BOONE – Two engineers-turned-entrepreneuers who came up with a low-cost ice cream machine say they’ve now found a better model for selling their super-smooth ice cream.

Will Schroeder and T.J. Paskach, founders of Nitro Ice Cream, are now developing franchising plans they hope will allow their Blue Sky Creamery brand to take off in stores across the country.

The two inventors, who developed a machine that uses super-cold liquid nitrogen to make ice cream, originally planned to focus on selling the machines to concessionaires across the country.

Recently, however, they realized that greater sales potential lies in establishing franchised retail operators who would also wholesale the ice cream to supermarkets.

With a $50,000 machine located inside each store, each Blue Sky Creamery shop can serve as its own small ice cream factory, turning out individual servings at the front counter while sending hand-packed pints out the back door to area grocery stores. This business model mirrors the one used by the highly profitable Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc.

“It’s exciting, because that’s been a very successful model,” Paskach said.    “The potential as this model comes into focus is much bigger than we originally thought,” Schroeder added. Though the company will continue to sell machines to concession operations, that’s no longer its main focus, he said.

Paskach and Schroeder developed the machine while doctoral engineering students at Iowa State University in 1999, and have since re-engineered the invention four times to improve it. ISU owns the patent on the machine and receives a royalty for each sale. Because the liquid nitrogen freezes the ice cream mix within a fraction of a second, the ice cream contains fewer ice crystals and is smoother.

The two opened the first Blue Sky Creamery store at 107 N.E. Delaware Ave. in Ankeny in July 2002. Wanting to focus their attention on further developing their invention, they sold the store in June to a franchise owner.   In September, the Ankeny store reached an agreement with Fareway in Ames to stock the ice cream, and 13 supermarkets, including Dahl’s, Fareway and Hy-Vee stores, now stock the brand in their freezers. Another half-dozen stores are likely to be added soon.

“We thought it was a great idea to get the product out there,” said Roger Erixon, who owns the Ankeny franchise with his wife, Deb. Besides increasing the product’s visibility, “I think it will help the stores, too, because it’s a one-of-a-kind ice cream you can’t get anywhere else. Until you taste it you can’t imagine how much better it tastes than regular ice cream.”

Schroeder and Paskach are now working on a machine to pack the pints, which Erixon currently does by hand.

The company, which began selling the machines in February after the patent was approved, has sold six so far, all to concessionaires. Two of its next three orders, however will be to franchisees; one in Minneapolis and another in Richmond, Va. Other likely franchise buyers are in Kansas City and St. Louis, as well as California and Florida.

“The machine sales this year have really helped us turn the corner,” said Schroeder, who said the company will realize a profit this year.

In retrospect, the two owners found they were too conservative in their business plan, which didn’t envision franchising until 2007, and may have scared off some potential investors.

Schroeder said their cautious approach as engineers paid off as they got the business off the ground, however.

“We made our mistakes on a small scale and corrected them,” he said.