
After more than 90 years producing ice cream on the East Side, Schoep’s Ice Cream Co. Inc. has gone into a process to sell the business because it is unable to repay its debts, but it hopes to find a buyer that will keep the business open.
Operating in Madison since 1928, the ice cream manufacturer produces more than 12 million gallons of ice cream every year, with a wide assortment of flavors available in all 50 states and Puerto Rico, according to Schoep’s website. The company says it is “one of the largest independent ice cream manufacturers” in the nation.
On Monday, Schoep’s filed for receivership, an alternative to bankruptcy in which a court-appointed receiver protects a company’s assets until a sale of the company is made.
Michael Polsky, a Milwaukee attorney who has completed more than 300 receivership over the past 20 years or so, has filed to be the receiver. Polsky said the goal is to sell Schoep’s and have it operate as the same business with the same name and all of the current employees.
“We’re very optimistic that we’ll be able to have a successful sale process,” Polsky said. “The company has already spoken to a number of different potential purchasers.”
The company has been owned and operated by generations of the same family, the Thomsen family, since the 1940s and employs around 150 full time workers.
Jenifer Wait moves Walgreen’s brand chocolate nut sundae cones, created by Schoep’s, along a production line in 2008.
If Schoep’s is successfully sold, the money from the sale will go toward its creditors. The court will decide how much goes to whom.
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