Trying to stay cool
Charlotte-area couple works to maintain small-business flavor as Italian ices hit big retailers
GILLIAN MAY-LIAN WEE
gwee@charlotteobserver.com

Over the past eight years, Damon and Veronica DeCristoforo have gone from selling their
homemade ice desserts at Charlotte Hornets games to scoring a major deal with the
nation's largest retailer.

Now, they're figuring out how to keep that mom-and-pop vibe while starting to run the company
more like a corporation.

The DeCristoforos, both 34, run Lindy's Homemade Italian Ice. The 20-employee company
supplies 3,000 groceries from Maine to Florida with seven flavors of ices, including strawberry
and watermelon. This year, the couple expects to make and sell 18 million cups of ices, which
could generate sales as high of $7.5 million, 15 times the 2003 sales of $500,000.

"We try to maintain our connection with our employees without going completely corporate,"
Damon said. "We try to raise the bar on expectations and do the good things you see out of
corporations -- tracking numbers, knowing exactly what they're doing, having standards."

The company credits its growth to having a larger facility, finding a niche market, investment
backing and managing growth by carefully selecting retailers.

Typically, Damon dreams up ideas and Veronica, originally from Santiago, Chile, figures out
how to pay for them. Friends since junior high, they also worked together during college at
Veronica's father's textile plant in Cramerton.

Cresset Capital took a 45 percent stake in the company in 2003. Managing partner Paul
Givens said that usually Cresset doesn't invest in companies as small as Lindy's, but
Cresset's backers were struck by the DeCristoforos' business smarts. Cresset also felt
the couple had a product with strong growth potential.

"They've done what we had hoped they would do," Givens said. "As they continue to hit those
numbers, it will be about continuing to add people, fleshing out that management group and
making that transition from a family, entrepreneurial-type environment to a business."

Ices are water-based, almost like frozen fruit. Back in 1998, the couple experimented making
ices on their kitchen table, using fresh fruit and sugar. They later moved into a 5,000-square-foot
facility on Mint Street. In 2001, they picked up their first account: Harris Teeter. They courted
other supermarkets, including Lowes Foods and Giant Food, probably communicating with each
company about 20 times before snagging shelf space.

After Cresset pitched in, the DeCristoforos spruced up a rusty old, 62,000-square-foot building
off N.C. 16 in northwest Charlotte. On Monday morning, the factory was churning out lemon ices
from a huge vat of liquid sugar. Once packaged into little cups, the product was frozen and
boxed for shipping.

Veronica's father, Jorge Silva Sr., production manager of the plant, was walking around the
facility making sure all was well. His son, Jorge Silva Jr., works in sales and logistics.

Damon is trying to manage Lindy's growth by maintaining responsiveness to customers and not
missing deliveries. He closely watches national rival J&J Snack Foods, which makes
Luigi's Real Italian Ice.

And, last year, he brought an outsider with 25 years of experience at frozen food giant Schwan's
into the group as national sales manager.

"I wanted to step out of the comfort zone of our company and challenge us to look at things
differently," Damon said. "It would be a lot more stressful if our sales weren't growing like they are."

Last fall, after two years of discussions, Lindy's snagged its largest customer. Wal-Mart now makes
up about a quarter of its business, with Lindy's ices in 400 of its stores. Lindy's plans to add another
shift and double its workforce to 40 later this year.

Damon also rents freezer space to Starbucks and Schwan's, a business he thinks will rake in an
additional $2.5 million in revenue in the next two years. Previously, he saw his own products
getting damaged at other outside cold storage spaces.

Companies can see such big jumps in sales, especially if they occupy a trendy niche as Lindy's
does, said Stephen Sibert, group vice president at the Grocery Manufacturers Association.

"The question for them is how to keep the engine going, add new flavors and stay on trend," Sibert said.

In early April, Lindy's new gelato ice cream in six flavors will hit Harris Teeter. In summer, Lindy's
will release four sorbet flavors, Damon said. In the next two years, Damon also plans to push
his ices into the food-service business, so schools, restaurants and hospitals can get a taste
of the Charlotte-made ice.

If Lindy's keeps growing, Damon anticipates its 2007 sales to jump to $14 million. Going public
is also a possibility.

"The flip side of all that stress is that after all the hard work, you see your product," Damon said.
"You're at the grocery store and you see a woman go down the aisle with her son or daughter
and grab the box. It's pretty cool."

Lindy's Homemade Italian Ice

• When Damon DeCristoforo and his wife, Veronica, saw textile orders shrink after the
North American Free Trade Agreement, they started making Italian ices.

• Growing up as the children of entrepreneurs helped prepare the couple for their ice
business, and taught them how family members can back each other up.

• The company commemorates Damon's father, Mario Lindbergh, a former restaurateur
who died in a car accident with his wife, Zelda, in 1997. Zelda used to run a beauty
salon on Monroe Road.

• Mario made ices for Damon as a child, and the Italian ice business was the first idea
of Damon's that Mario liked.