Ice cream business scoops up fun

East County resident and entrepreneur Matt Eastman admits he doesn’t eat much ice cream for dessert these days.

Over the past five years, he has had to sample plenty in his quest to make his Lickity Splits Ice Cream a household name.

Eastman has spent the past 20 years splicing cables for communications companies as his full-time job. But, he’s always had an

entrepreneurial spirit, building his own business enterprises on the side.

After a divorce in 2011, he sold his last business selling steel and machinery and began rethinking his life. When he got the itch to start a new company about a year later, he wanted something recession proof, something that wouldn’t be too stressful, and something that would be fun.

He thought about ice cream.

“Nobody yells at the ice cream guy,” Eastman said.

He didn’t even know how to make it, but he began testing recipes with his wife (his then-girlfriend), Jess.

Eventually, Eastman launched Lickity Splits Ice Cream in August 2015 with a neighborhood block party, at which he and Jess invited their neighbors to sample their product. About 300 people turned out, all with rave reviews.

“That gave us more pride and ammunition to keep going,” Eastman said. “When we started, it wasn’t perfect yet.”

The company’s business model was to start with booths at festivals and events, although the product now is sold in some ice cream shops. The festivals, in fact, are what has taken Lickity Splits to its next level, landing a deal selling ice cream at Amalie Arena, home of the Tampa Bay Lightning, after impressing an executive there with the quality of the ice cream and the lengthy lines of patrons it attracted at an Italian festival in April in Tampa.

Since October, Lickity Splits has been selling double fudge brownie, cookies and cream and salted caramel truffle, among other flavors, at Amalie.

Fans will vote Nov. 16 and Nov. 18 to help determine which flavor will become the Lightning’s signature one. A second taste test will be held at the end of January, and the winner likely will be announced in April.

Eastman hopes the deal with Amalie will be stepping stone to bigger things — and it’s already having an impact. Eastman said he is in negotiation with a handful of other sports teams for potential vending deals.

His facility on Lena Road, which opened in February 2016, produces up to 400 gallons of ice cream per week, but it has potential for up to 1,000. However, he doesn’t have enough freezer space to store that much inventory.

Eastman hopes to grow the business quickly and is in negotiations for some light industrial space in Lakewood Ranch, giving him more room to expand over the next two to three years.

It will be a 10,000-square-foot ice cream plant with an option for an additional 10,000 square feet.

Ultimately, Eastman hopes to create jobs. He has four full-time employees on staff, excluding his mother, Lori Reed, and father-in-law, Jack Wolf, who voluntarily assist the business.

Lori Reed works full time scooping ice cream, or doing whatever needs to be done. She came out of retirement to work because she loves her son and believes in his product.

“I grew up on a farm with homemade ice cream, and it’s very comparable to what I grew up with,” Reed said. “It’s got flavor, texture. It’s creamy. It makes me happy.”