Kona Ice

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MJL

Sat Sep 29, 2018 4:23 pm

How are these kickbacks usually negotiated? A percentage of sales? A set amount per sale? I’m not quite in the business yet but just researching and analyzing it so far. I prefer to learn all these nuances instead of being surprized. And I’d hate to insult an organization by offering way too little or give away my profits by offering way too much.

I did contact Kona but all my home territories are owned by franchisees. Plus I was a little put off by the requirement to own one of their trucks before you can buy the smaller event kiosks. But anyway, the folks who own the zip codes aren’t taking advantage of it so I see many opportunities. So I’d be doing this on my own.
DerekinCanada
Posts: 90
Joined: Sat Oct 18, 2014 1:17 pm

Sun Sep 30, 2018 1:30 am

Percentage of sales. 20 percent is common, and the companies doing it may sure to get a picture of the "novelty check" presentation to the charity or school that is benefiting - it's great PR!
MJL

Sun Sep 30, 2018 7:53 pm

Thanks for the information and the tip about symbolic checks! Sounds like a great idea.
ShaveIceSupply
Posts: 156
Joined: Fri Feb 20, 2009 11:44 am

Tue Oct 02, 2018 10:51 am

We had a client do a event this past weekend and competed against a local Kona Ice vendor within a 200 foot distance. This is a 20,000 person event. The shave ice vendor beat the Kona Ice truck hands down when customers started comparing the two. From what our client said, Kona has much better exposure and brand recognition compared to setting up yourself. The downside was that when customers started comparing Kona and a DIY shave ice vendor with a block shaver and custom flavors, the DIY business model won by far. The word spread at the festival and the DIY vendor won out big with a good line.

There were also complaints from customers that Kona Ice did not offer their school the "kick back" that they said they were suppose to give, especially at smaller towns and school. Alot of them only donate to the bigger schools that generate more publicity. That generated some negative publicity for them at the event.

It all boils down to your quality of shave ice, your presentation, and how good of marketing you can do. Even if Kona has a better exposure, you can still top them if you know what you are doing. That being said, the diy business model is much more work.
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shavedicetrucks

Thu Dec 06, 2018 4:54 pm

Just finished up a stellar season number 7 with Kona, and I must say, I am truly blessed to be part of such a cool company!!
Earlier in this thread someone said something about not having control over our menu, but that is totally not the case. We now have our own proprietary flavor company, but we aren't required to use those flavors. Most of us do however, jsut because the quality is so far above what we've had in the past. That's the main reason Kona developed their own. And of course our pricing on those flavors is much less than our competitors, which is quite nice. There aren't any flavors that we have to carry and many of us switch them out regularly with a featured flavor of the day, or mystery flavor, etc. I usually switch out 2 on my FlavorWave and then carry 4 or 5 of our new Krafted flavors on board in bottles. I may use one truck for just Krafted flavors for the adult oriented stuff and keep the Klassic truck full of the original standards.
Now the winter is setting in and counting the days til spring is here. I envy you operators down in the southern states that have long seasons!! I get about 7 months/year. But, I'll be able to kill about 5 weeks of winter in the Philippines and by the time I get back in Mar, we'll be getting our game faces on. Hope everyone has an awesome winter. Be sure to drain those water tanks and lines!!!
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