PROOF Hard Ice Cream’s plant is adjacent to its Columbia, S.C., corporate office, located in an industrial park in a building next door to a technical school. With the business currently expanding at a blazing pace, corporate executives acknowledge they will soon outgrow its 4,000-square-foot plant.

This will certainly be the case if PROOF Hard Ice Cream meets its ambitions to become the world’s most enjoyable, creamiest ice cream, bar none. Growth and expansion is largely due to a seasoned management team, led by Jennifer Randall, co-founder and CEO, and Dirk Brown, co-founder and chairman. 

The co-founders have rounded out a world-class executive team with the addition of Russ Klein, former global president of Burger King; Rick Gillis, former president, Young’s Market Co. and executive leadership roles at The Tinley Beverage Co., Dean Foods, and Coca-Cola Enterprises; and Rich Leslie, former chief marketing officer of PopSockets and consumer insights expert. PROOF Hard Ice Cream’s new executive team is led by Klein as president and chief operating officer, Gillis as chief commercial officer, and Leslie as chief marketing officer.

Founded in 2014, PROOF Hard Ice Cream is a unique product that Brown notes is at the intersection of dairy and alcohol. Combining alcohol with ice cream perhaps satisfies two of the most enjoyable indulgences consumers seek. 

Getting to the right formula regarding the amount of alcohol in ice cream so it tastes great is certainly a challenge and took an incredible amount of testing. The final result is a creamy ice cream with a smooth afternote of alcohol infusion. “We cracked the previously unbreakable code with our proprietary food science,” says Randall. 

PROOF Hard Ice Cream has tested alcohol by volumes (ABV) of 10%, 7%, and 5% that require federal regulation. PROOF Hard Ice Cream’s alcohol content is significantly higher than larger processor ice cream spirit lines, which often incorporate only trace levels of alcohol, estimated at 0.5% ABV, which does not require federal regulation, the company points out. 

“What we found is 7% and 5% are the magic points that skillfully balance the “tastes great, feels good, experience,” Randall says. “The flavor profile is not overwhelmed by the alcohol. The 5% and 7% products are lusciously creamy because we use less air than other ice creams.”

Randall stresses however that consumers are highly unlikely to become intoxicated unless ingesting an unthinkable amount of ice cream. “This is not a ‘get drunk’ ice cream. It is a gourmet dessert experience,” he notes

On the date of Dairy Foods’ visit, PROOF Hard Ice Cream was processing its Mocha Chocolate flavor, one of its staples, in addition to its Bourbon Caramel, Bourbon Chocolate Cherry, Strawberry, Cheesecake, Blackberry, Apple Pie, Pumpkin Spice, Peppermint, Coconut Rum, and Pistachio Rum offerings.

Although the alcoholic ice cream company has the ability to create innumerable handmade batch ice cream recipes, it takes a “less-is-more approach” so it does not overwhelm consumers with too many options, Brown says. 

The process

Cassandra Sanchez, director of production, leads the plant. PROOF Hard Ice Cream uses the Monday.com system to organize its tasks. The company employs more than 30 people, including core employees, which includes batchers, who follow a recipe. 

PROOF Hard Ice Cream utilizes Taylor batchers to process all of its ice cream. Dairy Foods viewed all of the different areas of the plant, including where packaging raw materials are stored; where it stores its ice cream mix (which arrived on the same day as our visit); alcohol vats; freezers set to a temperature of negative 20 degrees to lock in the optimal structure and taste profile, and coolers when thawing is needed. 

The company has a goal to produce between 1,500 to 3,000 ice cream pints per day, notes Sanchez. Once the ice cream is batched, it is placed into its distinctive red pint containers and sealed with special lids. 

“We utilize a package technology from Stanpac that is tamper-proof and tamper-evident. We pay a premium for our packaging because we feel it is that important,” Randall-Collins says.

Once packaged and sealed, the ice cream pints are placed into freezers to maintain the optimum quality before shipping the product out of the plant’s receiving area. Pints were being packed and shipped via refrigerated vans during our visit, to be delivered throughout the state of South Carolina. 

Beyond South Carolina, PROOF Hard Ice Cream delivers its products via eCommerce to 42 states where it is permissible. The alcoholic ice cream also is available in more than 600 retail locations (both supermarkets and liquor stores) and is also sold on-premise in restaurants, bars, and special events. 

PROOF Hard Ice Cream notes that its employees all have a voice in the company, which adheres to four core values: integrity, dedication, teamwork, and leadership.

Logistical Solutions

The company continues to add new states where it can sell its products at retail, after undergoing a lengthy regulation process, often led by the company co-founders. Once a state permits sales of alcohol ice cream, PROOF Hard Ice Cream must make sure retailers in those states have the exacting logistics in place. 

Leading this charge is Bill Dorsey, the company’s head of distribution and logistics, a 25-year dairy industry veteran. Currently in his second year at PROOF Hard Ice Cream, Dorsey handles all warehousing for the different distributors in the states where the company has regulatory approval to sell its ice cream.

Regulatory approval is just the beginning. Dorsey then goes to work, by having an onsite meeting and verifying the location, which is generally accomplished within one day. Upon returning to South Carolina, he waits to receive a purchase order. 

Once purchase orders are received, he needs to coordinate freezers from PROOF Hard Ice Cream’s manufacturer, has them wrapped and ensures the freezers are sent to the distributor. Dorsey also makes sure the retailer receives all marketing materials to properly promote the product. 

“Typically, we also do a visit to follow how the freezers are being set, work on the planogram with our five core flavors, and work with them going forward to solve any issues they may have,” Dorsey tells Dairy Foods. “I am their main [point of] communication in-between sales.

Dorsey gets lots of traveling in. Walmart, Piggly Wiggly, and Schnucks are among the retailers that sell PROOF Hard Ice Cream, with its products now sold in several states beyond South Carolina, including Florida, Missouri, North Carolina, Wisconsin, and Illinois. 

At a Glance: Proof Hard Ice Cream

Co-founders: Jennifer Randall and Dirk Brown

Year founded: 2014

Headquarters: Columbia, S.C.

Difference maker: Proof Hard Ice Cream infuses alcohol into its ice cream, a new segment of the dairy industry.

Company motto: “There isn’t a day that goes by that we don’t love what we do and the people we do it with and for.” — Jennifer Randall, CEO

When a new distributor is set up, Dorsey often spends three to four days on-site to make sure everything is running smoothly, and also helps oversee launch party events as necessary.

Once the distributor is set up, Dorsey takes on an ongoing role of analyzing data for a particular distributor. “Part of that data they feed us is their inventory,” he says. “[Working] in dairy for so long, we can anticipate their needs and understand how big our freezers are. There are a lot of times we are two weeks ahead of their buyer and let them know they need to get an order [in].

“One big thing I do is give [the distributor] a buffer to make sure they never run out of stock of any one flavor,” Dorsey continues. “So I manage all of the inventories from all of the different states.” 

In addition to his know-how and years of experience, Dorsey implemented a forecasting model. “The distributors have their own systems that tells when to order more,” Dorsey concludes. “But [hard ice cream] is a brand new category that their systems may not recognize. So we get them the information about a week ahead of a normal cycle, because we need to have two weeks to get the order produced for them.”