Rita's Italian Ice - Wikipedia

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages) This article contains promotional content. Please help improve it by removing promotional language and inappropriate external links, and by adding encyclopedic text written from a neutral point of view. (June 2025) (Learn how and when to remove this message) This article may rely excessively on sources too closely associated with the subject, potentially preventing the article from being verifiable and neutral. Please help improve it by replacing them with more appropriate citations to reliable, independent sources. (June 2025) (Learn how and when to remove this message) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

American quick service dessert restaurant chain Rita's Franchise Company, LLC

Company type	Private
Industry	Dessert shop
Genre	Quick Service
Founded	May 4, 1984; 41 years ago (1984-05-04)
Founder	Bob Tumolo
Headquarters	Trevose, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Number of locations	594
Area served	30 U.S. states
Key people	Kirk Griswold,ChairmanLinda Chadwick,President & CEO
Products	Italian icefrozen custardfrozen treats
Revenue	US$51 million (2019)
Owner	Argosy Private Equity (50%) MTN Capital (50%)
Number of employees	5,000 (2021)
Website	ritasice.com

Rita’s Italian Ice & Frozen Custard (originally and informally known as Rita's Water Ice), is a privately owned and operated American quick service restaurant chain originating in the Philadelphia metropolitan area that expanded into 30 states, mostly in the Mid-Atlantic region. The chain is known for its Italian ice or water ice[1] and frozen custard,[2] but also offers multiple types of frozen treats and specialty creations.[3]

Rita's opened its first restaurant in 1984 in Bensalem Township, Pennsylvania, a township outside of Philadelphia, and the company gradually expanded throughout the Philadelphia region before eventually opening locations beyond the Philadelphia area. The company is currently headquartered in Trevose, Pennsylvania. As of June 13, 2025[update], the chain has 594[4] restaurants in 30 states.

History

[edit]

Rita's was founded in May 1984[5] by former Philadelphia firefighter Bob Tumolo with a recipe that his mother made that he then adjusted to enhance the flavors and include real fruit. Tumolo named the restaurant after his wife, Rita Tumolo.[6] Rita's originally advertised its product as water ice, using the Philadelphia regional term for what is sometimes called Italian ice in other areas of the country. By the summer of 1984, Bob had opened his second store on the opposite side of Pennsylvania, Lake Erie. In 1989, the family decided to franchise their business and expand in other territories.

In May 2005, the company was sold to McKnight Capital Partners, a private equity group with extensive franchise experience.[7][8] McKnight Capital Partners recognized the organization's growth potential and set into place plans to expand the company.[3]

In April 2007, Rita's moved its Bensalem Township, Pennsylvania headquarters to Trevose, Pennsylvania.[9]

In 2011, Falconhead Capital purchased a controlling interest in the company from an investment group led by Jim Rudolph. Falconhead named their operating partner Thomas Christopoul as the new chairman and interim chief executive.[10]

In 2013, Rita's opened its first location outside of the United States in Shenzhen, China.[11]

Rita's has traditionally given out a free regular-sized Italian ice or water ice on the first day of Spring from 1984 to 2019, and since 2022.[12] Rita's did not host a free water ice day on the first day of Spring in 2020–21, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In January 2017, Argosy Private Equity and MTN Capital acquired controlling stake in Rita's from Falconhead Capital.[13]

In June 2025, a Florida-based franchisee of Rita's Italian Ice filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, citing debts up to $1 million.[14]

In July 2025, another franchisee, Armellino Italian Ices Corp., operating a Rita's Italian Ice franchise in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, also filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy to reorganize its business operations.[15]

Despite these franchisee difficulties, the corporate entity and the brand as a whole maintained a positive trajectory. In August 2025, Rita's Italian Ice & Frozen Custard announced significant mid-year momentum, confirming plans to open nearly 40 new locations throughout 2025. The company stated it was well-positioned for a strong finish to the year.[16]

The brand also continued its promotional and product innovation efforts through the summer of 2025, introducing new seasonal offerings such as the Rocket Pop Italian Ice and the return of its popular Gummy Bear Italian Ice flavor.[17]

Partnerships

[edit]

In 2010, Rita's Italian Ice began a partnership with Just Born to offer a seasonal Peeps Brand Marshmallow Candy flavored ice.[18] The Peeps flavor was discontinued in 2011, but was offered in some stores in spring 2017.

Rita's partnered with Cadbury in July 2009 to introduce its Swedish Fish Italian ice flavor.[19] On June 29, 2012, Rita's partnered with Cadbury again to release its Sour Patch Kids Red water ice flavor.[20]

Other companies involved in Rita's water ice flavors include Alex's Lemonade Stand ("Alex's Lemonade" water ice) and Nabisco ("Oreo Cookies and Cream" cream ice and "Mint Oreo" cream ice).[21][22]

See also

[edit]

• List of frozen custard companies

References

[edit]

1. ^ Rita's Franchise Company. "Rita's Franchise Company - Cool Treats - Menu - Italian Ice". Archived from the original on 2010-01-05. Retrieved 2010-03-14.
2. ^ Rita's Franchise Company. "Rita's Franchise Company - Cool Treats - Menu - Custard". Archived from the original on 2010-02-09. Retrieved 2010-03-14.
3. ^ a b Hartford, Jamie (September 2009). "Rita's Water Ice Celebrates 25 Years of Success". QSR Magazine. Archived from the original on 2009-09-11. Retrieved 2009-09-16.
4. ^ "Number of Rita's Italian Ice locations in the United States in 2024". ScrapeHero. Retrieved 2022-02-20.
5. ^ "Rita's Celebrates 30th Anniversary with Giveaways, Politicians". Phillymag. 2014-05-07. Retrieved 2016-03-29.
6. ^ "About Us - Rita's Ice". Retrieved August 25, 2021.
7. ^ "Investment firm acquires Rita's". Philadelphia Business Journal. May 4, 2005.
8. ^ "Pittsburgh firm buys Rita's". Pittsburgh Business Times. May 4, 2005.
9. ^ Rita's Franchise Company (2007-04-13). "Rita's Franchise Company - Press Releases Detail - Rita's Italian Ice Set to Relocate its Cool Support Center". Archived from the original on 2010-01-03. Retrieved 2010-03-11.
10. ^ Associated Press, Bloomberg Businessweek, 1 December 2011. "Falconhead Capital acquires Rita's Water Ice". Accessed 7 December 2011.
11. ^ RestaurantNews.com (2013-10-16). "Rita's Italian Ice Opens First International Outlet – Now Scooping in China | RestaurantNews.com". Retrieved 2025-06-16.
12. ^ Rita's Franchise Company. "Rita's Franchise Company - Events & Promotions - First Day of Spring". Archived from the original on 2010-01-06. Retrieved 2010-03-11.
13. ^ "Firms Purchase Rita's Franchise Company". QSR magazine. 3 January 2017.
14. ^ Dillin, Rachel (2025-06-12). "Frozen Favorites in Trouble as Iconic Chain Files for Bankruptcy". www.mensjournal.com. Retrieved 2025-06-16.
15. ^ "Popular Dairy Queen rival franchisee files Chapter 11 bankruptcy". TheStreet.
16. ^ "Rita's Italian Ice to Open Nearly 40 New Locations in 2025". Retail & Restaurant Facility Business.
17. ^ Gross, Alaina. "Gummy Bear Flavor Returns to Rita's Water Ice With a Sweet Surprise". DELCO.Today.
18. ^ Huth, Kelly (2010-03-09). "Rita's Italian Ice to offer Peeps-flavored dessert". PennLive LLC. Retrieved 2010-03-14.
19. ^ Magazine, Q. S. R. (2009-07-31). "Rita's Rolls Out Swedish Fish Italian Ice". QSR Magazine. Retrieved 2025-06-16.
20. ^ Ice, Rita's Italian. "Rita's Italian Ice Introduces SOUR PATCH KIDS Red Italian Ice". www.prnewswire.com (Press release). Retrieved 2025-06-16.
21. ^ "Support fight against childhood cancer with new Rita's frozen lemonade". 6abc Philadelphia. 2023-08-07. Retrieved 2025-06-16.
22. ^ Custard, Rita's Italian Ice & Frozen. "Rita's Partners with OREO® to Expand Cold Brew Frozen Coffee Line and Offers $3 Small Frozen Coffee to Rita's Ice App Users". www.prnewswire.com (Press release). Retrieved 2025-06-16.

External links

[edit]

• Media related to Rita's Italian Ice at Wikimedia Commons
• Official website

v t e Fast food and fast casual restaurant chains in the United States
Burger chains Chicken chains Coffeehouse chains Doughnut chains Hot dog chains Pizza chains Sandwich chains Seafood chains
Asian	Bibibop Asian Grill Cupbop Manchu Wok Panda Express Pei Wei Asian Diner Pick Up Stix Sarku Japan Yoshinoya
Baked goods	85°C Bakery Cafe Au Bon Pain Auntie Anne's Boudin Bakery Bruegger's Cinnabon Corner Bakery Cafe Crumbl Cookies Daylight Donuts Donut King Duck Donuts Einstein Bros. Five Daughters Bakery Great American Cookies Honey Dew Donuts Insomnia Cookies Krispy Kreme Mochinut Mrs. Fields Panera Bread Paris Baguette Pretzelmaker/Pretzel Time Red Ribbon Shipley Do-Nuts Tim Hortons Tous Les Jours Wetzel's Winchell's
Barbecue	Dickey's L&L Hawaiian Barbecue Mission BBQ Saltgrass Steak House
Beverages	Bambū Biggby Coffee Caribou Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf Coffee Beanery Dunkin' Dunn Bros Dutch Bros. Gloria Jean's It's Boba Time Jamba Juice Juice It Up! Kung Fu Tea Orange Julius Peet's Planet Smoothie Robeks Scooter's Coffee Smoothie King Starbucks Tropical Smoothie Cafe
Breakfast	Golden Corral The Original Pancake House
Chicken	Bojangles' Bonchon Chicken Boston Market Brown's Chicken & Pasta Bush's Chicken Chester's Chick-fil-A Chicken Express Chicken Salad Chick Church's/Texas Chicken Dave's Hot Chicken El Pollo Loco Golden Chick Golden Skillet Guthrie's Hartz Chicken Jollibee KFC Krispy Krunchy Kyochon Lee's Famous Recipe Chicken Louisiana Famous Fried Chicken Mrs. Winner's Pollo Tropical Popeyes Raising Cane's Roy Rogers Slim Chickens Wingstop WingStreet Zaxby's
Frozendesserts	Andy's Frozen Custard Baskin-Robbins Ben & Jerry's Braum's Bruster's Carvel Cold Stone Creamery Dairy Queen Dippin' Dots Fosters Freeze Friendly's Graeter's Häagen-Dazs Handel's La Michoacana MaggieMoo's Marble Slab Menchie's Oberweis Orange Leaf Pinkberry Popbar Red Mango Rita's Sweet Frog Tastee-Freez TCBY Tropical Sno Tutti Frutti Yogen Früz Yogurtland
Hamburgers	A&W Arctic Circle Back Yard Big Boy BurgerFi Burger King Carl's Jr. Checkers/Rally's Cook Out Culver's Fatburger Five Guys Freddy's Fuddruckers Habit Hardee's Hwy 55 In-N-Out Jack's Jack in the Box Johnny Rockets Krystal McDonald's Milo's Mooyah Roy Rogers Shake Shack Smashburger Sonic Steak 'n Shake Wayback Wendy's Whataburger White Castle
Hot dogs	Nathan's Famous Portillo's Wienerschnitzel
Mexican / Tex-Mex	Baja Fresh Cafe Rio Chevys Chipotle Del Taco El Torito Fuzzy's Green/Red Burrito La Salsa Moe's On the Border Pancheros Qdoba Roberto's Rubio's Salsarita's Taco Bell Taco Bueno Taco Cabana Taco John's TacoTime Tijuana Flats Torchy's Tacos
Pizza / Italian	Blaze Pizza Cicis Domino's Donatos Fazoli's Godfather's Pizza Hungry Howie's Pizza Hunt Brothers Pizza Jet's Pizza Little Caesars Marco's Pizza MOD Pizza Mountain Mike's Papa Gino's Papa John's Papa Murphy's Pizza Hut Pizza Patrón Pizza Ranch Round Table Pizza Sbarro Shakey's Pizza Straw Hat Pizza
Salads	Just Salad Salad and Go Saladworks Sweetgreen
Sandwiches	Arby's Blimpie Capriotti's Charleys Cousins D'Angelo Erbert & Gerbert's Firehouse Subs The Honey Baked Ham Company Jason's Jersey Mike's Jimmy John's Lee's Sandwiches Lenny's Sub McAlister's Deli Mendocino Farms Miami Grill Newk's Eatery Penn Station Port of Subs Potbelly Primo Hoagies Quiznos Rax Runza Sandella's Schlotzsky's Steak Escape Subway Togo's Which Wich?
Seafood	Arthur Treacher's California Fish Grill Captain D's H. Salt Esquire Joe's Crab Shack Long John Silver's Skippers Seafood & Chowder House
Other	Cava German Doner Kebab The Halal Guys Noodles & Company Pita Pit Skyline Chili Taziki's Mediterranean Café WaBa Grill
Defunct	Bresler's 33 Flavors Brigham's Burger Chef Burgerim Carrols D'Lites Dawn Donuts Druther's Henry's Hamburgers Hot 'n Now Hot Sam Pretzels Lum's Naugles Nestlé Toll House Red Barn Sandy's Seattle's Best Coffee Souplantation/Sweet Tomatoes Teavana T.J. Cinnamons Tully's Wetson's White Tower Zantigo

v t e Philadelphia-based corporations (within the Philadelphia metropolitan area)
List of companies based in the Philadelphia area
Philadelphia-based Fortune 500corporations (rank in the 2017 list)	Comcast (31) Aramark (192) Crown Holdings (333)
Philadelphia-area Fortune 500corporations (rank in the 2017 list)	AmerisourceBergen (11) DuPont (113) Lincoln National Corporation (207) Universal Health Services (276) Campbell Soup (339) UGI (457) Burlington Stores (463)
Other notable Philadelphia-basedbusinesses	Amoroso's Chemtura Day & Zimmermann FMC Corporation Independence Blue Cross Pep Boys Philadelphia Media Network PREIT Radian Group Urban Outfitters
Notable Philadelphia-basedprofessional partnerships	Ballard Spahr Blank Rome Cozen O'Connor Dechert Drinker Biddle & Reath Duane Morris Morgan, Lewis & Bockius Pepper Hamilton Saul Ewing White and Williams
Other notable Philadelphia-areabusinesses	Actua Corporation Airgas AlliedBarton Ametek Aqua America Asplundh Bentley Systems Brandywine Realty Trust Boscov's Carpenter Technology Cephalon Chemours Christiana Care Health System Crozer Keystone Health System David's Bridal DuckDuckGo EPAM Systems EnerSys Liberty Property Trust Penn Entertainment Penn Mutual Rita's Italian Ice SEI Investments SLM Susquehanna International Group Vanguard Toll Brothers Triumph Group Unisys ViroPharma Vishay Intertechnology VWR Wawa Wilmington Trust W. L. Gore & Associates WSFS Bank
Notable Philadelphia-areaUS headquarters offoreign businesses	Aberdeen Asset Management AgustaWestland AstraZeneca Chubb Delaware Investments GSK Keystone Foods SAP Siemens Healthineers Shire Pharmaceuticals Subaru Teva Pharmaceuticals TD Bank
Notable Philadelphia-areadivision headquarters ofUS corporations	Acme (Cerberus Capital Management) Centocor (Johnson & Johnson) Colonial Penn (Conseco) Delmarva Power (Exelon) GSI Commerce (eBay) Hercules (Ashland) MAB Paints (Sherwin-Williams) McNeil Laboratories (Johnson & Johnson) Neoware (Hewlett-Packard) PECO (Exelon) QVC (Liberty Media) Rohm & Haas (Dow Chemical) SunGard (FIS) Tasty Baking (Flowers Foods)

v t e Food chains in the Philippines
Baked goods	Auntie Annes BreadTalk Brownies Unlimited Caramia Cinnabon Conti's Dunkin' Donuts Founders Donuts* Goldilocks Bakeshop J.CO Julie's Bakeshop Krispy Kreme Kumori* Mary Grace Mister Donut Nono's Overdoughs* Pan de Manila Red Ribbon Bakeshop The French Baker
Chinese	Chowking Dimsum Break Din Tai Fung Eng Bee Tin* G&G Fried Chicken Harbour City Dimsum House Hap Chan King Chef Ling Nam* Nanyang North Park Noodles* Panda Express* Toho Antigua* Tong Yang
Coffee/tea	Bo's Coffee Buko Loco* Buko Express Buko Juan* But First, Coffee Chatime Cha Tuk Chak CoCo Fresh Tea & Juice Figaro Coffee Fruitas Highlands Coffee Infinitea Macao Imperial Tea McDonald's McCafé Mixue Ice Cream & Tea Overdoughs* Pickup Coffee Serenitea Starbucks Tealive The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf Tiger Sugar Tomoro Coffee* Zagu Zus Coffee
Dairy/desserts	Avocadoria BLK 513* Caramia Dairy Queen llaollao Miguelito's Ice Cream Mixue Ice Cream & Tea* Razon's of Guagua* Rita's Italian Ice* Udders*
Fastfood/takeout	24 Chicken Andok's Angel's Burger Army Navy Ate Rica's Bacsilog Binalot Burger King Chick 'n Juicy* Chooks-to-Go Chowking De Original Jamaican Pattie Don Benito's Famous Belgian Waffles Gang Gang Chicken Hen Lin Jollibee Kettle Korn KFC Kitchen City* Mang Inasal McDonald's Minute Burger New York Fries & Dips Popeyes* Potato Corner Shake Shack* Shawarma Shack Siomai House Subway Taco Bell* Tim Hortons* Tita Paring Suman Latik* Waffle Time Wendy's Zark's Burger
Filipino & casual dining	AA BBQ Cabalen Casa Verde Chili's Classic Savory Congo Grille Dencio's Everything But Cheese* Gerry's Grill Gringo I Love Bucket Shrimps** Kenny Rogers Roasters Kuya J's Restaurant LASA BBQ* Lechoneria Manam Mary Grace Max's Restaurant Mesa Nono's* Orange Brutus** Pancake House Shakey's Shrimp Bucket* Tapa King Ted's Oldtimer Lapaz Batchoy Texas Roadhouse* Tropical Hut ZubuChon**
Italian	Italianni's Mama Lou's Italian Kitchen*
Japanese	Botejyu Genki Sushi Kyukyu Ramen 99* Marugame Udon Nabe Unlimited Japanese Hotpot Ramen Kuroda Ramen Nagi Sumo Niku Teriyaki Boy* Tokyo Tokyo Yayoi Japanese Teishoku
Korean	Bonchon Mr. Kimbob Samgyeopmasarap Samgyupsalamat
Pizza	3M Pizza Pie Angel's Pizza Domino's Greenwich Pizza Lots'a Pizza Mama Lou's Italian Kitchen* Pizza Hut Sbarro Shakey's Pizza S&R New York Style Pizza Yellow Cab Pizza
Southeast Asia(excluding Filipino)	Banana Leaf Bánh Mì Kitchen Cha Tuk Chak OldTown White Coffee Phở Hòa* Purple Pad Thai Wangfu*
*: Only found within Mega Manila**: Only found within Metro Cebu