Reinhold Ice Cream Co. has a new owner and a new name, and its North Side plant could be turning out an expanded lineup of products after new equipment is installed.
Few details were available Friday about the sale of the business that dates to the 1890s and is the Pittsburgh region's oldest ice cream manufacturing company. Reinhold has been renamed LaSalle Pittsburgh Corp. by new owner LaSalle Brands Corp. of Scottsdale, Ariz.
"They hope to reinvigorate, or further expand Reinhold's operations," Richard Carpenter of Capital Group Communications said yesterday. The investor relations firm is working with LaSalle Brands.
LaSalle Brands Corp. announced Sept. 5 it was buying the 35-year-old LaSalle Brands Inc., of Bronx, N.Y., which makes ice creams, cookies and coffees. Medhat "Tony" Mohamed, the New York company's president, became president and CEO of the new entity.
Speculation that the family-owned business would be sold to LaSalle had been circulating since summer. In a Sept. 25 letter, Mohamed and Vice President Robert Haberman thanked Reinhold customers for their loyalty during "the past three very trying years" and said the new ownership would "provide the financial stability we have been lacking."
Day-to-day management won't change and the same employees will be servicing accounts, the letter said. Reinhold's president, Michael Mandell, will continue to be active in the company, Mohamed and Haberman said.
"We will be installing new and different equipment to increase our product line, plant efficiency and capacity," the letter said. LaSalle representatives were unavailable yesterday.
Reinhold is just one of a number of companies they plan to acquire, Carpenter said, though it's still unclear whether LaSalle will focus on ice cream or venture into other businesses as well.
Tim Deily, president of Isaly's Inc. in Evans City, Butler County, was surprised to hear of the ownership change. Reinhold's produces Isaly's ice cream in eight flavors, distributed to supermarkets and other stores in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia.
"I knew they were not doing the business they used to," Deily said.
Some Isaly's customers have reported not receiving their full orders, he said, and Mike Collins, owner of the Scoops on Beverly ice cream parlor in Mt. Lebanon, noted a similar problem.
Because of the shortages, he said, he gradually has switched to Hershey's Ice Cream, which has a distribution center in Washington, as his main supplier. "I still order five or six tubs a week from (Reinhold), but at one time it was around 40," Collins said.
Meanwhile, attorney Brendan R. Delaney said yesterday he has been negotiating with LaSalle to resolve a $2.08 million lien on Reinhold's assets, related to the former company's withdrawal from an employees pension fund.
About 50 Teamsters members employed at LaSalle Pittsburgh were covered under the fund, he said.
