Bubbies Ice Cream Does Not Melt Under Pressure
By Jay McWilliams, 3/19/2002 12:33:50 AM

http://www.bubbiesicecream.com

Thanks to the spunk and stamina of the company president, Keith Robbins, Bubbies Homemade Ice Cream & Desserts Inc. will celebrate 17 years in business on March 25.

Robbins describes owning a business like having a 17-year-old child who needs attention all day, every day.

A usual day for him runs from about 4:30 in the morning until 6 or 7 at night. Robbins splits his energy between many tasks, such as making his regular flavor ice cream and mochi ice cream, coming up with new flavors, talking with clients or starting new wholesale accounts, dealing with employee issues, analyzing costs and talking to customers in the store.

Also, he's been franchising Bubbies for 5 or 6 years, and just got his franchise approved to sell in California, a process that took 3 years. Currently, he has franchised stores in Hawaii and Singapore, and has plans to open a store in Las Vegas.

In Hawaii, the only "company" store is Robbins' first outlet on University Avenue, across from the Varsity Theatre. Bubbies franchises are in Koko Marina Shopping Center and in The Town Center of Mililani, and Robbins is working on opening other locations locally as well.

While making regular ice cream will always be an important part of Bubbies, Robbins says the demand for mochi ice cream is increasing rapidly. "We're getting our mochi distributed across the country," Robbins says. "That's our niche. It's hard to compete against the bigger ice cream distributors. So we found it's better going after a market that's smaller and more select. But it's a market where we are ruling."

Bubbies is selling a lot of mochi ice cream on the mainland, mostly to Nobu's in New York, Miami, Malibu and Las Vegas, Robbins says.

Just three weeks ago here in Hawaii, Chef James Cassidy at the Four Seasons Resort in Kona started offering Bubbies mochi ice cream as a standard on the menu, Robbins says. Cassidy discovered Bubbies mochi ice cream at Chef Amy Ota's Oodles of Noodles on the Big Island and decided to use it to compliment his own meals. His orders have grown, and now run from 16 to 20 cases a week, Robbins says.

The most popular choice of mochi ice cream right now is the raspberry mochi, with white chocolate ice cream and a dark Belgium chocolate chip inside -- a type of mochi that was usually only available at Christmas.

A smart businessman, Robbins knows to listen closely to demand and to respond immediately. When asked how many flavors of regular ice cream are available at Bubbies, he says, "The number is infinite. We can make anything."

Robbins promotes his business in a number of ways. For the last two years, he's participated in the Taste of the Nation in Las Vegas. In Hawaii, he's doing the Touch of Iolani in August with Big City Diner and on April 27, he'll be doing the Early School Fundraiser -- for the 17th year in a row.

"We're using our pints for fundraisers," he says. Just recently, Momilani Elementary School Foundation sold 4,000 pints and raised $12,000. "This fundraiser was right after 9-11," he says. "It was very good, but if the timing was better, the fundraiser could have been better.

"We're hoping to get more involved with the schools. With Bubbies' pints, the school can buy it for $2.50 and sell it for $5. The school keeps half. And it's a one-day pick up, where we bring our freezer trucks and distribute the ice cream from the schools."

Along with responding to demands and diverse marketing efforts, using humor has always been important to Robbins, as shown through the unusual titles he picks for some of his ice cream products. But it has also proved to be a point of controversy for a small, vocal minority. "In the spirit good will, we will be altering the names to a humorous but less potentially offensive nature," he says. "We have fun with the names, and just do it to make people laugh."

In the spirit of keeping things light, Robbins offers the following examples of title changes: "Maybe the bag broke," will become "Paint by number dreams," and "Knock me up on the blower," which means "call me on the telephone" in South Africa, will become "Hard-headed woman," which Robbins jokingly says was inspired by his wife.

He says he'd be interested to hear from people who enjoy the names. "It would be fun to get feedback from them, but people only call when they have a complaint."

© 2003 Hawaii Reporter, Inc.