Dickie Dee is a Canadian brand of

ice cream Ice cream is a sweetened frozen food typically eaten as a snack or dessert. It may be made from milk or cream and is flavoured with a sweetener, either sugar or an alternative, and a spice, such as cocoa or vanilla, or with fruit such as ...

currently owned by

Good Humor-Breyers Good Humor-Breyers (Ice Cream USA) is the American ice cream division of Unilever and includes the formerly independent Good Humor, Breyers, Klondike, Popsicle, Dickie Dee and Sealtest brands. Based in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey it was formed ...

History

Dickie Dee started in

Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...

in the early 1950s; it was owned by Syd Glow. In 1959, Glow sold it to the Barish family, who then grew it to be one of the largest

vending companies in North America. One man’s business journey: Dickie Dee, Pop Rocks, restaurants
The Globe and Mail At its peak, Dickie Dee had approximately 1500 operators across Canada and in the Northern United States. Ice cream products were sold out of a fibreglass compartment on a modified

tricycle A tricycle, sometimes abbreviated to trike, is a human-powered (or gasoline or electric motor powered or assisted, or gravity powered) three-wheeled vehicle. Some tricycles, such as cycle rickshaws (for passenger transport) and freight trikes ...

Equipped with bells. Dickie Dee also had a fleet of scooters and ice cream trucks, which operated in areas with hills that could not be serviced using the bicycles. The bicycles were equipped with bells which the operator rang to alert children to their presence. During the late 1980s and early 1990s Dickie Dee promoted the Richard D's The Ultimate Ice Cream Bar and other products at gas stations and retail outlets in freezers called "Bubble Cabinets". The Richard D's bar was introduced in 1987 as the first gourmet ice cream bar packaged in its own individual box in Canada. The Bubble Cabinets were chest-style display freezers with a clear plastic dome shaped lid, which allowed seeing the various products. Dickie Dee maintained a network of distributors to operate its equipment. Distributors leased the equipment and purchased the products from designated company suppliers. Small distributorships were turn-key operations that could be run from a family garage, while larger centres had warehouses and yards. In 1992 Dickie Dee was sold to

Unilever Unilever plc is a British multinational consumer goods company with headquarters in London, England. Unilever products include food, condiments, bottled water, baby food, soft drink, ice cream, instant coffee, cleaning agents, energy dri ...

and became a division of

. Good Humor-Breyers maintained the Dickie Dee brand and program from offices in

Oakville, Ontario Oakville is a town in Halton Region, Ontario, Canada. It is located on Lake Ontario between Toronto and Hamilton. At its 2021 census population of 213,759, it is Ontario's largest town. Oakville is part of the Greater Toronto Area, one of the ...

until 2002. Today much of the remaining equipment is privately owned by former distributors who are still selling ice cream products as independent operators under a variety of names. Most notably Canada Cone in Whitby Ontario. www.canadacone.ca

References

{{reflist Companies based in Winnipeg Ice cream brands Defunct companies of Manitoba Food and drink companies established in 1959 Food trucks 1959 establishments in Manitoba 1992 mergers and acquisitions Food and drink companies disestablished in 2002 2002 disestablishments in Ontario Ice cream Ice cream vans Street culture Cuisine of Manitoba