Three Twins Ice Cream shuttering Petaluma plant, moving to Wisconsin

One of Petaluma’s biggest food producers is scooping up and moving all of its production out of town. Three Twins Ice Cream has completed its transition to a new plant in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, and will give up its local production facility.

It’s a move that started back in 2013, when the lower cost of doing business led the company to buy a plant in America’s dairy land. Founding twin and CEO Neal Gottlieb said the Three twins headquarters will remain in Petaluma.

Gottlieb revealed that although Three Twins has become an internationally recognized brand, sold in all 50 states and overseas, the company has never turned a profit since it launched in San Francisco in 2005.

He explained that margins are tight in the food industry, especially for a company so focused on keeping prices low while still using high-quality ingredients.

“We are striving to offer pints of organic ice cream in the $5 range,” Gottlieb said. “High rents, production costs and competition make this a challenge in California.”

With a company philosophy that quality food should be affordable at all price points, Three Twins added a budget-minded line in 2017 called Maxine’s — a tribute to Neal’s “coupon-clipping supermom.” In an interview in 2017, Gottlieb told the North Bay Business Journal that the flavors were a bit mellower than Three Twins’ premium ice cream.

“Vanilla and cookies and chocolate are very expensive. By changing formulation somewhat, it allows us to offer a compelling price point. Less-expensive to make, it’s still really rich. You don’t have to be rich to live richly,” he told the journal.

Despite shuttering the Petaluma facility, Three Twins will remain close to its Northern California roots via its headquarter, with plans to stay active in the community.

“I was getting pressure from the board to shut the facility down a while back, and probably should have,” Gottlieb said. “But we love Petaluma so I was hoping to make it work.”

Three Twins will retain roughly a dozen employees at the Petaluma headquarters. Three Twins cups, ice-cream sandwiches and pints will still pack the shelves of area grocers and the ice cream trucks will continue to provide sweet treats at local events.

With such a tight local labor market, former employees will not be unemployed for long Gottlieb hopes, adding that a few have already secured other jobs.

“I just heard from one who is actually going to make more than we were paying him,” he said with relief in his voice. “These folks have been like family.”

As for the Petaluma facility, Gottlieb said “We also hope that someone comes in and uses our old space for a cheese or ice cream facility, but the overhead was simply too high for our purposes.”

Three Twins’ new facility in Sheboygan is 25,000 square feet, compared to the 4,200 square feet it maintained in Petaluma.

“There are overhead costs that do not change even with the larger space, making it more economically viable,” Gottlieb said.

The Wisconsin plant has historic ice cream roots as the former home of Zurheide Ice Cream Co., a staple of the Midwest for more than 80 years. Three Twins even purchased some of Zurheide’s equipment at an auction. And unlike the Petaluma facility, which was leased, Three Twins purchased the Sheboygan property to help keep costs down over years.

“Our goal remains the same, to offer affordable and delicious organic ice cream,” he said. “But we cannot do that if we aren’t profitable.”