By Catie Clark
Reprinted from Idaho Business Review
Reed’s Dairy is finally coming to Kuna. The Idaho Falls-based maker of ice cream and other dairy products will open its fifth store in Kuna this summer.
Reed’s Dairy has four stores in Idaho Falls, Ammon, Meridian and southwest Boise. The dairy also has a wholesale business with retailers across southern Idaho and northern Utah, like Gossner’s Cheese in Heyburn and Logan, selling Reed’s ice cream cones; and Kesler’s Market in Blackfoot, selling the dairy’s ice cream and milk products.
The stores sell the dairy’s milk, cheese and ice cream. They also sell ice cream cones and other ice cream treats. One signature Reed’s product is the Brown Cow, which is a float made with Reed’s chocolate milk with scoops of Reed’s ice cream added. Reed’s also offers a home delivery service of dairy products and eggs in selected areas in eastern Idaho and the Treasure Valley.
The family-owned business maintains its own herd of dairy cows in Idaho Falls, which gives the dairy quality control over milk and ice cream production. It also gives the Reed family the ability to create their own recipes and innovations for their products like Alan Reed’s innovation of using potato flakes instead of nonfat milk powder in the dairy’s chocolate milk.
The new Reed’s Dairy store in Kuna is 2,563 square feet, located at 1353 N. Meridian Road, Suite 101, in the same shopping development as Ace Hardware and Ridley’s Market. Malissa Jackson of Colliers represented the lessor; and Mike Erkmann and Ben Kneadler from NAI Select represented Reed’s Dairy for the transaction. The details of the lease transaction are not public; however, according to Colliers, retail spaces in the shopping development have listed lease rates of $18 to $22 per square foot for NNN lease terms, with NNN expenses estimated at $5.50 per square foot.
The irony is that Alan Reed tried to lease at this location in the fall of 2016: “I looked at this same location when we first came looking to come to Boise. Then my realtor called me up recently and said, ‘Alan, you’ll never guess what spot just opened up in Kuna!'”
The Reed family has been farming in the Idaho Falls area ever since Alan Reed’s great-grandfather moved to Idaho from Iowa. The family business started its dairy operation in 1955 and began packaging and selling its own dairy products in 1962. Reed’s started making its own ice cream in 1980.
The first Reed’s store is still located at the dairy farm on Highway US-20/Broadway in Idaho Falls, though the retail operation is now on its third building. The business opened its Ammon and Meridian stores in 2017 and in southwest Boise in 2018. In a previous interview, Alan Reed said he would be interested in opening a store in northern Utah soon.
