Partners LLC, The Carlyle Group and Thomas H. Lee Partners, L.P.

http://www.dunkinbrands.com/aboutus/parent_company.html

Given what a dumbass Romney is, and what gun runners Carlyle is (and their ties to Bush and Bin Laden), I assumed WhyteRaven74 was joking....

Jeez Louise, it's for real.

I love the assumption that someone with different political beliefs than you is a "dumbass", even if that person graduated from Harvard's business school and law school simultaneously with high honors in both.

God Is My Co-Pirate		2012-07-20 03:52:36 PM

ArkAngel: I still want Baskin Robbins Daiquiri Ice sorbet, no matter who makes it. Absolutely delicious

My god, THIS. As a small girl, I would embarrass my mother by louding shouting "I wanna daiquiri!" as she dragged me through the mall.

Galaxie500		2012-07-20 08:03:01 PM

Ah, Dean Foods...I remember what they did to the pickle plant in the town where I grew up.

Goodbye, Baskin-Robbins.

Infobahn		2012-07-21 09:37:29 AM

yagottabefarkinkiddinme: [foodbeast.com image 500x347]

[foodbeast.com image 500x328]

I miss this place. : (

It still exists.

Displayed 46 of 96 comments

First | « | 1 | 2 | » | Last | Show all

View Voting Results: Smartest and Funniest

Redisplay/refresh comments

This thread is closed to new comments.