Despite the falling snow, Warwick Ice Cream Co.’s Director of Marketing and Sales Barry Newman didn’t have a moment to talk. He had to head out with product samples for a meeting with a potential client. For Newman, a busy schedule isn’t unusual thanks to an expanding product line and a new division that have helped boost sales.
Last year, the 84-year-old company’s sales more than doubled, Newman said. The company does not release its annual sales, but each year it produces at least 600,000 gallons of ice cream. And the amount of ice cream in recent years has been growing annually by about 20 percent, Newman said.
The growth last year was due partly to copacking – producing ice cream for other companies and packaging it for them.
“And that will be up again this year. There are a lot of ice cream companies, unfortunately … that have gone out of business,” Newman said.
Warwick Ice Cream packages product in sizes ranging from cups, to pints to three-gallon drums.
“Instead of just regular ice cream, which we do, they are also looking for sorbets, sherbets, yogurts, gelato and all different types of things,” he said.
Newman added that, “We supply most of your ice cream scoop shops in this part of New England and we also are the biggest supplier to ice cream trucks.”
The company’s divisions include the manufacturing branch for Warwick Ice Cream, which also produces ice cream for most of Rhode Island’s schools; the copacking business and wholesale distributing in Rhode Island for companies that include Unilever, Ben & Jerry’s, Klondike, Hood and Haagen-Dazs. The company has a fleet of about 12 refrigerated trucks.
About a year ago, the company purchased a new division, Creative Creamery, which specializes in gourmet ice cream cakes like the “Baked Alaska,” “Mississippi Mudd” and “Chocolate Raspberry Temptation.” That company had been in Bourne, Mass., and has since moved its operations to Warwick.
For the last 84 years (and four generations), the Bucci family has been in the dairy business on Bald Hill Road in Warwick. Charles Bucci emigrated from Italy and went into the dairy business. Years later the ice cream business took off when he had to find work for his three sons, all of whom were handicapped, Newman said, “because in those years, there was no major employment for somebody who had a handicap.”
Now, the building’s large windows offer a view of dairy tanks painted to look like the spots of a cow. The ice cream is made from scratch with sugar, butter, dairy and other ingredients that are mixed, sent through a pasteurizing and cooling system and routed into those cow-like tanks. From there, the flavor is added and then it’s sent to an oversized freezer, where it’s packaged.
And the company’s current staff sounds like a Bucci family reunion, complete with co-owner and President Gerard Bucci Jr., co-owner and Vice President Tom A. Bucci, Office Manager Celeste Bucci and Thomas Bucci.
Thomas, the youngest at 26 years old, was “born” into the business, Newman said. His father, Tom Bucci, is vice president and is the main ice cream producer. “And because his mom and dad were involved in the business, he literally had a crib down in the manufacturing section,” Newman said. “He’s fourth generation and now he’s assistant to his dad in production.”
Warwick Ice Cream also is one of the largest in-store freezer suppliers in western Connecticut, southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island – Newman pegged its market share at about 80 percent of all gas station and convenience store freezers in those areas. “And those are stocked with the novelty ice creams that we create, along with our own half-gallons,” he said
And Newman said the company will likely continue to grow. It’s been buying new equipment on an almost monthly basis.
“I can only see growth,” he said. “If I see anything else, I wouldn’t have a job. But … the company is on a growth spurt. We’re only limited now by the amount of space [and equipment] that we have.” •
COMPANY PROFILE
Warwick Ice Cream Co.
OWNERS: Gerard and Tom Bucci Jr.
TYPE OF BUSINESS: Creamery
LOCATION: 743 Bald Hill Rd. (Route 2), Warwick
EMPLOYEES: Fluctuates seasonally between 20 and 28.
YEAR ESTABLISHED: 1925
ANNUAL SALES: WND
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