You want to sell your ice cream parlor? Then it's good to know what the ice cream parlor takeover market looks like. Ice cream providers obviously have their peak in the summer, so their revenue is also seasonal.
The ice cream parlor industry has seen a 30% growth among the number of ice cream parlors. A real consolidation storm is underway and it is not yet clear what the industry will face in the coming years.
There are many ways to value a business. A common method of expressing the value of a business is "a factor x gross annual profit." This factor is also called multiple and another designation for gross annual profit is EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest Taxes Depreciation and Amortization).
In the hospitality, tourism and recreation sector, which includes an ice cream parlor, an indicative range of EBITDA multiple of 2.9 to 4.0 is currently used, according to the Brookz Takeover Barometer. The average EBITDA multiple across all SME sectors is 4.90.
The valuation of a business is often the starting point for negotiations between buyer and seller. The outcome of these negotiations is the final sales price. So valuation and price are two different quantities. Besides valuation, the price is also determined by possible scarcity in the market, bargaining power of the parties, the strategic value of the business for the buyer and possible synergy effects for the buyer (cost savings, purchasing advantages).
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Do you want to buy a business or sell a business in the Hospitality, Tourism & Recreation sector? With this Brookz Sector Monitor we want to present buyers and sellers with facts, figures and an outlook that provide insight into the number of transactions, the value development of businesses and the latest trends and developments in the Hospitality, Tourism & Recreation sector. Because in any buying or selling process, thorough preparation provides peace of mind, overview and structure.
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There are many start-ups in the industry every year, which also makes many businesses with only one person working visible. Surprisingly, because ice cream parlors are increasingly offering other food specialties as well as responding to holidays, such as Easter ice cream and Christmas ice cream cakes, the industry is quite stable. Ice cream parlors fall under the food and beverage industry. There are over 1,000 ice cream parlors in the Netherlands, but no figures are available from the CBS.
In figures, the number of establishments that also sell ice cream looked as follows in 2024(CBS):
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A number of trends and developments will inevitably cause changes over the next few years, but also offer ice cream parlors many growth and acquisition opportunities:
The open display cases are a thing of the past: make way for pozzetti: sealed stainless steel ice cream buckets, which guarantee the quality of the ice cream. Customers no longer see the ice cream in the display case, but that experience can be transferred in other ways, according to digital trade magazine IJS!
Whereas ice cream parlors used to make only artisanal Italian ice cream, today you can also find the ordinary soft serve ice cream. In addition, ice cream makers are often expanding their offer with homemade jam or pastry cream and there are new players on the market. Farmers or farm campgrounds already have the milk, so the switch to a small ice cream machine is quickly made.
The trends within the food sector seamlessly spill over into the world of ice cream. Think ice cream coated in gold or pitch-black ice cream. Horecatrends.com predicted several years ago the arrival of ice cream that doesn't melt and ice cream made from liquid nitrogen.
Even though ice cream is not associated with health, the two will be linked in the coming time. In the ice cream parlor, more and more dairy-free ice creams, flavors such as beets, matcha and fruits can be found as well as sorbet ice cream.
