Hi Everyone,

We’re a little late in celebrating with you all but after a whirlwind year, we needed a little digital hiatus. Now we’re back and wanted to re-introduce ourselves! 

For those of us who don’t know us, we’re the founders of Beckon and created it for ice cream lovers (lactose-free or not) everywhere. We have come a long way since we first started selling ice cream at a Farmer’s Market in 2015. We have had super exciting moments like making our first few pints, seeing our ice cream on shelf for the first time at Whole Foods (then Sprouts, Kroger and many more), hiring an amazing team, making “foodie friends”, and innovating new creations to share with you all.  This journey has surprised and delighted us but also has had more swirls than our Peanut Butter Cup.  At times – a few in 2022, actually – it has left us feeling not great, like when your ice cream cone has that little hole in the bottom and the ice cream keeps leaking out.  Cold, sticky and the worst. This year, we plan on sharing what it has taken us to make it here to 2023 from all the sprinkles at the top of the ice cream cone to all the drippy bits at the bottom.

One of our New Year resolutions was to connect more directly with each and every one of our friends and followers on social media and beckonicecream.com. You can always reach out to us at hello@beckonicecream.com and those come straight to our inbox. Or you can find Katy on Instagram answering DMs Monday, Wednesday & Friday and Gwen Tuesday and Wednesday. We can talk about ice cream, business, life, whatever you like! Katy requests funny dog reels – please send many and often.  

But first, a quick recap of 2022…

  • Beckon launched four flavors in Kroger stores across the country. This was a huge accomplishment for our team who worked tirelessly to build new partnerships, inventory, and ways of working to accommodate that growth. Probably even more shocking is that we, Gwen and Katy, golfed in a Kroger sponsored charity golf tournament. You may not know us well enough to know what an unprecedented occasion that was but we left the green feeling pretty proud of ourselves. 
  • We expanded and improved our distribution network, making the way we bring Beckon to a store near you much more efficient. 
  • Beckon appeared in major online publications like Parents, Food Network and Popsugar! Seeing our pints in print made us swell with pride. Beckon Snack Cups even won Parents Magazine Best Lactose-Free Dessert of 2022!
  • On a personal note, Gwen got married! I, Katy, have had the privilege to be there for the whole ride since Gwen met her husband when she moved to Boston so we could work together on Beckon. So, watching Gwen marry Steve was one of the highlights for me personally as well. It was so fun to see Gwen vibrating with joy as she gets to love and be loved-on by the people closest to her.  Plus, we had Beckon Snack Cups for dessert instead of traditional cake.  New wedding trend, perhaps?!
  • Katy ended the year with an amazing trip with our friends and my family in London for the holidays! My brother moved to London so we got to indulge in the chuffy (her new favorite British word) Christmas markets and soak up the holiday spirit abroad. We missed our sweet Ruthie (pup pic below) but she was in amazing hands with her Auntie Gwen and Uncle Steve. 

There were a number of challenges this year too – from avian bird flu driving up the price of eggs (we’re french custard style so we use yolks), Canadian truck driver strikes delaying ingredient shipments, fuel surcharges leading us to problem solve when it came to freight, inflation driving up costs across the board, and more.

Running a business takes a village and we thank all of you for being a part of our village. We’ve had to streamline these last few months and will be leaning on those around us, our community and, of course, each other to keep building Beckon up.

Cheers to a new year, new me, still as always, lactose free.   

Gwen & Katy