Schoep's Ice Cream Co. Inc.

• Private
• US

Dow Jones Description

From its humble beginnings in 1928, when E.J. Schoephoester started making ice cream in the back of his Madison, Wisconsin, grocery store, Schoep's Ice Cream has had people clamoring for more. Twelve years after that auspicious beginning, P.B. Thomsen, a well-known butter maker from Windsor, Wisconsin, bought into the company and began wholesaling ice cream in 2-1/2 gallon containers. The Schoep's "Home Pak" half-gallon line, familiar to ice cream connoisseurs throughout the midwest, was first introduced after World War II and is still the heart of the Schoep's product line today. Schoep's, a family-owned business, has been a family affair for the Thomsen family for seven decades. Current company president, Paul Thomsen, started working at the plant when he was nine. In the 1940s, during his earliest employment, he made popsicles at the rate of 40 cents an hour which was shared with four other workers. Today there are six Thomsens working at the Madison headquarters--Paul, his brother Les, and their sons, John and Eric. Alan and Rich Thomsen are the sons of Walter Thomsen, who recently retired. And the Thomsens are not the only family working at Schoep's; husband and wife teams, daughters and granddaughters work side by side. "We encourage family members to work here," says Thomsen, "because I look at the company as my second family." Schoep's made more than 12 million gallons of ice cream last year. That's nearly a quarter of a billion scoops of frozen fun. ...

Number of Employees 150

Contact Information

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