Technology

Ice cream to your door via virtual brand, The Ice Cream Shop

Photo: iStock.

March 11, 2021

C3, which hosts over 200 digital kitchens, is now supporting The Ice Cream Shop, a virtual frozen novelty concept created in 2019 by the world's largest ice cream-maker, Unilever, according to a company press release.

C3 is hosting 17 locations in Chicago, as well as Los Angeles, Orange County and Oakland in California, but plans to expand the partnership to its network of digital kitchens nationwide throughout 2021.

"Our new partnership with Unilever underscores C3's diversified business model and ability to create solutions across the food industry," C3 Founder and CEO Sam Nazarian said in the release. "C3 is proud to offer The Ice Cream Shop a seamless fulfillment process through our nationwide ghost kitchen network to match the growing demand for enjoying ice cream at home."

Customers may order The Ice Cream Shop via mainstream delivery platforms, but later this year will find it on C3's proprietary delivery app, CitizensGO, and on the menus of C3's other concepts, including Umami Burger, Krispy Rice and Sam's Crispy Chicken. Those concepts also offer Ben & Jerry's, Talenti, Magnum, Breyers, Klondike & Good Humor desserts.

"The idea of ice cream delivery is still a fairly new concept. Many people don't know that they are able to get ice cream delivered right to their door without it melting," Rahul Shah, head of Ice Cream Now, U.S. at Unilever, said in the release. "We're lucky to be able to continue to expand ice cream delivery with the help of our partners like C3," "Having C3 in our corner allows us to distribute Unilever ice cream brands across its impressive network of consumer markets."

Forthcoming fulfillment locations for The Ice Cream Shop hosted by C3 include Berkeley, California, as well as Minneapolis and Iowa City, Iowa; Tempe, Arizona; Richmond, Virginia; Ann Arbor, Michigan and Providence, Rhode Island, with plans for New York and San Francisco later in 2021.

Since its late 2019 launch, C3 closed out 2020 with 200 digital kitchens, 15 brands, 12,000 employees and 1.1 million meals served. The company is based in Beverly Hills, California.