Van Leeuwen's CEO still likes to get his hands dirty: 'I love serving ice cream to people'

Ben Van Leeuwen may be the CEO and co-founder of the ice-cream company that bears his name, but he doesn’t look the part at all.

At the media preview for Van Leeuwen's first shop in Singapore (located at Orchard Central) on 3 Aug, the 39-year-old was dressed in a humble outfit comprising a black cap, v-neck tee and pants.

He greeted his guests with a boyish smile and a warm welcome, flitting about from table to table before eventually sitting down with us.

Despite only arriving in Singapore at 6.15am that day, he was positively brimming with energy - perhaps a manifestation of his eternal optimism, but more on that later.

Van Leeuwen is a 15-year-old ice-cream brand that started as a truck on the streets of New York City but its roots extend way beyond that.

In fact, it started when Van Leeuwen drove old-fashioned ice-cream trucks and sold pre-packaged ice cream as a summer job in high school and university.

He told Yahoo Southeast Asia, “In America, we have a brand called Good Humour. And it's like a classic ice-cream truck that in most neighborhoods, the trucks drive around in the summertime serving prepackaged ice cream bars, ice cream, sandwiches, popsicles, all different sorts of things. So as a summer job, that is what I did from like the age of 18 to 21.”

The turning point came when he was finishing university and realised he needed a job. That was when Van Leeuwen got the idea of building his own beautiful and whimsical ice cream truck to sell “really good ice cream”.

Starting an ice-cream truck business made sense

While some may balk at the idea of building a business selling ice cream, Van Leeuwen admitted that he didn’t consider selling anything else besides that.

To him, it “made sense to take that thing (an ice-cream truck) and upgrade it” as the ice-cream truck is “a thing in America”.

He also wanted to capitalise on the premiumisation trend that was going on in the American market and how people, in affluent areas, were demanding “higher quality foods made in a cleaner way, made with better ingredients, [and] made in a more delicious way”.

“When you look at the European and Asian markets, that's just a normal thing here. People have always cared a lot about food. But in America, for a long time, a lot of the food wasn't great. And it's starting to get better. And we were a very small part of that change that's been happening.”

The brand was eventually co-founded by the Van Leeuwen brothers (Ben and Pete) and Laura O'Neill, a close friend of Ben's.

While it may seem like a tricky dynamic to navigate, Van Leeuwen assured us that their working relationship has been very harmonious.

He said, “There's never been great periods of tension. The three of us fight, but we fight quickly and intensely, and then it blows over almost immediately. We're family, best friends, so there's no inhibition, there's no filter. We also have complete trust in each other to work really hard.”

Retrofitted used post office truck as ice-cream truck

One of the big challenges in the business, in fact, came from trying to raise funds to kick it off. While Van Leeuwen’s friends and family were supportive of his entrepreneurial pursuit (as opposed to taking a corporate job), investors weren’t buying what they were selling.

“A lot of people didn't believe in us, though, because when we tried to raise money, we went to maybe 20 people who we knew were wealthy, and we were confident would invest, and none of them invested in the business.”

Ultimately, they raised a sum of US$60,000 (S$80,948) from friends and family but Van Leeuwen said it wasn’t enough to get a new truck. Instead, they got a used post office truck and spent half of their funds retrofitting that into an ice-cream truck.

When they finally opened for business in New York City, Van Leeuwen said there was demand and people were “really excited for it”

“With that said, it was one truck,” he pointed out. “So though we had a lot of sales and a lot of demand, the challenge that remained was it wasn't really enough revenue off one little truck to support the organisation that we would need to grow the business.”

Add to the fact that there was tough competition and many of the existing ice-cream trucks in New York weren’t happy with them hitting the road.

“They gave us a really hard time. They threatened us, they slashed our tires. So that was scary, and that was not pleasant,” Van Leeuwen recalled.

Hence, they “couldn’t go to a lot of the good locations” and also pivoted to opening stores instead of just continuing selling ice-cream out of a truck.

Now, 15 years later, the brand has become a cult favourite with 50 shops in America. The shop in Singapore marks their first business venture abroad.

They’re known for serving ice cream made with double the amount of egg yolks, making it ‘french ice cream’, and vegan ice cream made with real natural whole ingredients sourced from the finest small producers in the world.

He likes serving ice cream

Despite being active in every aspect of the business as the CEO, Van Leeuwen still dedicates 20 per cent of his day to being on the ground and staying in touch with the core of the business - selling ice cream.

He shared, “In terms of like what my days are like in New York, it's probably 20 per cent in the ice cream shops in New York, saying hi to the team, scooping ice cream. So just staying really close to that because that's the core of our operation.

“We're serving ice cream to people, we're serving cups, we're serving cones. So the closer myself and the rest of the leadership team can stay to that part of the business, the more we learn, the more ideas we have on how to improve. And then just selfishly, it's really fun.”

Van Leeuwen isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty with the rest of his team as ice cream brings joy and he loves spreading that joy.

Ice cream is a “universally nostalgic part of so many people’s childhood”, after all, he noted.

“Starting an ice cream business is a way to spread joy. One of the things that we love about serving ice cream is, it's very easy to make people happy, because they're usually already happy when they come to get ice cream. Like when you're getting ice cream, it's a good thing. You're in a good mood. It's dessert time,” he said.

With a history working in hospitality, Van Leeuwen also finds comfort and satisfaction in serving people.

He said, “I love serving ice cream to people. I love serving people. I love hospitality. Like I started working in hospitality. I think, at the age of 13, in the US. Started in a snack bar, went on to work in restaurants, bakeries, then on to ice-cream trucks, then in more restaurants when I was writing the business plan to start this company.

“But, I love being on my feet. I love interacting with people. Just makes me feel good at the end of the day and satisfied.”

COVID-19 and burnout

And though he was burnt out after COVID-19, Van Leeuwen never thought of giving up.

The burnout was due to the fact that they had “worked so hard for so many years” and were ready to grow but the pandemic put a stop to that.

Thereafter, they were focused on surviving instead of being able to make money for the business to be profitable.

“Part of that's just because they have no choice,” Van Leeuwen explained of his choice to persevere.

“I don't know what else I’d do. It’s scary, you know - this is what I've done for 15 years. And then the other part of it is just, like, we've put so much into this and we get better at this every year… So it's really interesting and fun to see how we get better at running this business as it grows, and how we learn things.”

For the self-proclaimed “eternal optimist”, he unwinds by participating in intense exercise like HIIT, and also yoga and meditation.

“If I have more time, it would be like swimming, hiking, being in nature, cooking - I love to just cook at home. And then of course, spending time with friends and family is the best.”

As for how he maintains his optimism, he replied, “I think I'm naturally just an optimistic, pretty happy person. But I maintain it [by] trying to stay mentally healthy, which, for me, means physically healthy. So exercise, sleep enough. Don't drink too much alcohol, like that kind of stuff. You know, stay balanced.”

Van Leeuwen Singapore is located at Orchard Central, #01-19/20

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