history of soy yogurt, soy acidophilus milk and other ... - SoyInfo Center

day, 250,000 pounds a week, and 13 million pounds a year.
White Wave sells its tofu and tofu spin-offs–Meatless Tofu
Steaks, Dairyless Soy Strawberry Yogurt–in 50 states, Puerto
Rico, Mexico, and Canada. Demos vows this is only the
beginning. “I’m in this because this is a 100-year project.
And I’m not going to be around to see the end of it.” A
large photo shows Ken Vickerstaff, White Wave’s sales and
marketing president, and Steve Demos, company president.
Boulder Daily Camera food writer John Lehndorff coined
the term Tofutown USA to describe Boulder. Demos thought
up the White Wave logo while meditating in Santa Barbara in
1976. “I learned how to make tofu at a 76-day (meditation)
intensive. Demos says that 15% of the people in Boulder,
Colorado, consume tofu compared with a national average of
2-3%.
White Wave sales have risen 20% to 35% a year for
the last 5 years, with 1993 revenues being about $5 million.
White Wave plans to create brand identity through its new
merchandising format–Vegetarian Cuisine Centers. Piloted
in three Whole Foods Markets in California, they increased
White Wave sales 730% during their fi rst 3 months in
existence. Demos’ present goal is “brand building.” He
considers that to be the strength and fortune of the company.
“It’s the concept of right livelihood. Can you come up with
a career choice you and everyone who touches you benefi ts
from? In the end you enjoy it and the world is better off with
it than without it. Wealth without guilt. That’s an achievable
goal.”
Note: This is the earliest document seen (March 2005) in
which Steve Demos uses the term “right livelihood.”
Haru Yamamoto’s Denver To-fu Company also makes
tofu–a ton of it per day. Address: Rocky Mountain news staff
writer.
1003. Pierce, Ray. 1994. A brief history of Genice Foods Ltd.
and their work with soy ice creams, yogurts, creams, and
margarine. Part I (Interview). SoyaScan Notes. Feb. 4, 8, 10,
and 16. Conducted by William Shurtleff of Soyfoods Center.
Followed by a an 8-page fax on 7 Feb. 1994.
• Summary: From 1979 to 1982 Ray, a native of Wales,
was general manager of Pendeltons Ice Cream. In March
1982, at age 41, he started a company named Classic Ices,
which was primarily a dairy ice cream company. Located
in Rhydymwyn (pronounced REED-uh-MOO-un), Clwyd
(pronounced KLU-ud) County, Wales, the company began
trading (making and selling products) in July 1982. In early
1984 Ray sold all but 10% of his shares in Classic Ices to
the Hillsdown Holdings Group but continued to work at the
company. Then in May 1984 Irene Barclay joined Classic
Ices as technical manager. In April 1985 Ray saw an article
in The Grocer (April 6, p. 23) stating that Michael Cole
of Soya Health Foods Ltd. had started making soya milk
and was planning to make related non-dairy products–such
as soya ice cream. Ray called Michael Cole and asked if
HISTORY OF SOY YOGURT & CULTURED SOYMILK 372
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Classic Ices could develop and make a soy ice cream for
him. Michael was interested, he came to visit Ray at Classic
Ices, and that is how Ray’s interest in soya ice creams began.
Irene Barclay of Classic Ices worked closely with Michael
Cole to developed the product. In about July 1985 Classic
Ices started making Sunrise Ice Dream and selling it to Cole,
who marketed it very successfully. Before this, Classic Ices
had never made any non-dairy products. But Classic Ices was
not particularly interested in non-dairy products, so Ray and
Irene Barclay decided to leave Classic Ices in 1985 and start
their own small company in Clwyd, Wales, about 10 miles
from Classic Ices, at the same location they now occupy. The
two business partners believed they saw a new market with
great potential. Moreover, Irene was lactose intolerant so she
could not consume dairy products. So Ray sold his remaining
shares (10%) in Classic Ices to Hillsdown Holdings, then
he and Irene established their company to develop and
manufacture non-dairy dessert specialties–starting with soya
ice cream.
They named the company Genice Foods Ltd. (short for
“Genuine Ice Cream” and pronounced JEN-ais), but today
many people pronounce the name jen-EES, which has come
to be preferred by the company. In late 1985 Genice Foods
moved into a brand new, small custom-designed, purposebuilt
factory unit in the Llay Industrial Estate. The unit was
5,000 square feet in size, but initially Genice used only half
of that space–for manufacturing, cold storage/warehousing,
and offi ces. In early April 1986 Genice was offi cially
established and registered as a company and that same
month, about two weeks later, they began trading. Today
Ray’s title is Director General Manager and Irene is the
Technical Director. Genice’s fi rst product, launched in April
1986, was Genice Ice Delight, a non-dairy frozen dessert
in 5 fl avors (vanilla, strawberry, raspberry ripple, hazelnut,
and pistachio & almond). Initially the main soy ingredient
was powdered soymilk obtained from Michael Cole of
Soya Health Foods, which probably imported it. But soon
Genice switched to using soy protein isolates because they
were less expensive and seemed to give a better product.
At that time Genice bought the isolates from Macauley-
Edwards (in Peterborough, eastern England), which later
somehow became Purina Protein; today Genice buys most
of its isolates from ADM (SP6, imported from the USA),
but a little from Protein Technologies International for “old
time’s sake.” Genice developed this product largely because
they needed an actual product to show potential customers,
but they never put much effort into marketing the product
because they had already decided that Genice wanted to be
a product development and manufacturing company and
leave sales and marketing to other companies. Later in 1986
the manufacture of Sunrise Ice Dream was transferred to
Genice from Classic Ices. It was now sold in four fl avors–
vanilla, wildberry, hazelnut, and carob. Genice worked out
an agreement with Cole that they would not compete by