Frios Gourmet Pops: Replacing Its Retail Stores With Mobile Trucks

Forbes

05-05-2025

The rainbow-colored trucks of Frios Gourmet Pops stand out, for a business that has moved almost ... More exclusively to mobile trucks from retail shops.
For most restaurants, starting out in mobile trucks or pop-up stores at food festivals or food marketplaces is a way to test its concept and move to brick-and-mortar stores, where they can generate more revenue. For example, Van Leeuwen Ice Cream started as a mobile truck in SoHo in NYC and now has over 70 actual stores.
But don't tell to Cliff Kennedy, the CEO and owner of Frios Gourmet Pops, headquartered in Mobile, Al., who acquired it in December 2018 when it operated 18 brick and mortar shops specializing in frozen ice pops, drinks and pop holders. In 2020 when Covid started spreading, his customers and everyone else stayed in, children and Frios' business tanked.
Currently it has 108 mobile trucks, all franchised, and 3 existing stores with legacy owners in Gadsden, Al., Cullman, Al, and Tulsa, Ok. And the business is growing at a steady pace since it added 24 new owners in 2024 and 10 so far in 2025.
When 42-year-old Kennedy acquired the company, he used funding raised from family and friends, without any outside investors. Kennedy himself had worked for 13 years at the family business Gulf Supply Co. in Mobile, Al. where he was born and raised and was ready for a more personal entrepreneurial endeavor.
When he stopped on the way home to buy a frozen Frios (the Spanish word for cold) at a stand, he felt immediate happiness and a return to childhood. He ended up in 2018 buying 3 brick and mortar stores in Pensacola, Mobile and Baldwin County, Alabama.
But Kennedy had an insight that would lead to changing Frios's business model. When he first took it over, franchise owners had 'some mobile carts for events, but the focus of the business was to bring people into the stores,' he explains.
When Covid struck and most people stayed inside their houses or apartments, Kennedy realized that Frios 'was a business that comes to people rather than waiting for them to come to us.'
He also came to the conclusion that it was an 'events-based business. It's a lot easier to go to an event with a captive audience of 1,000 individuals than getting 1,000 individuals to walk into your store.' Having a retail store meant owners were paying people to open up, but 'people may not walk in or buy pops,' he points out.
Changing Its Business Model
So Kennedy altered Frios's business model, moving to predominantly mobile trucks and not actual retail stores. At the time of Covid, landlords were increasingly flexible about terminating leases, he explains.
Lowering Costs
Moving to mobile trucks reduced costs for Frios's franchisees in a variety of ways including: 1) Lower labor costs, 2) No utility bills, 3) Lower insurance, 4) No 10-year leases, 5) No need for furniture and limited equipment.
Kennedy says franchises have several options regarding the mobile trucks including buying, leasing, or renting but the majority uses its leasing program.
Asked to compare Frios's mobile trucks to Carvel's, he replies that 'Those are food trucks. We are an ice cream truck. They have to make product. Ours are prepackaged and much easier to operate.'
Its trucks are called a Sweet Ride, which is a tie-dyed rainbow wrapped sprinter van and costs about $100,000 to renovate. It also offers a Happiness Hauler, a smaller, more affordable option, and a less expensive, freezer cart option. Many diversify their fleets.
Minimal Equipment Makes It Easier to Operate
He says all owners need to operate their business are a freezer and a serving window, and that's it. 'No machines to clean and no grease traps like food trucks,' he adds. He says it costs about half the price to operate its mobile trucks rather than opening a full retail store.
The frozen pops are produced at its Mobile, Al. headquarters and then shipped in coolers with dry ice across the country.
Kennedy says Frios has attracted a variety of franchisees including former teachers, trauma nurses, veterans, corporate executives, empty-nesters, and some millennials and Gen Z's who prefer to be their own boss.
Franchisees have a variety of options in how they organize their day, such as, attending a baseball tournament with hundreds of people attending, or arriving each day at an elementary school where children are let out at 3 p.m. or going to a park where crowds gather.
Most franchisees offer about a dozen ice pop flavors a day, though they have 40 options to choose from. Some of the most popular flavors include cookie 'n cream and blue raspberry. Since more Americans are opting for healthier food, Kennedy calls its product a 'permissible indulgence.'
It's also introduced a healthy Frios Plus Protein bar with 15 grams of protein to appeal to customers who are more health conscious.
He notes that it's not a 365-days a year business but is highly seasonal, and, the off-season, gives franchisees a break from the everyday grind. If the weather is bad, the trucks can move to selling at gyms or offices.
A year from today, Kennedy expects to expand to about 150 locations. It's also gone beyond the south into places such as Phoenix, Az. and Detroit, Mich.
He describes the keys to its success as: 1) Taking care of franchisees, that's first and foremost, 2) Innovating by creating new flavors, 3) Diversifying and keeping pace with new trends including AI or whatever the future brings.