Tasti D-Lite
Started in New York in 1987, Tasti D-Lite is a frozen dessert that was marketed as a more healthy alternative to soft serve ice cream. Some stores are also candy retailers. The dessert attained considerable popularity as the result of a marketing campaign claiming extremely low calorie and fat content.
In 2007 Franklin, Tennessee-based SPG Partners LLC took over the chain to take the frozen dessert national. SPG Partners LLC was led by James H. Amos, one of the partners and no stranger to controversy in the franchise industry.
Controversy: According to Forbes, June 2, 2009 article:
Now Tasti D-Lite Chief Executive James Amos, one of the new owners, plans to boost company sales, which totaled $25 million in 2008, and make it profitable--he won't say how much it lost last year--by introducing the dessert, which costs $3.40 for a four-ounce serving in Manhattan, to a wider audience as a "health and dietary aid." The tagline: "Dessert your guilt."
… There's a lot of spinning going on. Amos admits "there's been a misconception in the marketplace that it wasn't a natural product." Company management, going back to the previous owners, have been at least partly to blame. In September 2005, then-owners A Matter of Taste reached an agreement with the New York Department of Consumer Affairs, which had been investigating the chain after hearing that vanilla-flavored Tasti D-Lite contained 22% more calories than the Food & Drug Administration allows for food labeled "low calorie." As part of the agreement, Tasti D-Lite's then-owners agreed to provide nutritional information for all of the company's flavors. They also paid $100,000 to reimburse the city for its investigation.
The new owners, which include Amos and co-investors Thomas H. Lee and SPG Partners, want to capitalize on consumers' interest in healthy eating without being completely candid about exactly what's in the product they sell. Its Web site says "Tasti D-Lite is a proprietary formula with a unique balance of natural ingredients and Tasti Science." As for the "science" part of that, Zinke admits that "some of the flavorings we use at the store level are natural, some are not." What are in those, exactly? For some flavors, buttermilk, cream cheese or peanut butter.
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