Cleveland’s Pierre’s Ice Cream sold to Ohio-based dairy manufacturer

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Pierre’s Ice Cream, a Cleveland-based company for 90 years, is being sold to another dairy manufacturer based in central Ohio.

Pierre’s on Monday afternoon announced the purchase agreement with Ohio Processors Inc., a manufacturer and distributor of dairy-related products headquartered in London, about 25 miles west of Columbus. Pierre’s spokesperson Laura Hindulak said the sale is expected to close in the second quarter. Terms of the deal will not be disclosed, she said.

Pierre’s said that the Cleveland location would stay open and continue to make frozen desserts and deliver them. The company has about 80 employees who will all be asked to stay on after the purchase, Hindulak said. She said there’s no plans to move the corporate office or relocate workers.

The company marked its 90th birthday about a month ago. It’s been in Cleveland since 1932, first at a shop at East 82nd Street and Euclid Avenue. In 2011 Pierre’s opened a 35,000 square-foot factory near East 65th Street and Euclid Avenue.

Shelley Roth, President of Pierre’s Ice Cream Company, said in a statement that being acquired by Ohio Processors would be a good succession plan for the company. She said Ohio Processors, which was also started in the 1930s, has similar values to Pierre’s.

Roth, who owns the company, is the second-generation leader of the Pierre’s. She has led the company since 1991.

Her father, Sol Roth, bought Royal Ice Cream in the 1950s, which acquired Pierre’s in the 1960s. Hindulak said Shelly Roth was looking for a succession plan that would ensure the Pierre’s brand continued, and one that kept her workers employed, when Ohio Processors reached out to her.

Ohio Processors makes products like whip cream, french custard mix, soft serve ice cream mix and coffee creamers, Hindulak said. All of their product are private label and for wholesale food-service distributor, and don’t appear in stores. The company has 28 employees.

Pierre’s didn’t announce any changes to its lineup of products. The company makes ice cream under its own brand name and has a private-label business.