Trying to stay cool
Charlotte-area couple works to maintain small-business flavor as
Italian ices hit big retailers
GILLIAN MAY-LIAN WEE
gwee@charlotteobserver.com

Over the past eight
years, Damon and
Veronica DeCristoforo
have gone from selling
their homemade ice
desserts at Charlotte
Hornets games to
scoring a major deal
with the nation's largest
retailer.

Now, they're figuring out
how to keep that mom-
and-pop vibe while
starting to run the company
more like a
corporation.

The DeCristoforos, both
34, run Lindy's
Homemade Italian Ice.
The 20-employee
company supplies 3,000
groceries from Maine to
Florida with seven flavors
of ices, including
strawberry and
watermelon. This year, the
couple expects to make and sell 18 million cups of ices, which could
generate sales as high of $7.5 million, 15 times the 2003 sales of
$500,000.

"We try to maintain our connection with our employees without going
completely corporate," Damon said. "We try to raise the bar on
expectations and do the good things you see out of corporations --
tracking numbers, knowing exactly what they're doing, having
standards."

The company credits its growth to having a larger facility, finding a niche
market, investment backing and managing growth by carefully selecting
retailers.

Typically, Damon dreams up ideas and Veronica, originally from
Santiago, Chile, figures out how to pay for them. Friends since junior
high, they also worked together during college at Veronica's father's
textile plant in Cramerton.

Cresset Capital took a 45 percent stake in the company in 2003.
Managing partner Paul Givens said that usually Cresset doesn't invest in
companies as small as Lindy's, but Cresset's backers were struck by
the DeCristoforos' business smarts. Cresset also felt the couple had a
product with strong growth potential.

"They've done what we had hoped they would do," Givens said. "As they
continue to hit those numbers, it will be about continuing to add people,
fleshing out that management group and making that transition from a
family, entrepreneurial-type environment to a business."

Ices are water-based, almost like frozen fruit. Back in 1998, the couple
experimented making ices on their kitchen table, using fresh fruit and
sugar. They later moved into a 5,000-square-foot facility on Mint Street.
In 2001, they picked up their first account: Harris Teeter. They courted
other supermarkets, including Lowes Foods and Giant Food, probably
communicating with each company about 20 times before snagging
shelf space.

After Cresset pitched in, the DeCristoforos spruced up a rusty old,
62,000-square-foot building off N.C. 16 in northwest Charlotte. On
Monday morning, the factory was churning out lemon ices from a huge
vat of liquid sugar. Once packaged into little cups, the product was
frozen and boxed for shipping.

Veronica's father, Jorge Silva Sr., production manager of the plant, was
walking around the facility making sure all was well. His son, Jorge Silva
Jr., works in sales and logistics.

Damon is trying to manage Lindy's growth by maintaining
responsiveness to customers and not missing deliveries. He closely
watches national rival J&J Snack Foods, which makes Luigi's Real
Italian Ice.

And, last year, he brought an outsider with 25 years of experience at
frozen food giant Schwan's into the group as national sales manager.

"I wanted to step out of the comfort zone of our company and challenge
us to look at things differently," Damon said. "It would be a lot more
stressful if our sales weren't growing like they are."

Last fall, after two years of discussions, Lindy's snagged its largest
customer. Wal-Mart now makes up about a quarter of its business, with
Lindy's ices in 400 of its stores. Lindy's plans to add another shift and
double its workforce to 40 later this year.

Damon also rents freezer space to Starbucks and Schwan's, a business
he thinks will rake in anadditional $2.5 million in revenue in the next two
years. Previously, he saw his own products getting damaged at other
outside cold storage spaces.

Companies can see such big jumps in sales, especially if they occupy a
trendy niche as Lindy's does, said Stephen Sibert, group vice president
at the Grocery Manufacturers Association.

"The question for them is how to keep the engine going, add new flavors
and stay on trend," Sibert said.

In early April, Lindy's new gelato ice cream in six flavors will hit Harris
Teeter. In summer, Lindy's will release four sorbet flavors, Damon said.
In the next two years, Damon also plans to push his ices into the food-
service business, so schools, restaurants and hospitals can get a taste
of the Charlotte-made ice.

If Lindy's keeps growing, Damon anticipates its 2007 sales to jump to
$14 million. Going public is also a possibility.

"The flip side of all that stress is that after all the hard work, you see
your product," Damon said. "You're at the grocery store and you see a
woman go down the aisle with her son or daughter and grab the box. It's
pretty cool."

Lindy's Homemade Italian Ice

• When Damon DeCristoforo and his wife, Veronica, saw textile
orders shrink after the North American Free Trade Agreement, they
started making Italian ices.

• Growing up as the children of entrepreneurs helped prepare
the couple for their ice business, and taught them how family
members can back each other up.

• The company commemorates Damon's father, Mario
Lindbergh, a former restaurateur who died in a car accident
with his wife, Zelda, in 1997. Zelda used to run a beauty
salon on Monroe Road.

• Mario made ices for Damon as a child, and the Italian ice
business was the first idea of Damon's that Mario liked.