United Dairy Farmers

Founded 80 years ago, United Dairy Farmers (UDF) is a privately owned regional dairy-based c-store chain that specializes in hand-dipped ice cream, which it crafts into sundaes, ice cream floats and sodas, shakes and malts.

Beyond ice cream, UDF made another big step in 2019 with the construction of a “fresh foods” production facility near Cincinnati, where it is frying up a new, proprietary line of square doughnuts.

UDF also is driving growth and store traffic with its U-Drive Fuel Rollback loyalty program, which offers cents off per gallon of gasoline for purchases of coffee, milk and other c-store staples, and a new loyalty app that offers a digital connection to the loyalty program as well as coupons and special deals. The company relaunched U-Drive on the Paytronix rewards platform, available for customers to sign up for in-store or to download as a new mobile app. Members earn stackable savings every time they make a purchase, and the price rolls back on the pump any time they fuel up. The interface allows UDF to customize different offers for people who may not drive, or who use gasoline but would rather earn a free ice cream shake than a gas discount. Additional perks include locking in the lowest gas price of the day and Wednesday Freebies in the store funded by UDF’s partners and national brands.

For benchmarking purposes, store counts are as of Jan. 1, 2022.