Mr Whippy
| Company and Franchise | |
| Headquarters | Australia and New Zealand |
| Products |
Frozen yogurt Soft Serves Beverages |
| Website |
mrwhippy mrwhippy |
Mr Whippy is manufactured separately in both Australia and New Zealand. Mr Whippy Australia is an Australian manufacturer and distributor of Soft serve and Frozen Yogurt products headquartered in Australia.[1][2] Mr Whippy New Zealand is headquartered in Auckland by Mr Whippy New Zealand 2006 Limited.
The original Mr.Whippy originated in the U.K in 1958 and later commenced operations in Sydney Australia in October 1962 and then later in New Zealand in 1964. The vans were an instant hit with the Aussie and Kiwi public and soon appeared in most capital cities and larger towns. Approximately 200 U.K. built Commer Karrier vans were imported to Australia and the 24 Austins imported into New Zealand quickly became 50. Precious few of these much loved original vans have survived today.
The Staff family of Hervey Bay Queensland have been continuously operating ice cream vans since 1965. Bob Staff commenced working for the original Mr Whippy company in 1965 as a driver and later as a supervisor. The family provided historical information, stories and photos for British author Steve Tillyer's book The Mr. Whippy Story published in 2003. The family are dedicated to preserving these vintage Mr. Whippy vans and continue operate a small fleet of 1960's Commer Karrier Whippy vans. The immaculately presented vans feature their original Italian Carpigiani whippy soft serve ice cream machinery.
The Friend family of Adelaide, South Australia were the first to own and operate ice creams vans on the streets of Adelaide. Ice cream vans (colloquially known as "Mr Whippy vans") are very popular near beaches, parks and at major events in cities and towns. Most of the population buys the ice creams with standard cone or waffle cone.[citation needed] There are a number of businesses that build custom ice cream vans, such as Majors Group, Mobile Van Builders (NZ) and other business in Australia and New Zealand. The first Mr. Whippy business was adopted in New Zealand in 1964. This was when the Mr. Whippy brand began taking shape and worked towards creating a household name in the nation. At this time, the Mr. Whippy brand was well established in the U.K. and Australia and met rapid success and expansion in New Zealand.
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the brand name and business flourished. As the lifestyles of Kiwis changed, Mr. Whippy continued to remain a national icon, representing the popular outdoor lifestyle and family values. The soft serve ice-cream sold in vans was popular among all Kiwis. It was much later that Mr. Whippy also started its fixed sites in New Zealand. It started these sites at malls and shopping centres to test the response of the community.
Mr. Whippy is Australia was disbanded in the mid 1970's and the mobile fleet sold to private individual operators. The private operators continued to operate the Mr Whippy vans and keep the Mr. Whippy story alive. Hundreds (possibly thousands) of new Mr. Whippy vans were built by new operators, many building them in their own backyards. The new vans were built using Ford Transits, Bedford and even Toyota Coaster busses. The Mr Whippy concept was taken to a new level. Hundreds of individual operators expanded and popularised the Mr. Whippy concept to new heights.
In 1982, seeing the unprecedented growth in popularity created by the individual independent Mr. Whippy van operators, the Trademark "Mr. Whippy" was registered in Australia by Mr. Whippy Pty Ltd who claimed they wanted to return to the ice cream scene in the form of ice cream parlours and not compete with the now thousands of Mr Whippy independent drivers to whom they had sold their fleet to years before. The independent drivers saw this as a greedy move by Mr. Whippy Pty Ltd taking advantage of the newly founded popularity they had created. The very same concept Mr. Whippy Pty Ltd abandoned years before. This sparked a fierce debate between the individual operators and the Trademark registrant as to whether the Trademark should have been registered at all. Regardless of the debate; ALL ice cream vans in Australia are referred to as Mr. Whippy vans by the Australian public regardless of how they are branded. In 1982 huge protests took place in Melbourne when hundreds of vans blocked the city streets to protest their outrage at corporate greed.
In 2000 (in Australia) the failing Mr Whippy brand as envisaged by Mr. Whippy Pty Ltd (in ice cream parlours) was sold to new owners.
The independent Mr Whippy van drivers (not at all associated with Mr Whippy Pty Ltd) continued to be successful and the battle as to who really is Mr Whippy continues till today in Australia. One thing is for certain, the Australian public today has a choice of thousands of different types of Ice Cream vans thanks to the individual operators that kept the Mr Whippy concept alive.
In New Zealand both the mobile services as well as the fixed site services have been a great success. Today, there are around 36 Mr. Whippy franchisees operating 58 trucks and trading from Northland to Southland. The mobile services franchise has also planned for a country wide rollout for fixed sites.
After the success in Australia, Dominic Facchino decided to also enter the New Zealand market on a master franchised basis. General Foods Limited (subsequently became Tip Top and then a subsidiary of Fonterra) was the dominant supplier of ice cream in New Zealand and acquired the master franchise rights for NZ. In the early 1980’s, Mr Whippy was restructured as a franchise system (rather than company run) in New Zealand by Tip Top (having changed its name from General Foods) basing its franchise system (owner / operator drivers) on exclusive territories around the country. By this stage the Isuzu Elf had become the standard Mr Whippy van and an orange and white colour scheme replacing the pink and white. In the early 2000’s, Tip Top exited Mr Whippy and divested the Master Franchise to Peter Woodhams who had the Waikato Mr Whippy franchise at the time as well. The Woodhams in turn sold the Master Franchise to the Graham family in 2006 who moved the Mr Whippy vans into Ford Transits and moved from Fonterra to Tatua as the provider of the Mr Whippy ice cream mix.
Since 2012, a new group of shareholders have acquired ownership of Mr Whippy New Zealand and the business has undergone a major refurbishment into a modern franchise system. Mr Whippy has grown dramatically, and its brand and products ensure it remains a much loved icon in New Zealand.