First it was "California or Bust."
Now it's Idaho's turn.The manufacturing of Big Ed's Super Saucer has arrived, straight out of Southern California.
So what's a Big Ed's?
It's a large ice-cream sandwich - a generous portion of vanilla ice cream stuffed between two large cookies containing chocolate chips.
It's made by the Matterhorn Ice Cream Co. of Caldwell and Ventura, Calif.
And, according to the company's co-owner and Caldwell manager, Sam Leggett, the ice-cream sandwich may be cold, but it's a hot item.
With a staff of 15, including Leggett, and a $300,000 annual payroll, the Caldwell plant began production in August and produces 1,600 dozen Big Ed's Super Saucers a day. A new machine that's on its way will triple production, Leggett said.
The Ventura plant has a staff of 25 and produces 3,200 dozen Big Ed's per day, and the company's namesake, the Matterhorn. The payroll at Ventura is about $500,000 annually.
A Matterhorn is a very large, drumstick-shaped mass of vanilla ice cream covered with chocolate and peanuts.
Leggett said the Ventura plant soon will be a thing of the past. It's going to be moved to Caldwell.
"By the fall of 1995, we would like to have all the production here at Caldwell," Leggett said. The Caldwell plant has 24,000 square feet, with plenty of room for expansion, compared to 6,000 square feet at Ventura.
He said the company wanted to expand, but there was a problem in California.
"We weren't that excited about relocating in Southern California, because it's too expensive to operate a business there," Leggett said. "Labor costs in California are not the problem."
It's factors like the higher cost of workers' compensation, utilities and the ingredients that go into Matterhorn's products in California.
"We were doing fine down there," Leggett said. "We could have stayed in California," but one of the other two partners Leggett is associated with, Jamie Colbourne, Seattle, Wash., located the plant in Caldwell. The plant had long operated under the name Flavor Freeze, and produced ice pops.
"Basically, it was a turnkey operation," Leggett said, meaning the basic, necessary equipment to produce Big Ed's was already in place.
"I would say that to set up a plant like this in California would cost us $1 million," he said. They have a 20-year lease on the Caldwell plant with Western Dairymen Cooperative Inc. of Salt Lake City.
A third partner, Steve Groninger, runs the Ventura plant.
So far, the Caldwell plant produces only the Big Ed's Super Saucer, but Leggett said they'd be producing the Matterhorn by next summer.
"We're very pleased with the growth of sales," he said. "We've doubled our sales from a year ago."