FIRST AND STILL TOPS in sales is this Newport Creamery on West Main Road in Middletown. This is the location for the company’s first ‘Milk Bar’ in 1940 and also produces the highest volume of sales in the chain, the company reports.
A Rhode Island institution – right up there with coffee milk and clam cakes – is on the verge of being sold.
Peter W. Rector, owner and president of The Newport Creamery, Inc., has announced the impending sale of the 70-year-old ice cream manufacturer and 32-unit restaurant chain to Robert Swain, of Swain Development Corporation, Clearwater, Florida.
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Terms of the sale, which is expected to be completed by March 1, were not disclosed.
“We’ve had great success over the years and have built a well-respected brand within the ice cream and restaurant industries,” Rector said.
Newport Creamery has been a family-owned business since 1928. The company’s roots began when Samuel Rector took over a dairy on Van Zandt Avenue in Newport and became a wholesale milk distributor. By 1932, Mason Rector (Samuel’s son) joined the business and Newport Creamery took its first step into the retail world by delivering milk house to house on Aquidneck Island.
In 1940, Newport Creamery opened what was described as a “Milk Bar” that served ice cream on a parcel of land at 208 West Main Road in Middletown. It marked the official beginning of the Newport Creamery restaurant chain. Today, that land is the site of the company’s manufacturing plant, distribution center and corporate headquarters.
Peter Rector will remain with the company as a vice-chairman of the board. He said he was looking forward to pursuing personal interests and spending more time with his family and friends. Rector called the impending sale a positive development for the company and its employees.
“These folks want to grow the business rather than give it another nameplate or dismantle it altogether,” said Rector.
As the third-generation family member to run the business, Rector has expanded the chain from 14 units in 1966 to 32 today. In addition, a wholesale department, established in 1995, has allowed the company to expand the ice cream brand throughout New England and New York. Today, that division has a network of distributors and over 600 retail accounts, including RoJacks supermarkets and DB Mart convenience stores.
Swain, who grew up in New England, said he always has been impressed with the company. He said the company will now expand throughout New England and create new jobs.
“I think everyone involved sees this as a wonderful expansion and growth opportunity, rather than the sale of a company,” Swain said.
Currently, Newport Creamery employs nearly 1,000 workers in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut.
