Soft serve machine vendors were well represented at this year’s NRA Show and included: Carpigiani, Donper America, Electro Freeze, ICETRO, Spaceman USA, Stoelting, Taizhou Summerstar and Taylor Company. Most machine vendors also offered samples of frozen yogurt, frozen custard, ice cream, etc.
Frozen Yogurt Machine Trends:
- Increased interest from restaurants and convenience stores in carrying 1 or 2 machines
- Smaller frozen yogurt machines and frozen slush machines were common
- Frozen yogurt machines with flavor injecting technology offer the ability to blend the base flavor with flavor syrups so that one machine can produce many flavors
- Remote tracking/monitoring technologies for soft serve machines
Exhibiting Soft Serve Machine Vendors
Carpigiani
Carpigiani’s Magica automatic soft serve machine is a small, programmable one flavor machine that can accept tokens and credit cards. It basically runs without the need for a dedicated employee though the machine needs to be filled with mix from time to time. The machine can be programmed to dispense a certain amount of product and it does a nice job swirling.
SoftyBar is another small easy to use soft serve machine targeted at restaurants, fast food and coffee establishments.
The patented Teorema Platform provides customers and technicians with remote access to Carpigiani machines.
Donper America/Argosy
Donper America, which was acquired by Argosy Group International earlier this month, had Donper America and Argosy branded machines on display. Argosy plans to continue to sell Donper branded machines.
ElectroFreeze
Electro Freeze premiered a brand new machine, the first fully integrated 9 flavor soft serve machine with Fuzionate technology. The Sweet Choice machine with Fuzionate technology features a single barrel and up to 9 flavors. The base flavor is fused with 8 flavor syrups = Fusion + Eight = Fuzionate.
Electro Freeze was the first to introduce a soft serve frozen dessert mobile app for product quality management, Genni. Genni works with the Genesis Series soft serve freezer line and allows operators to access real time information, e.g., current settings, current performance, about their Electro Freeze machines.
Spaceman USA
Spaceman USA, one of the mostly highly regarded manufacturers of soft serve machines in the world, debuted an industry first: the first soft serve machine with five handles. The machine has three hoppers and can offer three separate flavors and two flavor twists.
Stoelting
Stoelting’s demonstrated a flavor injector technology that mixes a base flavor with one of five flavor syrups. They also added a self-agitation feature for their soft serve machines which can also be retrofitted for older models.
Yogurt Central was an enclosed room for Stoelting meetings with several flavors of froyo on tap. Yum!
http://stoeltingfoodservice.com/
Taylor
Taylor’s tagline was not just soft serve and they had much more than soft serve, including blended frozen beverages and grills.
For frozen yogurt, the next new thing is Flavor Blend. Flavor Blend combines a base flavor with flavor syrups. The flavor is blended throughout (unlike with the Flavor Burst technology) and one can choose several flavors (up to 8) and sizes (up to 4). You can even have several flavors on the same cone (or cup).
http://www.taylor-company.com/
Other Exhibiting Vendors
CarryOutSupplies.com
CarryOutSupplies.com brought their custom cups, spoons and cup dividers. Their “Biggest Custom Print Sale Ever” continues – first time customers are eligible for the lowest prices on custom printed cups. They’re also introducing an innovative new program where shops would receive free ad-supported cups.
http://www.carryoutsupplies.com/
Hydra Rinse
A simple one-touch cleaning system, Hydra Rinse reduces soft serve machine cleaning time by up to 67%. It takes less than a minute to set up and uses an all natural cleaning solution.
Revel Systems
Revel Systems, the leading iPad point of sale solution for restaurants (including frozen yogurt shops – clients include Forever Yogurt and Tutti Frutti) and small businesses, sponsored the Swirl of Excellence frozen yogurt competition at the NRA Show. They had a show special where customers who signed up on site would receive a free iPad.
