With his 80th birthday just a month away, Jim McCoy says it’s time to sell the business he has owned for almost five decades: McConnell’s Fine Ice Cream.
“Fifty years or whatever it is is a long time,” said McCoy, who bought the business in 1963. “I figured physically and mentally it was time, but it’s been a cool 50 years.”
Sixty-two years ago, Gordon F. McConnell opened the first McConnell’s Fine Ice Creams shop on the corner of State and Mission streets in Santa Barbara. McCoy said today the ice cream is made pretty much the same way McConnell made it in 1949.
McCoy said one of his partners put the company up for sale on the website bizbuysell.com recently and already has received some offers from as far away as New Jersey. “Someone has offered as much as $1.005 million,” McCoy said.
Still a crafty businessman, McCoy said it’s not a good idea now to identify the potential buyers right now. He said he’s going over the offers and may make up his mind as early as next week. - SBIndy
