John Coughlan outside Bendicks Ice Cream Factory

Small Batch Ice Cream

Since 1982

Providing the public with high quality premium ice creams and ice cream cakes since 1982. 

Bendick’s Ice Cream Factory is a locally owned small batch ice cream company. Best known for manufacturing Sara’s Old Fashioned Ice Cream & Cakes, Bendick’s is also a private label manufacturer for high quality and innovative ice cream brands. Our products are sold in major grocery retailers across Canada, and many scooping parlours and local independent stores.

Bendick’s Cash & Carry Ice Cream Outlet is open to the public, where you can get access to all our products & clearance items from the most popular name brands in ice cream.

Our history

Sara's Black Raspberry Cheesecake Ice Cream Cake

1982

Ben & Dick Hubert

In 1982, one Dick Hubert gathered a few friends to purchase an ice cream production facility in Edmonton, Alberta. He named us after himself (Dick) and his son (Ben). We began producing ice cream for a number of small ice cream companies. Our biggest customer back then was Swensen’s, the #1 competitor to Baskin Robbins in the 80’s.

Sara’s Old Fashioned Ice Cream was another customer! They had a fantastic recipe, but weren’t quite as business savvy. When it looked like they were going to have to close, we stepped in and purchased them so everyone could continue to appreciate their tasty ice cream. Sara’s has been our house label for just about 40 years now.

1986

Vic goes to Vancouver

Vic Sharun’s roommate came home one day raving about the new company he was a part of, Bendick’s Ice Cream. Convinced, Vic joined Bendick’s in the early days. He knew ice cream was what he wanted to do with his life, so Vic gradually bought out Dick and his friends over the years to reach 100% ownership.

Yearning for warmer weather in 1986, Vic opened a 2nd facility in Vancouver, BC. He wasn’t the only one with a fondness for Vancouver. The rest of the production moved to Vancouver a year or two later. We’ve been Vancouverites ever since!

2010

John Joins In Partnership

Ice cream entrepreneurship has been John’s lifelong passion and he has the expertise to prove it! He started with a Dickie Dee franchise in 1986 with 25 bikes, and added wholesale ice cream distribution with “The Ice Cream Man” in 1988 in southern Ontario.

Like Vic, John moved westward to Vancouver. In the late 90’s he became the BC District Manger for Unilever ice cream. He founded TransCold Distribution in 2002, which would grow to distribute ice cream across BC, AB, WA, OR and SoCal (the whole western seaboard).

In 2010, John was inspired to make his own ice cream. He joined Vic in partnership, eventually buying out Vic so he could retire. John and Vic continued working and learning from each other for 11 years until Vic’s retirement in 2021.

Blast fron the Past

Bendick’s was used to produce an episode of a children’s video series ‘Making Stuff’ in their 2nd season in the early 2010’s. Watch for a demonstration of how we make our ice cream.