Published September 2003

Snoqualmie’s creamy treats scoop up sales

By Kimberly Hilden
SCBJ Assistant Editor

When Barry Bettinger and his wife, Shahnaz, bought Snoqualmie Gourmet Ice Cream in 1997, their strategy was simple: find a niche and focus on quality.

The Lynnwood-based ice cream manufacturer, founded 10 years earlier by Hal Lewis, already had a presence in two dozen restaurants and sold between 3,000 and 4,000 pints annually in a handful of grocery stores, but the Bettingers saw opportunity for growth.

Snohomish County Business Journal/ KIMBERLY HILDEN Barry Bettinger (from left) and Ken Benner of Snoqualmie Gourmet Ice Cream enjoy a midday snack with Jack Bateman, whose Rose Hill Chocolate Co. sells the Snoqualmie brand at its Mukilteo shop.

“We wanted to look anywhere where the ‘big guys’ weren’t and aim right at the top — make as great a product as we could,” said Barry Bettinger, who managed dairy plants in upstate New York for 20 years before moving with his wife to the Northwest in 1996.

In the years since, Snoqualmie has found its niche market: independent grocery stores, restaurants and cafes — venues that find value in collaborating with smaller, local brands.

As for quality, Snoqualmie’s ice creams boast 19 percent butterfat and 7.5 percent air. That compares to about 18 percent butterfat and 13 percent air for other premium brands, Bettinger said.

Add to that fresh berries from Mike and Jean’s Berry Farm in Skagit Valley, coffee beans from Caffe Appassionato in Seattle, $600-a-gallon Madagascar vanilla, and the result is a line of dense, flavorful treats — and growth.

In just under seven years, Snoqualmie has found its way into the freezers of almost two dozen Puget Sound grocery stores, including Larry’s Markets, Food Emporium and Central Market, selling 150,000 pints annually, Bettinger said.

“Our next target (market) is Haggen. We would really like to get into Haggen. That would be a very good fit,” said Bettinger of the Bellingham-based, family-owned grocery chain.

In recent years, Snoqualmie has developed its own line of gelatos, an Italian-style ice cream, and sorbets to go along with its premium ice creams, with the new products hitting the grocery store freezer aisles in January.

“There’s a niche market for really good gelato, so it’s been selling well,” Bettinger said.

Snoqualmie’s frozen treats also have found their way onto the menus of 130 or so restaurants and cafes, from Ponti Seafood Grill in Seattle to Rose Hill Chocolate Co. in Mukilteo, where Mukilteo Mudd — a complex blend of four chocolates — and Kahlua Almond Fudge are popular selections.

Those are only two of the more than 700 flavors Bettinger and his staff have created over the years, flavors that range in sophistication from Blackberry Cabernet, Bailey’s Irish Cream and Espresso Chip to Banana Split, Cookie Dough and Dutch Vanilla Bean.

“We do a lot of feature flavor work,” Bettinger said, noting that he often collaborates with restaurant chefs to create new flavors, such as Snoqualmie’s Jack Daniel’s ice cream designed for Ponti Seafood Grill.

While many of the flavors are used in desserts, others are used as palette cleansers, such as a fir-needle sorbet Snoqualmie recently developed for a wine-tasting room.

“We work on it until we get just what the chef is looking for,” said Ken Benner, who handles Snoqualmie’s sales and marketing. Usually, that takes no more than two or three tries, he added.

With a steady increase in output and product has come pressure for a larger facility. Snoqualmie’s current location, inside a Lynnwood business park, houses the production area, freezers and administrative offices for the five-member staff. But at 2,500 square feet, it’s at least 2,000 square feet too small, Bettinger said.

So the hunt has begun for new space, either land to be developed or a building to be renovated, located between Bothell and south Everett, with the new operation to include retail space, a first for the company, Bettinger said.

“It will be neat. People will be able to see the ice cream being made,” he said.

And he will be able to see their smiles as they enjoy a scoop of Snoqualmie Gourmet Ice Cream.

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