Mooresville-Made Treats Enjoyed Region-Wide
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You can work up an appetite just driving through Mooresville.
The city is home to a trio of companies that manufacture great-tasting treats: Mooresville Ice Cream‚ Carolina Beer and Beverage‚ and BestSweet Candies.
“It’s good stuff‚” says Gene Millsaps‚ of the chilly confections made at Mooresville Ice Cream Co.
The company‚ founded in 1924 by R.C. Millsaps‚ is a family affair. It’s run by Gene Millsaps‚ president‚ Buddy Millsaps‚ vice president‚ and Carol Sloop‚ corporate secretary – all third-generation leaders in the business.
The signature brand is DeLuxe Ice Cream‚ which comes in about 30 flavors and is distributed primarily in eastern North Carolina and parts of South Carolina.
“We supply around 600 grocery stores and between 50 and 100 ice cream parlors‚” Millsaps says.
Mooresville Ice Cream products can also be found in school cafeterias‚ hospital dining rooms and in some vending machines.
“We also serve daily at our storefront on North Broad from 7 a.m. ’til 5 p.m.‚” Millsaps says. “We get a good crowd at lunch time and are pretty busy after school … We probably serve about 200 folks a day.”
Another of Mooresville’s taste makers is BestSweet‚ a candy company founded in South Africa. BestSweet first moved to New Jersey and then relocated to Mooresville 18 years ago in search of more manufacturing space. The move proved to be a boon.
“After searching up and down the east coast for the ideal factory site‚ we came across Mooresville and immediately fell in love with the area‚” says owner Richard Zulman. “The deciding factors were that it was a great area to live in and raise a family‚ had a positive business environment and‚ most importantly‚ had a tremendous base of skilled workers.”
BestSweet employs about 250 full-time and 60 part-time workers making a variety of hard and soft confections‚ including the popular Baskin-Robbins Smooth & Creamy Hard Candies. It also makes nutritional supplements and cough drops through its BestHealth division and is on the cutting edge of the sugar-free candy and the milk-based candy markets.
Most of the products are sold to other large candy companies and to retailers who market them under their own brand names. Among BestSweet’s customers are Wal-Mart‚ Walgreen’s‚ CVS and Food Lion.
The company has plans to expand in Mooresville‚ Zulman says.
The popularity of flavors such as Carolina Blonde are keeping brew makers busy at Carolina Beer and Beverage. The company came to Mooresville nine years ago and employs about 85 workers at its plant.
Its new can division opened in 2006‚ boosting production that was formerly focused only on glass and plastic bottles.
“Carolina Blonde and Cottonwood are our own beers that are very popular in North and South Carolina‚” says John Stritch‚ company president.
Along with the local brews‚ Carolina Beer and Beverage has been contracted to produce other beverages‚ including some of the most popular energy drinks.
“We make a unique‚ sleek 12-ounce can that seems to strike a chord with consumers – in fact‚ we are the only plant in the U.S. that can pack glass‚ plastic and cans with pharmaceutical-grade product. It is really opening up the business.”
Carolina Beer and Beverage is projected to grow from an $8 million company to a $25 million company in the next two years.
“We like to call ourselves the little company that can‚” Stritch says.
Story by Warren Denney
Photo by Wes Aldridge
