Mr. Green Tea Ice Cream Company is a family-owned gourmet ice cream manufacturing company based in Keyport, New Jersey. It was established in 1968 in Brooklyn by Santo Emanuele. “Santo set out to develop new flavors of ice cream to appeal to the burgeoning NYC Japanese restaurant trade.” Today Mr. Green Tea is run by Santo’s son Richard, his wife Lori, and their son Michael who studied mechanical engineering at Villanova.
The Emanuele family was featured on The Profit in 2013. Since working with Marcus Lemonis (who originally invested $600k for 35%), Mr. Green Tea has increased sales by nearly 100 percent. Two years later, Lemonis returns to Keyport to check in on the company’s expansion but still hears a lot of bickering in the office. Young Michael Emanuele (who just bought a Ferrari) thinks the whole brand revolves around his vision and believes he deserves 7 to 10 percent of the company. His father isn’t so sure about that. Michael’s cavalier ways could seriously jeopardize the company’s future. Without consulting Lemonis, restaurants, or doing any kind of focus group, Michael launched the new flavor, Black Sesame, which Lemonis isn’t impressed with. Can Lemonis help the younger Emanuele mature as a leader? Should he? The Profit airs Tuesdays at 10pm on CNBC.
Six flavors of Mr. Green Tea
