Home Ice Cream’s co-founder resigns after 60-year stint

The co-founder and long-serving director of beloved Queensland brand Home Ice Cream, which has endured tough times recently resulting in downsizing and job losses, has called it quits after an incredible 60-year reign as queen of the ice-cream industry.

ITS distinguishable bell has sounded on suburban Australian streets for three decades, but now a significant chapter in the history of Queensland’s Home Ice Cream has ended.

Company director and secretary Berenice Reisinger, who co-founded Toowoomba company Pixie Ice Cream with husband Keith in 1959, has resigned.

Mrs Reisinger, through an enduring power of attorney, revealed in a notice to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission her intention to end a 48-year tenure as Home Ice Cream director and shareholder.

The 85-year old was appointed in the roles to the family company in September, 1971.

She remained involved in the business after cancer killed Mr Reisinger in 2000, keeping busy opening mail, helping in the office and paying accounts.

Home Ice Cream’s managing director and daughter of the Reisinger couple, Beth French, said Mrs Reisinger would enter a well-earned retirement.

“The Reisinger family thank Berenice for her inspired leadership and commitment to Home Ice Cream over the years,” she said.

“Two further generations of the Reisinger family have followed Berenice and Keith into the business, and proudly continue the tradition of producing wonderful ice cream from a local manufacturing base using local dairy products.”

Berenice Reisinger, pictured in 2013. Pic: David Kelly

Mrs Reisinger’s resignation, effective from December 4, came as the family-owned company downsized operations amid tough economic conditions.

In 2019 11 South Australian employees were made redundant when Home Ice Cream chose to cease operations in the state.

The closure of the company’s Gold Coast depot in August also resulted in four people losing their jobs.

Ms French told The Courier-Mail in September the company would focus on its most profitable markets.

“The future of Home Ice Cream throughout Queensland and Australia, with a rationalised footprint taking account of competitive forces in the retail sector, is strong,” she said.

Home Ice Cream was born in 1988 when the Reisinger family diversified from manufacturing and packing through its Pixie Ice Cream company and instead focused on vending products on suburban streets each fortnight.

Mr Reisinger progressively established Pixie Ice Cream as an alternative to the major brands of the 1960s.

The couple and their five children grew Home Ice Cream, with products available in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.

Home and Pixie Ice Cream are still owned by the Reisinger family.