ICEE-USA Poised to Expand Operations : Anaheim Company Plans 2 New Products, Additional Outlet

For 19 years, Anaheim-based ICEE-USA has grown steadily even though it ignored diversification, didn’t bother to advertise and hardly changed its product--a carbonated drink of crushed ice drenched usually in one of two flavors.

Now ICEE, which raised $3.2 million in an initial public offering two years ago, is poised to expand in some areas it has long shunned.

The company, whose drink has been popular in discount stores, will introduce a frozen ICEE bar and an ICEE beverage with calcium sometime during the second quarter this year, said Lawrence C. Maltz, the company’s recently appointed president.

The ICEE Pop will be sold in liquid form for home freezing as a juice bar, Maltz said. The calcium drink will be test marketed to determine if children, in particular, like the mineral-enriched drink, he said.

“It’s a way of adding value to our products,” Maltz said about the calcium drink. Though it has 38 flavors, ICEE sells mostly cherry and blue raspberry drinks, he said.

Will Add Store Chain

ICEE also will be adding a “major new (store) chain” to its list of outlets, but Maltz said he could not yet reveal the store’s name. The chain will increase ICEE outlets by about 18% by the end of the year, he said. The company now sells its ice drink mainly out of K mart stores.

The company also will embark on a new marketing plan, he said. As part of the program, it will offer plastic glasses, instead of paper cups, that can be purchased for an additional amount of money. The program also will provide record albums as prizes in a promotional game.

ICEE’s net income in the first nine months of 1986 fell 71% to $203,000 from $707,000 in the same period a year earlier.