Marble Slab Creamery is a chain of independently owned and operated franchised stores that specialize in serving homemade ice cream and a variety of other desserts. It is a franchise brand in the portfolio of Global Franchise Group LLC, along with MaggieMoo’s Ice Cream and Treatery. There are 392 Marble Slab stores throughout the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, Pakistan, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Lebanon, Qatar, and Bangladesh. The chain has its headquarters in unincorporated Fulton County, Georgia. As an independent company it had its headquarters in the Westchase area of Houston, Texas. After the NexCen acquisition, initially the brand’s headquarters were in unincorporated Gwinnett County, Georgia. In July 2010, NexCen announced the sale of its franchise business to Global Franchise Group, LLC, an affiliate of Levine Leichtman Capital Partners. Global Franchise Group is now owned by Lion Capital LLP and Serruya Private Equity.
Marble Slab, which began as a single unit operation called Cones & Cream, was founded in Houston by chefs Sigmund Penn and Tom LePage in 1983. They were inspired by Steve Herrell of Herrell’s Ice Cream in Boston, who pioneered the mixing approach to ice cream toppings. In 1986, Marble Slab became the first ice cream treatery to use a frozen granite slab to blend mix-in toppings into the ice cream. Later that year, Marble Slab was bought by Ronnie Hankamer of Texas, who laid the groundwork for the brand’s franchising concept.
