High Road Acquires Three Twins Brand, Will Relaunch as More Premium Offering
Could there be a second life for Three Twins?
High Road ice cream founder Keith Schroeder said his company has acquired the organic ice cream brand’s name and other assets; the brand deal follows a November purchase of the company’s Wisconsin manufacturing plant.
“Sometimes in life opportunities just fall in your lap,” Schroeder said.
The sale price was not disclosed but. Schroeder said it was at a price that didn’t require his team or board to “overthink it.” As part of the deal, High Road has also gained the rights to sub-brands Maxines and Slim Twin, recipes for all flavors and the rights to the name and branding. Although he was initially reticent about acquiring the formerly founder-led brand, Schroeder said he ultimately felt that High Road’s shared mission, focus on quality and company culture would allow it to be a good steward of the brand. High Road previously acquired Ciao Bella Gelato in 2018.
Moving forward, Three Twins will be produced either out of the Wisconsin plant — which High Road had up and running for its purposes within 40 days of the sale — or its existing Georgia plant. Schroeder said he is still determining which makes more sense from a supply chain and production perspective.
Schroeder said he plans to take his time in relaunching the brand itself. Ideally, he said, the company would work with a specific retail partner to explore what consumers are looking for from an organic ice cream, but he is sure the future of Three Twins will feature premium positioning and focus on natural, specialty and independent retailers.
Schroeder is particularly interested in the former Maxine’s offering, a premium large-format brick that could be relaunched under the Three Twins brand to avoid fragmentation. Low-fat, high-protein play Slim Twin, however, Schroeder has no interest in relaunching.
“Three Twins had an avenue to compete against private label organic and the products out of Oregon Ice Cream. And I think it would have been good for both Alden’s and Three Twins to co-exist with different creative approaches to the category,” Schroeder said. “It would have helped the organic set lever up a bit against the Turkey Hill and Breyer’s of the world.”
The deal represents a long time career goal for Schroeder, who originally wanted to launch High Road as an organic ice cream brand. However, like Three Twins CEO and founder Neal Gottlieb also recognized, achieving accessible pricing for small organic brands can be difficult. So High Road pressed forward focused on quality, but not organic specifically. Though he has considered launching an organic product line under the High Road brand, Schroeder felt that the organic shopper wanted a dedicated organic brand.
Schroeder’s thought is to likely relaunch Three Twins with higher butterfat content than the original product, but charge more. For example, High Road currently has a price point of $6.99 for 14 ounces. He also will focus on launching more unique flavors, rather than analogues to conventional options, and emphasize the benefits to purchasing organic.
“What is available in organic and ice cream seems a lot like what’s available in conventional large format and I think that’s a big mistake,” Schroeder said.
Schroeder and Gottlieb made contact after the deal, speaking last week about the path forward for the brand. While both told NOSH they are interested in finding ways for Gottlieb to be involved, Gottlieb has since taken on the role of co-founder and CEO of direct-to-consumer paint company Alora Paints and would not be involved on a day-to-day basis.
When asked what advice he would share, Gottlieb was succinct.
“Words of advice that I would give to him are the same ones that [I’ve been] told which is ‘don’t f–k it up,” he said. “What does that mean and how it is done is still very early on in figuring that out. But I’m happy it was acquired and I’m optimistic that Keith and his team will do a good job in relaunching it.”
