Her nephew, Eduardo, established Roncadin’s first chain of ice cream parlors across Germany around 1970’s. Success motivated him, in 1982, to go into production, together with his brothers Renzo and Siro.
In Yorkshire, England, farmer Jonathan Ropner and businessman James Lambert co-acquired Cardosi, a local ice cream manufacturer and Richmond Ice Cream was born. Richmond Ice Cream is established in 1985.
In 2006, venture capitalists, Oaktree Capital Management purchased Richmond Foods to merge with Roncadin. The result was R&R Ice Cream - a business with the potential to be not only the largest private label ice cream group in Europe but also the most profitable. The R&R stands for Richmond & Roncadin.
In 2001, R&R acquired the Nestlé ice cream business and, as well as old Lyons Maid brands like Fab and Mivvi, has introduced ice creams based on Smarties, Aero, Rowntree’s and Lion Bar.
In April 2013, R&R was acquired by the French private equity firm PAI Partners for £715 million. In 2016, Nestlé and PAI Partners agreed to set up a joint venture known as Froneri which to combine the two companies' ice cream activities, dealing exclusively with the production and distribution of ice cream.
In 2019, Froneri purchased Nestle USA’s ice cream brands, which include Dreyer’s, Haagen-Dazs, Edy’s, etc. Froneri has a turnover of £750 million, and employs 3,000 people. The main production site is located at Leeming Bar, and employs 665 people in the largest ice cream factory in Europe
History of Froneri: The largest producer of ice cream in Europe
