A Cornish ice cream store has received help to buy a cool new machine from a Cornwall-based finance provider.
Gibson’s Cornish Ice Cream in Looe has purchased a brand new 300 litre ice cream machine worth £29,000 with help from Truro-based provider of vehicle and asset finance for UK SMEs, Ignition.
The family-run business creates homemade ice cream for local wholesale, cafes and restaurants, and retail catering outlets.
Initially launched in 2017 as an extension of the family’s bakery business and café, ice cream sales proved so successful that the bakery was soon sold in order to focus on the popular ice cream brand.
According to owner, Phil Gibson, the company currently uses batch freezers which are useful for smaller quantities of ice cream, but has expanded quickly and now needs an additional machine that can produce larger quantities to keep up with increasing demand.
Phil said: "During the first lockdown last year, we were initially left with surplus stock that needed to be used up, so we introduced ‘Happy Fridays’ on social media, giving out free ice cream to our local followers.
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"That proved so popular that we continued with the Friday theme and began a home delivery service, offering one and two litre tubs to customers, delivered around Cornwall every Friday.
"As a result, we’ve become very well known in the county and have seen a substantial increase in new orders from various outlets and cafes.
"The new machine will help us keep up with this demand, and provides extra capacity so that we can increase production quickly when large orders come in."
Ignition has worked with the Gibson family since the establishment of the bakery over 20 years ago, assisting with finance throughout the years for refurbishment and equipment.
Phil Gibson added: "Ignition have been a great help to us over the years, providing financial assistance along the way as we have expanded and diversified.
"They have always been supportive of our ventures and have helped us build on our success.
"It will be great to get the new ice cream machine up and running – we’re looking forward to a very busy summer season!"
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