- Joy Cone is the world's largest manufacturer of ice cream cones and has been in business since 1918
- The Flagstaff facility opened in 2000 and today it produces up to 1.2 million cones a day
- Joy Cone makes cake, sugar and waffle cones that can be purchased at Food City and Bashas'
- Tours of the Flagstaff factory are available between September and February by appointment only
Most Phoenix residents can think of at least a handful of places to get a scoop of locally made ice cream. But how about a place to buy locally made ice cream cones?
Turns out the answer might be right under your nose. Or at least, right on the nearest grocery store shelf.
Joy Cone Co., the world's largest ice cream cone manufacturer, has been mixing, baking and packaging ice cream cones at a sugar-scented factory in northern Arizona since 2000.
Today, the Flagstaff facility produces up to 1.2 million cake, sugar and waffle cones daily. The Arizona-made products go to destinations throughout the West, including in California, Texas and the Pacific northwest.
Ice cream lovers can also find Joy Cone products on the shelf at Food City, Bashas' and Safeway stores in the Valley.
General manager Joe Pozar Jr. oversees the 132,000-square-foot factory near Flagstaff Airport. Though Joy Cone's custom-made ovens can bake thousands of cones every hour, every cone still has to pass inspection by a person, not a machine.
"We have not automated to that point," he says during an exclusive tour of the factory. "There is a human element to everything we do.
"Taste testing is allowed."
100 years of Joy
That dedication to quality is part of the company's everlasting success, Pozarsays.
This year, Joy Conecelebrates a centuryin business. The company got its start in 1918, when Albert George, a Lebanese immigrant, and a business partner purchased second-hand ice cream cone baking equipment. Under the name George & Thomas Cone Co., he grew the company into a powerhouse.
In 1964, George'ssons, Joe and Mike, took control and moved the factory to its current base in Hermitage, Pennsylvania. During these years, the company went from being a regional business serving customers mostly in the Northeast to one of the nation's largest cone suppliers.
Joelaunched the "Joy" retail brand,and large-scale customers, includingMcDonald's andDairy Queen, drove the company's need for expansion.
By 1995, Joy Cone began to look for a Western facility, eventually selecting Flagstaff for the company's second home.
"Due to the heat, we knew we didn't want to be in Phoenix," Pozar explains. "Honestly, Flagstaff is very similar to Hermitage."
Another draw was Flagstaff's proximity toInterstate 40, which connects the factory to its customers in California and Texas. And with Northern Arizona University inFlagstaff, the town's student population provided the opportunity for a large labor force.
There was at least one downside to the decision, however.
"It took a few years for us to master our baking at high altitude," Pozar says.
How to make an ice cream cone
On a recent Wednesday afternoon, dozens of employeesin hairnets and plastic gloves are busy at work on the Joy Cone factory floor.
Most are standing around one of the company's several dozen cone ovens, which look nothing like the square versions in your home kitchen. These round behemothsstand about as tall as an average adult and sport pointed round tops, liketiny spacecraft landed on the floor.
Before anything can be baked, the ingredients must be mixed. For that, Pozar heads to one of several Joy Cone storage rooms. The white-walled room houses two silos at least three stories high. Each holds 100,000 pounds of flour, the main ingredient in cones.
From these silos, the flour travels through enclosed tubes next door to a mixing room where computers combine it with sugar and other ingredients to create batter. Though the measuring and mixing aredone without human help, a batter room attendant makes sure the machinery works properly.
Next, the batter travels through white insulated tubes to the ovens on the high-ceilinged factory floor. Here, it pours into smaller pans before being spurted out of tiny tubes into metal cone molds. Once full, the molds snap shut and travel on a circular track through the heart of the oven. Blue flames shoot down directly ontothe molds baking the cones to golden perfection in 90 seconds.
By the time the cones circle back to the front of the oven, they're dropped and trimmed and slide onto a conveyor belt where a packer stands at the ready.
Bralynn Watt, who grew up in Gilbert, has been working at the Joy Cone factory for about three months. Her job includes checking for broken cones, discarding them and moving the rest of the product to the packing line.
Before moving to Flagstaff, where she'llattend Coconino Community College in the spring, she had "no idea" there was an ice cream cone factory here.
"My boyfriend works here and he was talking to me about how great the company is," Watt says as she checks cones.
"When I finally started working here, I was like, 'Dang, who would have thought I'd be working at an ice cream cone factory!' "
'We're everywhere'
The final stage of cone production is packaging.
In addition to producing their own retail brand cones — the red and blue Joybrand boxes you can find at most grocery stores — Joy Cone also makes private-labelcones for other retailers and restaurant companies.
Arizona residents can tour the Joy Cone factory for themselves during the company's slow season,September throughFebruary. As the weather starts heating up, so does production, and during peak season in July, Pozar says, the Flagstaff facility can barely keep up with demand.
Walking through the company's cavernous warehouse, which does not have to be air-conditioned or heated thanks to the cool Flagstaff weather, you'll see boxes sporting just about every company logo you can imagine, from fast-food giants to grocery-store chains.
Joy Cone doesn't share its customers names to prevent competitors from going after the accounts, but it's a pretty safe bet you've had one.
'We're everywhere," Pozar says with a smile.
Joy Cone Flagstaff tours
Tours: Available most Wednesdays and Thursdays between September and February.Must be scheduled in advance.
Who: Tours are geared toward school and community groups. There's no cost.
Details:Emailflag.tours@joycone.com and visitjoycone.com.
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