St. Clair Ice Cream The ice cream that keeps you young

ST. CLAIR ICE CREAM IS NOT ONLY RICH IN TASTE, BUT RICH IN HISTORY AS WELL.

Before you walk into the head office of St. Clair Ice Cream’s new manufacturing facility in Woodbridge, you are greeted by the slogan: “May All Your Days be Ice Cream Days!”

Amen.

Though they did spend some time in retail, St. Clair’s business has always been about selling bulk containers of delicious, colourful ice cream (in 11.4-litre tubs) to foodservice businesses, such as restaurants, caterers, and dairy bars. In fact, St. Clair Ice Cream is currently one of the most popular wholesale ice cream suppliers in Southern Ontario -- and they also produce 1 and 1.42-litre containers that are sold in supermarkets, albeit under third-party private labels. However, like most manufacturers that make products for private label customers, St. Clair is prohibited by contract from disclosing that they are actually the manufacturers behind the private label brands. So you would never know it was them.

The company has been Jewish-owned since 1987 after it was purchased by by Arthur (“Rosy”) and Marcee Rosenzweig in 1987.

St. Clair Ice Cream was originally founded in 1932, with an ice cream plant and dairy bar on St. Clair Avenue in Toronto’s west end. The founder had travelled throughout the United States seeking work during the Great Depression. He observed that even during the Depression, when people had no money, they were still buying ice cream cones.

He reasoned that ice cream is closely associated with happiness – that it is impossible to eat ice cream while having negative thoughts. He liked the idea of making people happy, so he decided to make ice cream.

Originally, he envisioned making ice cream solely for his own scoop shop, but from the moment he opened his factory, wholesale accounts started coming to him, wanting to buy premium ice cream.

Some of St. Clair’s flavours even back then were certified by COR, and the company is listed in the 1962 COR directory of certified companies –COR’s oldest company directory.

Rosy Rosenzweig has always had fond memories of St. Clair Ice Cream.

“When I was a child,” he says, “my aunt and uncle would take my brothers and me to St. Clair. And when Marcee and I dated, we often went there for an ice cream cone.”

When Rosy was in his first year at the University of Toronto, he made up his mind, while taking Economics 100, that he was going into the food business. But it didn’t happen right away. Rosy graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce in 1974, started working at a large national Chartered Accounts firm, and received his CA designation in 1976. He left the firm in 1981 as a secondyear manager and went to work for a prominent businessman who was a leader in the Toronto Jewish community. Eventually, Rosy approached the owners of St. Clair about buying the company.

And of course, once they bought the company, there were always going to be at least some kosher flavours.

Not to mention fun novelty products. For years, St. Clair was known by the kosher community for its moulded ice cream fruits -- the “bite-sized fruits” (strawberries, walnuts, peaches, and pears) and the “large fruits” (apples, bananas, oranges, and grape clusters) -- which looked and tasted like the real thing. Those were available in both dairy and pareve, and were served at weddings, bar mitzvahs, and other affairs at both kosher and Italian banquet halls. The moulded fruits were handmade in several stages and were packed in dry ice for shipping.

“Those were discontinued several years ago,” Rosy says, “as the cost of production made them too pricey for the catering business.”

Meanwhile, Marcee, who was a physiotherapist at the time, worked at St. Clair for a number of years. She developed a line of pareve ice creams and sorbets that were sold under the label “Marcee’s Sweets” and were available at kosher food stores including Sobeys and No Frills. Marcee eventually left St. Clair to work as an osteopath.

“The sorbets were big sellers during Pesach,” Rosy says.

Printed on the containers were the Rosenzweigs’ children’s names - Zevi, Ari, Aaron, and Tova - along with a comment from each. Customers loved reading the containers and felt as though they were a part of the Rosenzweig family. But as similar products became available from the U.S. and Israel, the company decided to discontinue the line.

“But you never know,” Rosy says, “It may return one day bigger and better than ever.”

St. Clair also specializes in making private label ice cream for various ethnic markets, including Asian, Indian, and Filipino. Mango ice cream, made with Alphonso Mango puree, is their No. 1 seller, followed by Green Tea flavour. Indian flavours include Mango Kulfi, Pistachio Kulfi, Malai Masti, and Rose Faluda. Filipino flavours include Ube, Ube Macapuno, Queso, Boba and Sweet Corn. The demand for these flavours reflects the rich diversity of the Canadian population. St. Clair is also currently developing a variety of plant-based frozen desserts for private label.

Many of the St. Clair flavours are certified kosher by COR, but some are not. As Rosy explains, “Several flavours designated for the ethnic market are not certified, as they contain ingredients from overseas, produced by companies that are not certified kosher. None of these ingredients are blatantly nonkosher per se, nor are they injected into the ice cream until the end of the manufacturing process, once the mix has been frozen [which in the ice cream business they call “the cold side”], so they do not cause a concern for the kosher-certified products manufactured in the same facility.”

“COR sets high standards,” he says, “and we comply with those standards.”

“Working with COR has been a pleasure,” Rosy says. “The staff are friendly and helpful. We have developed an excellent relationship with Rabbi Lowinger, Rabbi Oziel, Rabbi Felder, and Rabbi Levin. Barbara Bar-Dayan, Chaya Rosenberg, and Judy Pister are always there to help when we call. The mashgichim are very knowledgeable in both halacha and food processing. Rabbi Lowinger [the plant’s regular certifying rabbi] is thorough and always very amicable.”

Rabbi Lowinger, who has been supervising the plant for several decades, has only nice things to say about St. Clair.

“Rosy Rosenzweig is an extremely nice fellow and very cooperative, always accommodating, and above all, he’s very knowledgeable,” Rabbi Lowinger says. And what’s interesting is that he hasn’t changed one bit in all the years I’ve known him. Everyone else is getting older, but he still has this youthful energy about him.”

As the spirit of cheirus fills the air, we renew our commitment to the highest standards of kashrus and quality. It’s our privilege to traverse mountain and mainland bringing you and your family the best of the food pyramid — balanced nutrition and wholesome provisions.

Maybe it’s all the ice cream.

As far as what keeps the company ticking after more than 90 years, St. Clair is renowned for its customer service and creative product development.

“We work with our customers to develop unique flavours,” Rosy says. “Our 35,000 sq. ft. facility is state of the art, with automated filling machines and a stick line. We also have a 7,500 sq. ft. freezer to store finished goods. We ship to Western Canada every week and to Montreal on a regular basis.

“The large national ice cream manufacturers are at full capacity running their own brands,” he says. “We have the

capacity to do runs for the private brands.”

The other thing Rosy credits is that he has built his business model on something he learned from his mentor all those years ago: that the most important attribute of a successful person is being a mensch

“Businesses are all about people,” he says. “The St. Clair people and the customer people.

“St. Clair’s biggest asset is its employees. There is a sense of family among everyone here. Over the last 20 years there has been minimal employee turnover. During COVID, no employee lost any wages even though the foodservice market had been totally shut down.

“Meanwhile, our customers are treated as partners. When we develop products, we put ourselves on the customers' side of the desk. We know that if their products are not successful, we won’t be either.

“We know all our customers by name. And all of our customers know Rosy, Carmen, Dennis, Jeremy, and our truck drivers by name. It is this relationship that has enabled St. Clair Ice Cream to be in business for over 90 years and to have experienced substantial growth. Customers email and text me and Dennis at all times of the day and on weekends and receive prompt replies. We understand that, notwithstanding the quality or competitive price of our products, we must make sure our customers receive our products as needed. Restaurants cannot afford to be out of stock on menu items. Supermarket products must be delivered as ordered, or our customers lose their shelf space. We continuously review our inventory of finished goods, raw materials, and packaging to ensure we do not run out of stock. We are committed to never letting our customers down.” g