Whilst in the US for New Year I visited the Turkey Hill Experience in Columbia Pennsylvania. I had previously visited the Turkey Hill Experience numerous years ago, when it was a lot less interactive. This visit was far more engaging and we undertook a tea experience and an ice cream lab session. It felt like being on The Apprentice, as there is the opportunity to design a new type of ice cream, its packaging and an advert. When designing ice cream, we started off with a vanilla base and then added flavourings, then inclusions before variegates. There was fifteen different flavourings, twenty inclusions including nuts, sweets and biscuits and ten variegates to swirl into the ice cream to choose from. The ice cream I designed was teaberry (with a hint of cotton candy) with a marshmallow and peanut butter swirl and graham cracker and marshmallow pieces. On reflection, the ice cream was rather overloaded with taste and flavour.
The experience also provided a good over view of the emergent strategy that Turkey Hill went through, originally focusing on milk and ice cream production and then added ice tea using excess production capacity. They also moved from a local delivery system to developing mini markets and gas stations to further expand their range. This led to them having a range of vertically integrated business interests to supply and distribute their products.
Robin Bell 