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Discovery Ice Cream seeking franchisee for Kingsport store

Published April 19th, 2009 | 0 Comments

KINGSPORT — Discovery Ice Cream is looking for a franchisee for its store in downtown Kingsport.

Allan Jones, founder and CEO of Discovery Ice Cream and its parent company Puffin Innovations, said he is moving the company’s headquarters from Kingsport to Charleston, S.C., and is hoping the Kingsport store can be reopened through a franchise agreement. The Broad Street store was closed late last year for the winter season.

“We’re going to be interviewing and evaluating potential franchisees, so if people are interested they can contact us,” Jones said.

He said the store will remain closed until a franchisee is selected.

Discovery Ice Cream opened in July 2007 at 231 Broad St. following a major renovation of the building. The shop featured an ice cream ordering counter and an area where patrons could see hard ice cream being made daily.

The centerpiece of the shop was a robotic machine that made ice cream to order at the touch of some buttons. Customers could choose either vanilla or the flavor of the day, combined with various candy toppings, to construct their very own three-layer ice cream creation.

For parents, the shop offered coffee and espresso drinks as well as coffee and ice cream combinations. It also served low-fat smoothies made of berries and yogurt.

Jones and the business have received several awards and recognition, including a TechStar Award from the Northeast Tennessee Technology Council in October 2007 and a Horizon Award from the Kingsport Office of Small Business Development and Entrepreneurship in December 2007.

Last spring, the company began offering franchises of the business. Jones said he received lots of interest in the Discovery Ice Cream concept from the coastal areas of the South, which ultimately led to the decision to move the company’s headquarters.

“It’s an easy place to get to,” Jones said of Charleston. “It’s just highly drawn to families and beach and fun. So it just became obvious that that was the center of the universe for the Discovery Ice Cream interest.”

The first franchise store will be located just outside Charleston in the Mount Pleasant Town Center.

The company is also looking to open franchise locations in other towns along the East Coast.

And the company has attracted international interest from investor groups on developing the Discovery Ice Cream concept overseas.

Jones said the global economic downturn has delayed some growth opportunities, but “it’s still going to happen.”

“We’re looking at a licensing opportunity for our robotic ice cream machines right now in Japan. And we’ve been in Dubai, we’ve been in the Philippines, talking about potential opportunities,” Jones said.

“It’s just going slower than expected. ... It got slammed by this whole economic downturn like everything else,” he said.

For more information on the Discovery Ice Cream concept visit www.discoveryicecream.com.

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