Keeping it Cool With Soft-Serve Success and Profitability

Exploring a franchise’s thoughtful approach to national growth

 

Mister Softee has been bringing the very best ice cream and frozen treats to kids and families since 1956.

As the largest franchiser of soft ice cream trucks in the United States, Mister Softee’s continued success has been marked by its incredibly efficient and profitable operational model.

This model, combined with careful, strategic expansion, has allowed the Mister Softee franchise to expand into new, high-potential markets repeatedly while staying grounded in the foundational principles that have driven its growth for decades.

The franchise’s presence is already quite robust in the northeast, and now, Mister Softee is turning its attention to untapped regions both nearby and afar.

Leadership designs this approach to market penetration to secure the brand so that it doesn’t outgrow its capabilities. This way, the brand can maintain quality while steadily increasing its reach.

To help accomplish this, Mister Softee places an operational emphasis on long-standing, trustworthy relationships with suppliers. These partnerships are essential factors in Mister Softee’s ability to deliver high-quality service and maintain profitability for its franchisees.

Additionally, by working with partners who can facilitate financing, Mister Softee ensures that even newer franchisees can survive and thrive in its potent ecosystem of winning franchises.

Success for Mister Softee has manifested as a well-oiled operation of happy, profitable franchisees, with an increasing number of trucks and stores, who all uphold the franchise’s core values.

The challenges of rapid growth will surely test Mister Softee’s foundation. But as the brand expands, one thing is clear: it will undoubtedly sustain this momentum.

Built for the Long Haul

For Mister Softee, a name synonymous with sweet summer nostalgia, franchise success isn’t just about rolling out more trucks—it’s about laying the groundwork for a sustainable, long-term business.

As Vice-President of Franchise Development, Mike Conway emphasizes that the strategy has always been about slow, steady, intentional growth, ensuring that when a new market is entered, it’s not just a temporary footprint.

“We don’t want to open something and then, a year or two later, have to close down. We want people to get into our business, expand, and then continue to grow how they want,” Conway says.

The Mister Softee Truck is the franchise’s main offering, with over 625 units on the road. In recent years, the business has expanded to include store locations. Currently, there are about 15 stores, and according to Conway, 2025 will be a big year for storefront expansion.

The Mister Softee brand can also be found in sporting event stadium locations, so when you combine its variety of operations with the replicable nature of a franchise, it’s easy to see how the business has been so profitable over the years.

Mister Softee’s brand visibility has skyrocketed since its inception, catching even the attention of Hollywood. The franchise was featured on Larry David’s hit HBO comedy show, Curb Your Enthusiasm, with an episode entitled “Mister Softee,” after the brand.

With this level of recognition, there’s no doubt that Mister Softee has become one of the nation’s household names.

But there’s another factor behind Mister Softee’s appeal that many of its competitors simply don’t have: its nostalgic charm.

“We have a long history, so we have people that have grown up with the brand,” Conway states, explaining that as former customers of the brand got older and retired, many had it in mind to one day own a Mister Softee franchise for themselves.

So, unlike the vast majority of its competitors, Mister Softee’s brand appeal converts directly to its appeal as a franchise in many cases.

While nostalgia may be a major factor in the franchise’s longevity, Mister Softee also ensures that it keeps up with present-day strategies.

For example, four years ago, the franchise introduced the Mister Softee app to the public, which allows customers to track and find Mister Softee trucks more easily along their displayed routes.

While the impact seems insignificant, this subtle shift prevents the loss of customers to nearby competitors during times when a Mister Softee truck isn’t within eyeshot.

“The world’s changing… and you don’t want to lose a sale because you can’t keep up,” Conways says.

A Franchise Strengthened by Relationships

To get up and running as a Mister Softee franchisee, it costs approximately $80,000 to $100,000. However, beyond the monetary requirements, the ideal Mister Softee franchisee understands that success requires commitment beyond the regular scope of everyday work.

“Personally, if someone has small business experience and has had their own business before, that’s a plus, but it’s not mandatory,” Conway explains, emphasizing that, as the franchisor, Mister Softee is very honest and upfront about what it takes to become successful.

“We’re in the service industry, we’re busy on weekends and even at night, when most people are at home,” Conways states, noting that finding willing and ambitious franchisees has never been an issue.

Once the franchisee’s first truck is built, which can take anywhere from 8 to 12 months, trainees are brought to South Jersey for training. There, they go in the field and learn how to operate a route, how to make ice cream, and how to deal with customers.

There is also in-house training where trainees learn how to maintain and clean the ice cream machine and generator, and important basic maintenance that can be done before seeing a mechanic.

Aside from that, after the training, franchisees stay in close contact with the franchise owners, Conway and his brother JP, for support. JP, being more experienced in mechanics, supports franchisees with maintenance and repair-related issues, while Mike handles support for sales and franchise development.

“We want to build a relationship with our franchisees, so we try to keep things as open as possible and give them as much information as we can,” Conway says.

In fact, one of the key pillars of Mister Softee’s operational model is its emphasis on long-standing relationships, not just with franchisees but also with vendors.

Whether it’s sourcing truck bodies, dairy mixes, or insurance, many of Mister Softee’s current vendors have been on board for decades—some for as long as 40 years. “All these companies that we’ve dealt with have dealt with all three generations of our ownership,” Conway explains. “It’s kind of cool—they dealt with every little step of the family here.”

Among the many partners highlighted, Morgan Olson stands out as a staple in the business, having built the bodies for Mister Softee trucks for more than three decades.

More recently, Freightliner stepped in about 11 years ago, following a legacy of Workhorse and Ford trucks.

The brand’s ice cream toppings come from I Rice, a Philadelphia-based vendor that’s been in the fold for over 40 years. Joy Cone, through its acquisition of Novelty Cone—a former longtime partner—has continued to provide cones for the trucks.

Lieby’s Dairy supplies most of the mix for the frozen treats, a partnership Conway describes as both consistent and collaborative.

And when it comes to the construction of the trucks themselves, a local metals shop, Sica Metals, has been instrumental since the 1970s.

Scaling the business also requires financial backing. So, one of the newer but crucial partnerships Mister Softee has developed is with Highway Commercial. For the past five or six years, the company has helped finance trucks for new franchisees, especially when outside financing wasn’t an option.

The same long-view thinking applies to their relationships with other business-critical vendors. “The other company that we’ve been dealing with for a long time is Martin Insurance. They deal with our insurance for the property and the liability, and they’re one of a handful of companies that’s a small family business like ourselves,” Conway states.

Martin Insurance, another family-run business, has managed Mister Softee’s liability and property insurance for decades. Like many others, it has had a front-row seat to the company’s multigenerational evolution—from Mike’s father and cousin, who took over in 2000, to Mike and his brother, who assumed ownership in 2020.

More Trucks, More Storefronts, More Soft-Serve Success

While Mister Softee is recognizable across the northeastern U.S., its leadership team has remained focused on expanding to complement its operational strengths.

With deep saturation across areas like South Jersey, Philadelphia, and most of North Jersey and New York, the company has turned its eyes toward new frontiers, such as the D.C. metro area, Atlanta, and steadily growing operations in California, Texas, and Florida.

Mister Softee is perhaps best known for its trucks; however, the franchise is beginning to explore more brick-and-mortar locations.

“We’re pivoting more into storefronts,” Conway reveals. “We’ve been getting a lot of inquiries, and our stores that have opened have been very successful.”

Though the focus remains on expanding their mobile fleet, a parallel effort is being made to explore how physical locations can amplify the brand’s reach without overextending its resources.

Still, the essence of the business remains grounded in what’s worked for decades.

“We’re changing things, but we know we don’t need to reinvent the wheel,” Conway says. “This business runs smoothly and, you know, minor tweaks here and there. But for the most part, let’s just keep doing what we’re doing and make people happy, giving them ice cream.”

Rather than chasing recognitions, accolades, and headlines, Mister Softee consistently reinvests in franchisee success. According to Conway, the goal will always be to help franchisees make money and keep customers happy.

That is why every new market launch requires a meticulous, well-planned approach. For Mike and JP Conway, success is about more than just brand presence—it’s also about brand viability.

This grounded approach has kept Mister Softee a reliable name in frozen treats for generations.

As the franchise optimistically eyes new markets and storefronts, the recipe for success remains unchanged: loyal partnerships, steady growth, and cold ice cream served with a warm smile.

AT A GLANCE

Who: Mister Softee

What: The largest franchiser of soft ice cream trucks in the United States, with a legacy of delighting customers since 1956.

Where: Headquartered in South Jersey, Mister Softee is deeply rooted in the northeastern U.S., with saturation in areas like Philadelphia, North and South Jersey, and New York. The company is actively expanding into markets including the D.C. metro area, Atlanta, Texas, California, and Florida.

Website: www.mistersoftee.com