Member Article

Doncaster ice cream entrepreneurs scoop Yorkshire Wildlife Park deal

Sunnybank Ice Cream Farm, on Bawtry Road, has secured a dealt with Yorkshire Wildlife Park to supply to the new confectionary shop and ice cream tubs for all the park’s refreshment outlets.

Entrepreneurial duo Rebecca Storey and her husband Edward have worked in the artisan food business for many years, setting up a chocolate shop in Guernsey in 1998 and running a coffee and ice-cream shop in Doncaster for nine years.

When they decided to move purely into the ice-cream business, the pair spent years searching for a suitable property and eventually bought Sunnybank Garden Centre which already had a tearoom.

The new deal comes at the end of a very successful year for the husband and wife-run ice-cream company which only moved into its current premises last August.

The Storeys have also secured planning permission to build a new tea room, ice-cream parlour and farm shop all under one roof, replacing some of the existing buildings, and work starts in October with completion due by Easter 2016.

As part of the move to Sunnybank they were able to keep on all 12 of the existing garden centre staff, and even increase their hours.

Owner Rebecca Storey, who comes from Hatfield, said: “The move has exceeded our wildest expectations.

“We had envisaged a ten year plan to get to where we want to be, but at this rate we will achieve our goals in three years.”

“Some of the garden centre buildings were quite run down and we could see an opportunity to take our business to the next level,

“We are over the moon with the staff we inherited. Some of them have been here for 30 years so they have a lot of experience and it’s been good to be able to offer them more work.”

Sunnybank Ice Cream Farm is being supported by Business Doncaster, a partner in the South Yorkshire Sector Growth Enhancement Programme (SYSGEP), which is part-financed by the 2007-13 European Union’s European Regional Development Fund.

Sue Harrison, SYSGEP sector growth manager at Business Doncaster, said: “It is great to see a Doncaster company doing so well and expanding its business so rapidly.

“Sunnybank Ice Cream Farm is a real success story and Business Doncaster will do everything it can to support their growth.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ellen Forster .