Beloved ADL ice-cream flavours will soon melt away from P.E.I. store freezers

Lynn-Ann McCormack loves her grapenut ice cream, not to mention the orange pineapple kind — and they have to be ADL.

So learning that the Prince Edward Island dairy producer would be getting out of the retail ice-cream business came as a shock to the Souris woman.

Amalgamated Dairies Limited said in a statement earlier this week that its ice-cream sales haven't been strong enough to support production.

"Everybody likes ADL. It's hometown proud," McCormack told CBC News. "The Islanders want it, why not keep it?"

Learning that Amalgamated Dairies Limited would be getting out of the ice-cream business came as a shock to Lynn-Ann McCormack, who loves the company's grapenut and orange pineapple flavours. (Wayne Thibodeau/CBC)

At one point, ice cream was a "significant piece" of the company's business. Now, it accounts for less than one per cent of annual sales, said ADL CEO Chad Mann.

"We've seen continued erosion of that business over the last 20 years," he said from ADL's headquarters in Summerside, P.E.I.

A few years ago, ADL stopped packaging its own ice cream in the face of a sales dip brought on by national competitors. The packaging function went to Nova Scotia-based Scotsburn, owned by the national co-operative Agropur.

The P.E.I. company also reduced the size of its ice-cream packaging and the flavours available. Twenty years ago, ADL had more than 20 flavours. That dropped to eight in the last couple of years.

The Summerside-based dairy operation says it simply couldn't compete in the retail ice-cream business any more, with so many offerings from other companies. (Wayne Thibodeau/CBC)

The end of ADL ice cream means those popular flavours — like McCormack's cherished grapenut and orange pineapple — will disappear from store shelves.

"We can't offer consumers here on the Island a product that's feasible and to what our standard would be," Mann said.

'Ice cream addicts, we have our ways'

Ranald MacFarlane of Fernood is an Island dairy farmer with two sons he says "live on ice cream." He buys his premium vanilla ice cream directly from the ADL store in Summerside.

"I expect some people to be sad, because I know I am," he said. "But fear not, ADL vanilla is still going to be out there at the dairy bars. There will be other ways to get it."

Yet he added: "It's going to be a pain in the butt. Every time I want to have strawberries and ice cream I have to go over to Kinkora and get soft serve from the dairy bar, but I will find a way. Ice-cream addicts, we have our ways."

'We can’t offer consumers here on the Island a product that’s feasible and to what our standard would be,' says ADL CEO Chad Mann. (Wayne Thibodeau/CBC)

ADL will continue to supply ice cream to Island dairy bars, both in the 11.3-litre hard ice-cream tubs and in the form of soft serve.

"I've gotta give Islanders credit, the ice-cream scooping business on P.E.I. remains very healthy," Mann said.

ADL also sells milk, cheese and butter and distributes food to stores and restaurants. None of that will change.

But as of Feb. 1, ADL ice cream will no longer be available in stores.

"It was a logical move — [a] painful move and we understand consumer's frustration, but it's just where things are headed," said Mann.