Calgary ice cream shop headed for cult status one scoop at a time

A sweet scoop of success Fiasco Gelato joins an esteemed list of cult brands. Kevin Green explains.

A Calgary gelato maker is being honoured as an emerging cult brand at an annual gathering of some of the world’s top companies.

Fiasco Gelato started as scoop shop on 17 Avenue before pivoting to a wholesaler and distributor on 19 Street Southeast all while developing a loyal following and working hard to give back to the community.

“It’s a fun conversation when people are like oh my God you guys are blowing up,” says James Boettcher. “I try to remind them that for the past 10, 15 years we’ve been slugging away just trying to hit the ball.  I really think the difference for us was when we became sort of quite visible during the floods of 2013 as a community builder and since then we’ve kind of led the way in times of need for this city.”

It’s a philosophy that has helped Fiasco Gelato build its brand putting it in the same league as Levi’s, Harley Davidson and Air BNB.

Chris Kneeland’s company Cult Collectives hosts the gathering every year in Banff where they honour companies that have achieved “cult status”.

Every year, Cult Collectives surveys 36 thousand households asking them the brands across 70 different industries or categories that have done an above average job of engaging consumers and earning their loyalty.

It also collects nominations from brands that have already been a part of past cult brands.

“We were fascinated at trying to understand the difference and there’s differences in their beliefs and there’s differences in their bahaviours ,” says Kneeland. “A lot of it comes down to why do they exist? Are they trying to be successful or are they trying to be significant? When you try to be significant you do more than trying to make dollars you try to make a difference. It attracts a different type of employee and customer.”

“You’re creating this story that resonates with a lot of people, not only consumers but other brands that are trying to make a difference in the world,” says Boettcher.  “For us it’s such an honour to be acknowledged as an emerging cult brand because we’re trying to put Calgary on the map and we’re doing some cool stuff across the country now and thinking about business a bit differently.”

For many of these cult brands money is not the be all and end all but rather leaving the world better than they found it.

“We acknowledge that there’s still a lot of work to do and a lot of runway here in Canada. I think the most important thing for us  as an emerging cult brand is that we continue to encourage other companies to think different about business,” says Boettcher. “Committing to sustainability is a huge part of our business and always being able to innovate and changing the path that we’re on so we don’t just don’t become another company or product on the shelves we’re far bigger than that.”

Fiasco Gelato now outsells Ben and Jerry’s in Western Canada.

“It’s pretty magical to be an ice cream company from Calgary, Alberta that’s making a difference,” says Boettcher.

Fiasco Gelato will officially join the list of cult brands at a conference hosting the world’s top brands at the Banff Spring Hotel at the end of February.