DIY (Do it Yourself) ice cream makers who loved the
cookies and cream food drink, great news!
Lasco is launching a powdered Ice Dream dessert mix
as reported in the article “Lasco
Enters Market With Powdered Ice Cream”, Published Sunday January 24, 2016
by Tameka Gordon, The Jamaica Gleaner.
This marks the first time that any company in
Jamaica is selling powdered ice cream, which works in the same way like Lasco's
powdered milk products or even pancake mix; just add water!
Lasco is no stranger to innovation, as their
financial arm, Lasco Financial Services, has partnered with Huawei to sell
unlocked smartphone as reported in my blog article
entitled “Huawei
and Lasco to sell Unlocked dual-SIM smartphones - Why Number Portability means
Open Market for unlocked smartphone”.
The product had been teased in an article profiling
Gleaner Honour Award recipient Lacelles Chin and his company Lasco as reported
in the article “Gleaner
Honour Award: Lasco Affiliated Companies - ICool Quenches The Market”,
published Tuesday January 19, 2016, The
Jamaica Gleaner with pictures showing what the product will look like as
shown below.
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Currently Lasco plans to sell two (2) flavours:
1. Vanilla
2. Chocolate
Lasco's Ice Dream dessert mix is to be sold in 130
gm packs costing between JA$110 to JA$120 including tax. Lasco is projecting a
20% increase in their 'powdered' line of goods. One of these powdered milk
products, the Lasco cookies and cream powdered milk, was already being used to
make ice cream. Hugely popular, it was discontinued as it was costly to make.
Lasco also has plans to reformulate it and
re-introduce the Lasco cookies and cream powdered milk during the launch of
Lasco's Ice Dream dessert mix. Interestingly, Lasco's Ice Dream dessert
required no extra Capital expenditure or equiptment. This as the same line that
makes the Lasco powdered milk was used to package the formula for the powdered
Ice Dream dessert mix.
But this is just the tip of the iceberg, pun
intended, as Lasco is sitting on a huge revolution as it relates to starting a
trend towards homemade Ice cream.
Lasco's
Ice Dream dessert mix - Homemade ice cream lover rejoice
However, if you know how to make homemade ice cream,
you'd realize something interesting; these two (2) flavours can be used as the
base to make any other flavor.
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So says Beverage Marketing Manager Catherine
Goodall, quote: “The most exciting thing about the product is that the vanilla
flavour can be used as a base to make so many other flavours. Chefs can use it
to make desserts”.
Lasco's Ice Dream dessert mix can be the base to
make Glow-In-The Dark Ice Cream as described in my blog article
entitled “How
to make Glow-In-The Dark Ice Cream from Scratch - US$25.95 Zoku Ice Cream Bowl
makes Avatar The Last Airbender Frozen Novelties”.
You can even use it to make edible Chocolate Bowls
to place the ice cream for eating as explained in my blog article
entitled “How
to Make Edible Chocolate Bowls for Ice Cream – Satisfy My Bowl that’s Sweet to
Eat”.
But what has many excited is the storage for this
product. It requires no refrigeration, as in its powdered form, it can be
stored in an airtight container once the package is pulled. Interestingly, early
secret testing by Lasco suggests that it's a hit with children, the primary
motivation to buy ice cream in the first place.
This has some huge implications for the entire Ice
Cream market as we know it in Jamaica.
Lasco
vs Caribbean Cream Limited and Smith & Stewart Distributors - Ice Cream War
looms in Jamaica
The fact that it doesn’t require storage means that
it'll be possible to sell ice cream as a fast food without the need from a
refrigerator.
If Lasco decided to manufacture this in large bulk sizes
for retailers, all you'll need is a set up a production line in your ice cream
shop with all of the component needed to make ice cream.
This isn't being done as yet, but it demand by
shoppers for the Ice Dream dessert mix is good, then they'll go that route,
quote: “Chairman (Lascelles Chin) is always trying to find things that the
Jamaican consumer needs and tries to give it to them at an affordable price.
So, to think about a sachet of ice cream that you can make almost a pint of ice
cream from ... you can't buy a pint of ice cream for $120. If we do have the
overwhelming response that we are hoping for, then yes”.
But let's imagine that they did sell the Ice Dream
dessert mix in bulk for retailers and wholesalers. The ice cream could be mixed
together and then using dry ice, you can make the ice cream in less than 5
minutes.
In a fast food restaurant, this could cut the cost
of refrigeration, as you could make batches of ice cream on demand just for the
day. This means no leftovers and the reduced chance of spoilage, which was the
main reason why they developed the Lasco's Ice Dream dessert mix, quote: “Everybody
loves ice cream, but not everybody has the storage for ice cream so we wanted
it to be more accessible something that you can mix whenever you want it”.
This makes Lasco a potential competitor to Caribbean
Cream Limited, currently the kings of the Ice cream market with their Kremi
product as explained in the article “Kremi
Secures Low-Cost Raw Materials, Triples Profit”, published Wednesday
January 13, 2016 by Camilo Thame, The
Jamaica Gleaner.
They could even go into making it and distributing
their Ice Dream dessert mix using specially designed mobile carts,
crowdsourcing the labour to sell the retail version of the product, something
that Smith & Stewart Distributors, the makers of Crazy Jim ice cream, are
doing as explained in the article “Crazy
Jim Builds Street Vending Network For Ice Cream”, published Wednesday
August 5, 2015, by Tameka Gordon, The
Jamaica Gleaner.
At this point, we'll have to wait until this product
to hit the shelves before I can declare it a success. But from all accounts,
Lasco may be sitting on a huge goldmine and a chance to revolutionize the Ice
Cream industry once and for all.
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