The man who created the most successful ice cream company in the United States from his kitchen

The BBC series "The Boss" (The Boss) presents each week a business leader from any country . This week, we spoke with Justin Woolverton, the founder and executive director of the Halo Top ice cream brand.

A few years ago, Justin Woolverton begged American supermarkets to include their low-calorie ice cream jars among their products. Frozen

Sales of its Halo Top brand, low in fat and sugar, were declining and stores were continually threatening to abandon it.

"We hung as we could," says the 38-year-old entrepreneur. business in 2012. "We told them" let's get there, things will change. "

But even in his wildest dreams, Woolverton could not have predicted to how dramatic the change would be. Only six years after the start, its ice cream is now the best-selling brand in the United States

With very little money to invest in marketing the start -up ] based in Los Angeles had been trying to increase sales by working hard to promote themselves on social networks.

Then, in 2016, a journalist from the magazine GQ wrote a very witty article about how he only ate Halo Top ice cream for 10 days in a row

The Story became viral and sales of Halo Top soared .

In 2016, the company sold nearly 29 million jars of ice cream, generating US $ 132 million in sales and becoming the best-selling ice cream in the United States , beating industry leaders like Ben & Jerry and Häagen-Dazs.

Not bad for a small independent business that does not have outside investors, apart from the family and friends of Woolverton and his co-founder Doug Bouton.

However, despite the success of the brand, some critics have questioned that ice cream is as healthy as its manufacturers say, that they say can be eaten "without guilt". While others wonder if it should be allowed to be called ice cream.

Prior to founding Halo Top, Woolverton worked in Los Angeles as a corporate lawyer a job from which he was disillusioned

. The idea of ​​ice cream was born from the restrictions that he himself had to incorporate into his diet to control his blood sugar levels.

When he was at home, instead of consuming sweet things, he was preparing a bowl of Greek yogurt with fruit, to which he added the stevia sweetener.

After buying an ice cream machine from US 20 he put the mixture in to see what flavor he would have. "It was delicious, there I thought to myself:" My God, if I love him, why would not others like him? " ""

Woolverton started experimenting with ingredients from there, including replacing yogurt with milk, to make the mixture behave more like ice when frozen, allowing to produce it on a large scale. "The first year was a total failure," he says.] With his friend Doug Bouton, another ex-lawyer, on board the project, they launched the company with a Money borrowed from their families and friends, student loans and about $ 200,000 of credit card debt.

Woolverton says having no investor Private capital gave him and Button more freedom "We do not have men in costume telling us what to do," he says.

To promote the brand on social networks at the beginning, Woolverton had a novel idea. local university students to send Halo Top coupons to people with a lot followers on YouTube and Instagram who publish on health and fitness

"It was an excellent marketing strategy," he explains. "We think that if they can buy it, it's great and they can not, we're on their radar anyway."

Alex Beckett, Deputy Global Director of Food and Beverages for the Mintel Halo Top Research Group of Social Networks was a key element of his success

"She reinforced her appeal as a cool alternative and to the global ice cream brands with larger advertising budgets," says Beckett.

And then came the article from GQ ]

"This [la dieta Halo Top] is not something we recommend, to be clear, but it was a really fun article, "says Woolverton.

After the story became viral Halo Top he took advantage of such a tremendous rise in sales that the company struggled to keep up with the demand.

"[Los supermercados] did not know how to deal with it," Woolverton recalls. "For the first time, people were buying three, four or five pots at a time, it was the first ice that people could eat every day."

But should people eat Halo Top every day?

The ice cream contains two sweeteners: erythritol and stevia which replace most of the sugar. Although they are widely used in the food industry and the authorities have approved them, some skeptics claim that they can cause side effects, such as exacerbation of irritable bowel syndrome. .

Other critics claim that Halo Top and its low calorie rival ice creams could actually contribute to weight gain in people.

And some wonder if Halo Top should be able to call an ice cream, since Woolverton says that the brand's success "is an acknowledgment that consumers are a lot smarter than many of them." companies think. "

The success of Halo Top has also led to the launch of many other competing brands of low calorie ice cream. These include the Unilever Breyers Delight or the Ben & Jerry's "Moo-phoria" range.

Woolverton was also inundated with acquisition proposals, including a $ 2 billion Unilever bid. He has rejected them all and has his eyes fixed on world domination.

The company was launched in the UK last year and is exporting to countries such as Australia and Singapore. They have also opened in the United States. Halo Top is one of the biggest ice cream brands in the world

"We'll be as famous as Ben & Jerry's," he anticipates. 19659058] You can now receive notifications from BBC World. Download the new version of our application and activate it to not miss our best content.