Ice cream on a summer’s day is a simple pleasure, but its creation is more complex than you’d think. What goes into a batch of cookie dough soft serve, a bowl of strawberry shortcake frozen yogurt, or even a basic scoop of vanilla?

George Armenta knows how it works. It’s his business to make sure ice cream retailers large and small can get the flavors they need at costs that makes sense. He is the CEO of LILAR Corporation, which brings flavoring ingredients from the manufacturer to the retailer.

LILAR follows a unique model to help products find their way from large manufacturers to a diverse market, partly inspired by Armenta’s three-year stint working in Japan. “There, they first work on products to satisfy a customer,” he explained. “Then they go back to work on a financial model and turn that into a business. In the United States, we do it the other way. We produce a product, and then look for customers to fit its financial parameters.” But LILAR uses both models, allowing it to link large manufacturers to small retailers.

Armenta founded the company in 1986. Through an exclusive arrangement with Sensient Flavors, one of the most prestigious manufacturers of ice cream flavor ingredients in the United States, LILAR created its very successful Dippin’ Flavors Division. “That put us in the ice cream ingredient business on a national scale,” he said. “We’ll continue to develop the business we‘re in, and then move outside the ice cream business into other facets of food service.”

In the end, the biggest successes are personal. “I’ve been doing this long enough that I have been able to see people retire from my company. I’ve been able to see people send their children to college. And that’s unbelievably satisfying,” Armenta said.

www.lilar.com