Ice Cream Firm Charges Haagen-Dazs Froze It Out

Double Rainbow Gourmet Ice Creams has fired another icy shot in the super-premium ice cream wars by filing an antitrust suit against Haagen-Dazs, the leading producer of ice cream with lots of butterfat and little air.

Double Rainbow accused Haagen-Dazs, its Minneapolis-based parent, Pillsbury Co., and Oakland-based Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream, the primary Haagen-Dazs distributor in Northern California and northwestern Nevada, of restraint of trade by allegedly coercing distributors not to carry Double Rainbow or other super-premium ice cream brands that compete with Haagen-Dazs.

“Our battle cry is going to be: ‘We won’t be frozen out,’ ” said Steve Fink, who founded Double Rainbow in 1976 with his partner, Michael Sachar.

The lawsuit, filed last Thursday in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis, is an outgrowth of two other suits filed in August and September, brought on by fierce competition in the $3.5-billion-plus market.

First, Two Count Co., a San Francisco-based distributor of Haagen-Dazs, Double Rainbow and Perche No! gelato, filed an antitrust suit against Haagen-Dazs after the company dropped Two Count for violating a “distributor loyalty” policy by marketing other brands.

Then Haagen-Dazs sued Double Rainbow, charging that its officials told distributors that the Haagen-Dazs exclusive distribution policy was illegal.

A Pillsbury spokesman declined to comment on the Double Rainbow lawsuit, saying that it is company policy not to talk about litigation.

Paul Woodland, Dreyer’s chief financial officer, denied “out and out” that the company is engaging in any antitrust activities.

In particular, Woodland denied a charge contained in the suit that Dreyer’s is pressuring stores not to buy Dreyer’s ice cream from Two Count, which has been a Dreyer’s distributor since 1980. In addition, he said, the company didn’t conspire to lessen competition when it sold the rights to its Tres Chocolate line to Haagen-Dazs.

Double Rainbow has seven company-owned stores and 11 franchises, two of which are in Southern California.

Fink said the company is selling three stores and has laid off three middle managers because of Haagen-Dazs’ alleged actions.

In the suit, Double Rainbow estimated that it has lost at least $20 million in sales and at least $5 million in profits because of the alleged actions.