Jeni Britton eats a pint of brown butter almond brittle ice cream every week. It’s a fitting ritual for the 51-year-old founder of the eponymous Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream, who transformed a $40,000 bank loan into a multi-million dollar dessert operation. The company says it generated over $125 million in revenue in 2023, with products in more than 12,500 retail locations and more than 80 standalone shops nationwide. Britton’s latest venture, Floura, which sells fiber-rich fruit bars made from upcycled food trimmings like watermelon rinds and apple cores, has so far raised approximately $2 million to bring the product to market since its 2024 launch, according to Britton.
Britton attributes the ice creamery’s growth to lessons learned through setbacks and resilience. “You learn really deeply by doing and by failing,” she says.
In 1996, she left The Ohio State University, where she was studying fine arts, to open a scoop stand, handcrafting and serving her creations at a farmer’s market in Columbus, Ohio. The shop struggled financially. At times, Britton was so strapped for cash that she bartered her ice cream with fellow vendors for meals to eat. Yet it was at her ice cream stand that she developed her first breakout flavor: salty caramel, which attracted customers from neighboring states. Though the venture ultimately closed in 2000 due to insufficient sales, Britton says she gained invaluable insights into flavor development and innovation, customer service, and brand loyalty.
Determined to refine her rudimentary culinary skills and perfect her product, Britton enrolled in an ice cream-making course at Penn State and volunteered at dairy farms to deepen their understanding of the science behind ice cream. With no formal business education, she relied on self-teaching and business books to develop, which would later shape Jeni’s.
Two years later, she was ready to try entrepreneurship again. This time around, she had a more sophisticated business model. She took out a $40,000 small business loan, cosigned by her then-boyfriend, and began offering a mix of seasonal and year-round flavors. In six years, Britton expanded Jeni’s to four brick-and-mortar shops, launched e-commerce shipping, and established a wholesale operation. By 2009, however, as production, distribution, and sales grew increasingly complex, she recognized the need for experienced leadership. To take Jeni’s to the next level, she made the pivotal decision to hire a CEO.
“In different eras of different companies, you need different leaders,” she explains. Her strengths lay in flavor innovation, creative marketing, and customer insights—not in finance, accounting, or human resources. To bridge that gap and propel Jeni’s growth, she appointed John Lowe, a seasoned executive with leadership experience at General Electric, as CEO.
Lowe’s business acumen proved critical, particularly during a 2015 listeria outbreak that forced Jeni’s to shift focus from Britton’s creative and culinary strengths to crisis management, financial strategy, and technical operations. The outbreak led to a complete overhaul of the company’s safety protocols, the temporary closure of all 21 stores, and the destruction of 265 tons of ice cream. Lowe helped secure a $1.5 million loan from a loan agency in Ohio that invests in businesses working with underserved communities, preventing financial collapse. In total, the company spent more than $2.7 million to navigate the recall and implement sweeping operational changes. These included restructuring its Columbus, Ohio, production facility to reduce cross-contamination, moving fresh fruit and vegetable processing to a separate facility, and testing every batch of ice cream for safety.
The crisis marked a turning point for Britton, forcing her to confront her own leadership challenges—particularly her reluctance to take charge and communicate with clarity and authority. Recognizing these gaps, she hired an executive leadership coach to teach her how to wield her influence to foster accountability, transparency, and collaboration.
“I’m a Midwesterner, and I really do like trusting people,” she says. “But I learned that I needed to stand up and, when I believed something and when I thought something, that I needed to be heard.”
Britton believes self-awareness is essential for leaders to drive innovation and growth.
She points to Jeni’s current CEO, Stacy Peterson, as proof of this philosophy. Peterson, who played a pivotal role in Wingstop’s rapid expansion as chief technology officer, took the helm at Jeni’s in late 2022. As a newcomer to the ice cream industry, Peterson’s first order of business was to deepen her understanding of the craft. She studied the chemistry of ice cream and dairy science at Ohio State while immersing herself in scoop shops to connect with customers firsthand. Self-awareness often demands making tough decisions, too.
For Britton, it meant stepping back from Jeni’s day-to-day operations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Years of relentless dedication had taken a toll on her physical and mental health, leaving her exhausted and with little left to give. She also realized that her deep involvement as a founder—and perfectionism to a fault—was limiting the company’s growth.
“The airplane was built, and if I kept tweaking it, it was just going to stay on the ground, not living up to its potential,” she says.
For Jeni’s to evolve, Britton had to let go. She believes ego is often the greatest barrier for leaders facing a similar crossroads.
“People think they’re so great that when they leave, there’s going to be a hole that can’t be filled,” she says. “No matter how important the person is, the hole always gets filled. And frankly, it’s always better.”
