C3 Announces Partnership with Unilever's Virtual Store - The Ice Cream Shop

LOS ANGELES, March 10, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- C³ (Creating Culinary Communities), a revolutionary food and beverage platform founded by Sam Nazarian, today announces a new partnership with global consumer goods company and the world's largest ice cream maker Unilever to serve as one of its fulfillment partners for The Ice Cream Shop, a virtual ice cream store that offers top-selling ice cream and frozen novelty brands to consumers on-demand. C³ is now hosting The Ice Cream Shop from 17 locations across Los Angeles, Orange County, Oakland and Chicago with plans to expand the partnership to its network of digital kitchens nationwide throughout 2021.

Unilever's The Ice Cream Shop launched in 2019 as a new way to order ice cream by utilizing major delivery platforms to deliver frozen treats to consumers. The Ice Cream Shop locations hosted by C³ offer delivery of popular Unilever ice cream brands via mainstream delivery platforms and C³'s proprietary delivery app, CitizensGO, when it launches later this year. C³ brand menus for Umami Burger, Krispy Rice and Sam's Crispy Chicken now offer Ben & Jerry's, Talenti, Magnum, Breyers, Klondike & Good Humor desserts.

"Our new partnership with Unilever underscores C³'s diversified business model and ability to create solutions across the food industry," says Sam Nazarian, founder and CEO of C³. "C³ is proud to offer The Ice Cream Shop a seamless fulfillment process through our nationwide ghost kitchen network to match the growing demand for enjoying ice cream at home."

The partnership comes at a time when ice cream sales continue to rise, a trend that escalated in 2020 with a major shift to online orders. According to data from Expert Market Research, the global ice cream market is forecasted to grow at a rate of 7.5% reaching $96.1 billion by 2026. 

"The idea of ice cream delivery is still a fairly new concept. Many people don't know that they are able to get ice cream delivered right to their door without it melting. We're lucky to be able to continue to expand ice cream delivery with the help of our partners like C³," said Rahul Shah, Head of Ice Cream Now, U.S. at Unilever. "Having C³ in our corner allows us to distribute Unilever ice cream brands across its impressive network of consumer markets."

Forthcoming fulfillment locations for The Ice Cream Shop hosted by C³ include Berkeley, Minneapolis, Iowa City, Tempe, Richmond, Ann Arbor and Providence with plans for New York and San Francisco later in 2021.

Since launching just 19 months ago, C³ closed out 2020 with 200 digital kitchens, 15 brands, 12,000 employees and 1.1 million meals served. Just last month, C³ announced the debut of Graduate Food Halls in partnership with Graduate Hotels, which injects C³'s popular restaurant brands and shared kitchen model into the hotel space at graduate communities across the U.S. The C³ portfolio currently includes restaurant brands like Umami Burger, Krispy Rice, Sam's Crispy Chicken, Plant Nation and EllaMia.

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About C³
C³ (Creating Culinary Communities) is re-imagining the food service industry at a time when change is needed most. Founded and led by visionary Sam Nazarian with minority investors Simon, a global leader in the ownership of premier shopping, dining, entertainment and mixed-use destinations, and Accor, the world-leading augmented hospitality group, C³ is simultaneously, systematically and broadly bringing together technology, underutilized retail, hotel and kitchen spaces and world-class culinary talent. C³'s array of culinary brands coexist to disrupt the food & beverage industry by capitalizing on rapidly evolving customer preferences through C³ established shared kitchens, mobile delivery with the next-gen CitizensGO app (set to launch in 2021), and Citizens food halls. Current C³ brands include Umami Burger, Krispy Rice, Sam's Crispy Chicken, EllaMia, In a Bun, The Other Side and Dani Garcia's Minük, with many other brands in the pipeline. The first Citizens food hall will open in New York City at Manhattan West in 2021. As of February 2021, C³ operates 250 digital kitchens across the U.S. To learn more, visit c3sbe.com.

About Unilever North America 
Unilever is one of the world's leading suppliers of Beauty & Personal Care, Home Care, and Foods & Refreshment products with sales in over 190 countries and reaching 2.5 billion consumers a day. It has 150,000 employees and generated sales of €50.7 billion in 2020. Over half of the company's footprint is in developing and emerging markets. Unilever has around 400 brands found in homes all over the world. In the United States and Canada, the portfolio includes brand icons such as: Dove, Knorr, Hellmann's, Lipton, Magnum, Axe Ben & Jerry's, Degree, Dollar Shave Club, Q-tips, Seventh Generation, St. Ives, Suave, TRESemmé and Vaseline.

For years, we have been taking action through our sustainability efforts to help more than a billion people improve their health and well-being, halve our environmental footprint and enhance the livelihoods of millions of people as we grow our business. We have made significant progress and continue to expand our ambition – in 2019 committing to ensure 100% of our plastic packaging is fully reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025. While there is still more to do, we are proud to have been recognized in 2019 as sector leader in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index and in 2020 – for the tenth consecutive year – as the top ranked company in the GlobeScan/SustainAbility Sustainability Leaders survey.

For more information on Unilever U.S. and its brands visit: www.unileverusa.com.

SOURCE C3

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