Lindsay Skilling never wants to repeat this February’s Groundhog Day.
That is when the CEO of Gifford’s Ice Cream watched her family’s 43-year-old business burn in Skowhegan. Authorities later deemed the fire accidental. The timing couldn’t have been worse. February is when the factory builds up inventory to meet high summer demand from grocers, restaurants and ice cream stands.
“We had just started building up for the season and had moved to six days of production a week,” Skilling said. “And then the fire happened.”
Production halted. Gifford’s had to pivot quickly to rebuild the damaged factory and meet its goal of restarting it this fall. It also quickly shifted to buying 30 flavors of ice cream from a family-owned Florida ice cream company for restaurant customers and ice cream stands. That company has flavors and quality similar to those of Gifford’s, Skilling said, but no one else sells its ice cream in Maine. It allowed the Maine company to open its four local ice cream stands in Bangor, Waterville, Farmington and Skowhegan on time in mid-March.
In mid-July Gifford’s took another step toward recovery by using co-packers, which are manufacturing Gifford’s ice cream recipes until its own factory is up to speed, to make quarts for sale to grocery stores. The initial flavors are Old Fashioned Vanilla, Peanut Butter Pie, Dough Your Job honoring the New England Patriots and Power Play Fudge nodding to the Boston Bruins. It will roll out more flavors over the next few months.
Even though the 30 flavors from the Florida supplier are about one-third of the assortment Gifford’s usually offers, Michelle Wells was happy Gifford’s could keep operating. Wells, the owner of The Bethel Sugar Shack Restaurant in western Maine, has exclusively bought Gifford’s ice cream for the past six years. But fewer options have left some customers without their favorites.
“As soon as I tell them what happened, they understand,” Wells said.
Gifford’s goal is to have the idle factory up and running again by fall. Right now, the company is finishing demolition and beginning rebuilding there.
Even when production begins again in Skowhegan, Gifford’s won’t initially be able to make all of the flavors. The co-packers will still be used to help fill in production gaps. It should be up to speed with production in 2024, when the goal is to make 3 million gallons annually. That’s up from the 2.8 million gallons it made in 2022, which was up 12 percent from the previous year.
That will mark a long but steady rebound from the February fire, which broke out around 9:30 a.m. in the company’s processing room and was quickly extinguished. The 36 employees working at the time were evacuated safely. Most damage from the fire was to the manufacturing rooms and office spaces above them.
The most severe harm came from smoke damage to walls, including the executive and business offices above the almost 52,000-square-foot factory. Gifford’s has had to strip down walls and insulation in sections to rebuild. Most of the stainless steel equipment was not affected. But it has had to replace some items. That includes the silo tanks that store milk and cream and have been delayed by supply chain shortages.
Skilling would not say how much the fire cost the privately-owned company. She said the fire has been an ordeal for her and her family, many of whom are involved in the business. Support from the community has made a big difference.
“It’s hard to keep a smile on your face when something that you have been involved in since you were born is burning,” she said. “But the weekend after the fire someone showed up on my doorstep with two different kinds of soup for my family to show their support.”