NEWS: Dippin' Dots files for Bankruptcy Protection

[gisco]

From the looks of it, they just have a cash flow problem at the moment. They should be able to pull out of Chapter 11 and continue on.

[sammmmmy]

I read this headline out to my seven year old cousin, in which she responded "Okay nobody even eats dippin dots anyway."

[Philrad71]

^^So right now, their assets are frozen?

[PAL]

^They're always overly frozen. This stuff is eating ice burn. Except when melted into overly expensive mush.

[Commando]

Now we will never know what all of the major theme parks are adding next year!

[Meteornotes]

^Likely not Dippin' Dot stands...

 

dt

[PriestofSyrinx]

^ Too Soon.

[ukfan339]

While the company may soon be under, the product of little frozen ice cream balls won't. There are many companies who replicate the same exact product with no difference in taste are style such as "Molliecoolz" and "Mini Melts". Dippin' Dots were never secretive on how they made their ice cream.

 

Even some Amusement parks use the other brands of Beaded Ice Cream. Take Holiday World for example...They cut out the Dippin' Dots brand in 20010, for the Mini Melts brand.

[larrygator]

^the company is not going under, only restructuring their debt.

[UniverseHollywood]

Anyone else notice a trend here? Almost everyone here has said they had not had Dippin Dots in years due to the prices for the portion you receive. I too have always felt that way, even though I love the ice cream. Sometimes its so odd to me that companies don't understand how many more people would actually buy their products, and how much better they'd be off, if they just lowered the price by as little as a dollar. Now if they wouldn't even be able to maintain a profit if they did that based on the higher volume it would sell for, it's definitely not a surprise this is happening to this company.

 

Banana split FTW!

[jedimaster1227]

http://blogs.wsj.com/bankruptcy/2012/04/16/dippin’-dots-hopes-to-avoid-meltdown-with-sale/

 

The ice cream of the future may have dodged its apocalypse.

 

Dippin’ Dots Inc. has secured an offer from an Oklahoma energy executive whose firm has proposed to buy the financially struggling company out of bankruptcy for about $12.7 million. The deal would preserve the flow of colorful flash-frozen ice cream beads to baseball stadiums and amusement parks across the country.

 

The buyer has ties to energy executive Mark Fischer, the president of oil and gas exploration company Chaparral Energy Inc. Under the new ownership, the company would continue to pump out the dots from its 120,000-square-foot Paducah, Ky., manufacturing plant, which can produce more than 25,000 gallons of frozen dots a day.

 

The spirit of the ice cream’s longtime catchphrase wasn’t lost on Mark Fischer’s son Scott Fischer, who would take over as president, according to a press release that announced the buyer’s intent. “We are committed to ensuring that Dippin’ Dots reclaims its status, not as a novelty of the past, but as the ice cream of the future,” he said.

 

So what could the company’s future look like? In what the company calls its “high temperature” project, researchers have been trying to find the formula for a variant of Dippin’ Dots that could survive in the freezer section at grocery stores. The climate-picky dots start sticking to each other once their storage temperature begins to rise above negative 40 degrees Fahrenheit.

 

The deal could also mean that founder and microbiologist Curt Jones, 52, who invented the treat in his garage more than 20 years ago, might remain in charge. He stepped down as chief executive earlier this year when the company’s biggest lender, Regions Bank, accused him of rejecting handsome purchase offers that didn’t keep him in the company’s operations. “My understanding is that they want me involved in the company at a high level,” Jones told Bankruptcy Beat on Friday. After reading about the company’s financial struggles, the Fischers reached out to Jones out of empathy; both have been through tough times, Jones said.

 

Dippin’ Dots began looking for buyers shortly after filing for Chapter 11 protection in November, a step the company took when biggest lender Regions Bank, owed about $11 million, threatened to seize the 165-worker company’s assets.

 

Dippin’ Dots fell behind on its loan promises to Regions Bank in 2007, mid-recession, when customers were no longer willing to spend the few dollars it cost for the frozen treat.

 

The proposed sale can’t go through without first getting permission from a bankruptcy judge, who will have to evaluate the deal to make sure the company couldn’t fetch a bigger price if it auctioned itself off.

[crazywolf88]

While the company may soon be under, the product of little frozen ice cream balls won't. There are many companies who replicate the same exact product with no difference in taste are style such as "Molliecoolz" and "Mini Melts". Dippin' Dots were never secretive on how they made their ice cream.

 

Even some Amusement parks use the other brands of Beaded Ice Cream. Take Holiday World for example...They cut out the Dippin' Dots brand in 20010, for the Mini Melts brand.

Are you psychic?

[CoasterGuy06]

Holiday World switched back to Dippin' Dots in 2011, FWIW.

[Coaster Curt]

Never had them at the park.......way over priced for freezer burn ice cream.

[Rai Fox]

I can't really go to Lake Compounce without getting them. Especially now that they have a full Dippin' Dots sundae shop instead of just the little carts; some of the creations you can get there are amazing. I keep saying I want to try them all...but then I always get the strawberry sundae again anyway.

[Skycoastin Steve]

Boy their progress was really stopped cold. Hopefully their assets aren't frozen.

[RCBoilermaker14]

I call it Dippin' Dots when I go to Dollywood even though it's Mini Melts.Sorry if that annoys anyone.

[gisco]

At least now our inside source on the latest coaster being installed or park improvement is now secure!