ST. LOUIS — Property that includes a longtime frozen custard stand in Maryville, Illinois, has sold for $2 million.
An entity tied to Andy's Frozen Custard, of Springfield, Missouri, bought 2525 North Center St., records show. The seller was Bobby's Frozen Custard Inc., tied to Bobby and Debra Kozyak of Caseyville.
A woman who answered the phone at Bobby's said the business wasn't changing despite the sale, and referred questions to Andy's. Andy's CEO Andy Kuntz and founder Carol Kuntz didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.
Bobby's, located off Route 159, has been open since 1990, according to newspaper listings.
Owner Bobby Kozyak told the Belleville News-Democrat in 2015 that Ted Drewes had been the inspiration for the business, the first to bring frozen custard to the Metro East.
"We started out 25 years ago on a two-lane highway on a cornfield and put up a place that people said looked like a spaceship," said Kozyak, adding that naysayers said the location couldn't attract enough volume to survive. "We're in a small community, and we have a lot of communities around us. It's a destination location, and fortunately, we've been able to draw from a 25- to a 30-mile radius, and we've grown."
So has Andy's. It launched in Osage Beach in 1986, then expanded to Springfield. By 2004 it was selling franchises, according to the Springfield News-Leader, with initial locations in Branson, Rogers, Cape Girardeau, Columbia and Chicago.
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