Kent ice
cream maker says profits are soaring with UK temperatures
A Kent ice cream maker says it is thanks to the hottest UK summer in decades that its ice cream sales are soaring.
The Produced in Kent member, Simply Ice Cream, which supplies the likes of Waitrose, Co-op, Morrisons and numerous farmshops, independents and delis with its products across the whole of Kent and the South East, has revealed a 10% growth from the same period last year, attributing it to the current heatwave which will always create an uplift in sales in this particular sector.
“We’ve been flat out,” comments managing director, Sally Newall, “it’s always busy this time of year with so many shows but we’ve sold out at every one. We continue to pick up a number of new customers on a weekly basis as the demand for cooling treats increases with no sign of the heatwave abating.”
The award-winning firm celebrated its fortunes with a light-hearted survey among several hundred people across Kent, to uncover the most popular flavours and ice cream eating habits. The outright winner was Honeycomb, with a whopping 36 percent majority, followed closely by Salted Caramel and Vanilla in third place.
Our county’s retirees eat the most ice cream with 38 percent choosing to eat it several times a week. Our yummy mummies and delicious daddies are far too tired to decide a favourite flavour with almost equal pegging for honeycomb, mint choc chip, lemon curd, chocolate and vanilla, a whopping 71 percent say they only eat it on a special day out – presumably this is to keep the kids quiet! Our students love Honeycomb and 89 percent said they need no excuse to eat ice cream.
Most people in Kent buy ice cream by the 500ml family pot size and decant it into bowls or eat it straight out of the tub on the sofa. The most popular places to eat ice cream are at the beach, on a special day out or served with pudding in a restaurant or at a dinner party.
The survey results discovered that people working in insurance prefer salted caramel, whereas dental workers choose chocolate as their favourite flavour and librarians put strawberry first. teachers like coffee and people working in the medical profession put honeycomb highest.
If you live in sunny South Kent you are most likely to enjoy eating vanilla straight from a tub on the beach. People living in North Kent are least likely to enjoy the fruit flavours. Our friends in West Kent were more varied choosing three top winners including honeycomb , Chocolate and Vanilla. And the coastal East Kent dwellers are least likely to eat ice cream at a dinner party and most likely to have it as a treat on a special day out.
A few Londoners found our survey and we discovered they are so busy that none have ever decanted ice cream into a bowl to eat it! And the people from Sussex eat ice cream on a weekly basis making them the most frequent ice cream eaters of all.
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Editors Notes
Simply Ice Cream is made by a small team in Kent producing ice cream the old fashioned way, by hand, in small batches using only locally sourced Kent ingredients (where possible), natural flavours and seasonal fruits. The ice cream and sorbets are free from any syrups, mixers, additives or preservatives, offering just pure natural goodness and flavour for all the family.