(Le Mars) — An article that appeared in the September 30th Food Business News
website, indicates that the Joy Cone Company, with its headquarters based in
Hermitage, Pennsylvania has acquired Le Mars-based BoDeans Baking Group. Joy Cone
Company is nearly a 100 year old ice cream cone maker. Financial terms of the
transaction were not disclosed. David George, president and chief executive
officer with the Joy Cone Company says “BoDeans Baking Group’s manufacturing
excellence in wafers and cookie inclusions is a particularly exciting area of
growth, as the combined company continues its expansion and offers a wide range of
unique specialty bakery items to a greatly enhanced customer base”. Following the
transaction, George says the Joy Cone Company will be 100 percent employee-owned
through an ESOP plan. He went on to say, “as BoDeans Baking Group’s employees
become part of the Joy Cone Company, they are becoming actual owners in the
company as well”. Founded in 2000, BoDeans operates two facilities in Le Mars, a
134,000 square-foot wafer plant and a 90,000 square-foot cone plant. As part of
the acquisition of BoDeans Baking, Joy Cone Company says it is also acquiring
Altesa, the largest ice cream cone producer in Mexico. Altesa operates a new
facility near Mexico City and is “well positioned for growth throughout Mexico and
Central America”. BoDeans acquired Altesa in 2013. Founded in 1918, Joy Cone
Company makes more than 1.5 billion ice cream cones a year for the retail and food
service markets. The company’s products include cake cones, sugar cones, waffle
cones and bowls. The company operates a manufacturing facility in Hermitage,
Pennsylvania and another facility in Flagstaff, Arizona.
