The Cold Stone Story
Cold Stone Creamery – A Revolutionary Evolution
Our founders, Donald and Susan Sutherland, scoured the world in search of the perfect ice cream. Not surprisingly, they found that not all ice cream is created equal. From traditional hard-packed to soft serve varieties, until Donald and Susan pursued their "Ice Cream Dream"– we were stuck with some pretty disappointing alternatives. But after 1988 and the opening of the first Cold Stone Creamery in Tempe, Arizona, things changed. The Sutherlands fundamentally redefined ice cream and the world would never be the same.
Cold Stone Creamery ice cream is categorized by industry experts as "Super Premium." Our ice cream is better because we make it fresh every day in every store, which puts Cold Stone completely in a class of our own.
At Cold Stone Creamery, we are proud of our heritage as Ice Cream Innovators. This heritage is based on a tradition of continuously redefining plain old regular ice cream into something truly extraordinary. Around here, we call every ice cream we serve a "Creation" – because each one is a work of art. Freshly made, smooth, creamy ice cream blended on a frozen granite stone with endless combinations – fruits, nuts, candy, cookies, brownies…you name it – you can mix in to your heart’s content.
We’re so proud of our redefinition of ice cream that we’re almost inclined to do away with the words "ice cream" altogether. Why not just call it Cold Stone?
TIMELINE OF COLD STONE CREAMERY
| 1988 | Don and Susan Sutherland open the very first Cold Stone Creamery® in Tempe, Ariz., and a new ice cream concept is born. |
| 1996 | Cold Stone Creamery is awarded "Best of Phoenix" for the first time. |
| 1997 | Cold Stone Creamery serves its one millionth ice cream cone. |
| 1997 | Franchisee Dan Farr convinces Cold Stone Creamery to enter the Alaska market and the first store opens in Anchorage. |
| 1998 | Cold Stone Creamery opens first transcontinental store in Jacksonville, Fla. |
| 2000 | Cold Stone Creamery is ranked 94th on Entrepreneur magazine’s list of Fastest Growing Franchises in America, and 361st on the Entrepreneur magazine’s "Franchise 500" list. |
| 2000 | Cold Stone Creamery celebrates 100th store opening in Pleasant Hill, Calif. |
| 2001 | Cold Stone Creamery adds chocolate-covered crickets to ice cream and earns a feature spot on the CBS The Early Show. |
| 2002 | Cold Stone Creamery awards its 500th franchise and opens its 250th store. |
| 2002 | Cold Stone partners with Make-A-Wish Foundation® to launch the World’s Largest Ice Cream Social which raises more than $100,000 for the charity and lands a feature spot on CNN. |
| 2003 | The second annual World’s Largest Ice Cream Social raises over $340,000 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. |
| 2003 | The Cold Stone Creamery brand introduces itself to the world with the opening of the company's flagship store in Times Square. Cold Stone receives a feature article in Time magazine and mixes ice cream live on Fox & Friends. |
| 2003 | Cold Stone Creamery opens its 500th store. |
| 2003 | Cold Stone Creamery Tastemaster Ray Karam is featured on a MSNBC Power Lunch segment called "I Can't Believe I Get Paid To Do This!" in which Cold Stone's pumpkin ice cream Creations™ are highlighted. |
| 2004 | Governor Schwarzenegger is photographed outside a California Cold Stone Creamery. The photograph is featured in US Weekly, InTouch Weekly and parodied on an episode of Saturday Night Live. |
| 2004 | Cold Stone Creamery launches an entirely new line of Signature Ice Cream Cakes. One hundred ice cream cakes are featured on ABC’s Good Morning America to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Times Square. |
| 2004 | The third annual World’s Largest Ice Cream "Cake" Social raises over $625,000 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. |
| 2004 | Cold Stone Creamery ranked fourth in the July 2004 issue of Restaurant Business "Top 50 Growth Chains." |
| 2005 | Desperate Housewife Nicollette Sheridan attends the fourth annual World’s Largest Ice Cream "Cake" Social as a "celebrity scooper" and helps Cold Stone raises over $750,000 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. |
| 2005 | Receives the "2005 Consumers’ Choice in Chains Award" in the Treat category in the August 2005 issue of Restaurants & Institutions. |
| 2005 | Cold Stone Creamery celebrates the opening of its first store in Japan, located in the Roppongi Hills complex in Tokyo, marking the beginning of the company’s expansion into Asia. |
| 2006 | Cold Stone Creamery launches a new line of smoothies and ice cream shakes. Cold Stone takes the lead in a Today Show story about the booming smoothie market. |
| 2006 | Nation’s Restaurant News honors Cold Stone Creamery as a MUFSO "Golden Chain" recipient. |
| 2007 | Cold Stone Creamery is acquired by Kahala, one of the fastest growing franchise companies in North America with 12 brands and more than 3,700 retail locations in the United States and worldwide. |
| 2007 | Cold Stone celebrates the opening of its first store in the Middle East in the United Arab Emirates. |
| 2008 | The Cold Stone Creamery founders are featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show. |
| 2008 | Cold Stone Creamery celebrates the opening of the 100th International store and its arrival into Mexico and Scandinavia. |
| 2008 | Cold Stone announces the opening of the first co-branded store with Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. |
| 2009 | Cold Stone commemorates expansion into Canada with the opening of six co-brand stores through partnership with Tim Hortons. |
| 2009 | Cold Stone Creamery celebrates the opening of the first store in the Caribbean in Trinidad. |
