2025 Fast & Serious Winners: No. 17 Jeremiah's Italian Ice

Michael Keller held C-suite roles at several brands, from Dairy Queen to Baskin-Robbins, and despite each concept having differences, one thing is constant. It’s the understanding and leveraging of the brand’s core identity. That’s just what Keller is doing now as CEO of Jeremiah’s Italian Ice. “One example of that for Jeremiah’s is how our product is mobile, and it allows our franchisees to take it around the community,” Keller said. “It’s a product that travels easily, meaning it can be at vending events, catering events and sampling. And in this industry, tasting is believing. If you can get people to taste a great product, there are good odds of them coming to your store.” Harnessing the power of its product helped sales grow by 103.5 percent for the measurement period, from $28 million in 2021 to $58 million in 2023. Jeremiah’s crossed the 100- unit milestone, going from 60 stores in 2021 to 136 in 2023. To keep it up, Keller said a development blueprint is critical, and it starts with finding the right owners. “We have to be recruiting good franchisees,” Keller said. “We have to be putting them in good sites and provide them with a concept that’s working. But it doesn’t stop there, because that’s just development. We have to be structured the right way operationally in order to support these franchisees as best as possible.” Doing so, said Keller, creates a challenge in terms of maintaining a supply chain as the network of locations grows. “We have to be creative in getting that product supplied as regularly and without interruption as possible,” said Keller.