An ice cream shop certainly isn’t hard to find in the sunny Florida Keys, but when John Smotryski and his family relocated there from mainland Florida, he knew he could make something different that would win over the community. By Kelsi Trinidad
An ice cream shop certainly isn’t hard to find in the sunny Florida Keys, but when John Smotryski and his family relocated there from mainland Florida, he knew he could make something different that would win over the community. Wicked Lick Ice Cream was born from the mission to bring customers the best-tasting ice cream, made from high-quality, fresh ingredients. However, the company gained its identity through the process of making its ice cream with liquid nitrogen, which creates a much smoother and creamier product than the standard process.
For most companies in the food industry, the pandemic has been devastating. However, for Wicked Lick Ice Cream, the pandemic brought time for its owner, John Smotryski, to figure out how to do more with much less. When the beginning of the pandemic brought on a two-month closure and a loss of employees, Smotryski figured out how to take the usual, made-to-order liquid nitrogen ice cream model and make it more efficient with a smaller staff. He introduced the process of making each flavor in small batches.
“Now I could serve people faster with fewer employees and use less liquid nitrogen,” explained Smotryski. “I searched everywhere, and I couldn’t find another liquid nitrogen ice cream store that does this.”
This improvement in production ended up being the company’s pandemic silver lining, allowing Wicked Lick to operate with a higher profit margin. “We revolutionized our shop by doing this,” said Smotryski. “The fewer employees we had, the more efficient everything was, and we started seeing a lot higher profit. That’s when we decided that we should duplicate this.”
Wicked Lick launched its franchise in April, using its efficient, turnkey formula for operating a liquid nitrogen ice cream store to expand across the nation. Wicked Lick’s signature line of merchandise, which features unique site-specific brand designs, provides an additional revenue stream for franchisees.
“We really want to help them get their business up and do whatever it takes,” said Smotryski. “We, first and foremost, want to get our franchisees profitable, and keep them happy.”
Kelsi Trinidad