Starting up IceCream/Coffee shop

BlameTheGame

Starbucks has reported a 77% fall in quarterly profits after closing 123 US stores as part of a cost-cutting plan.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8026026.stm

gofes

Hello there. I started my own company making Ice Cream on a local dairy farm, this time last year. I'm based in Hampshire so not much use to yourself as a supplier.

Making the Ice Cream yourself would require quite a lot of investment on top of what is already needed to open the !!!!!! / cafe. I brought a small freezer and pasteuriser set up (5 litres a batch, at the more expensive end you can get larger 25 litres a batch machinery), which cost me about £9,000. You would then have storage freezers and other utensiles on top of that.
If you are still serious RSS who supplied my equipment offer free demostration days which will give you an idea how to make the ice cream and the equipment you will need. They are throughly nice people to deal with! Google rsshereford as I'm not allowed to post links.

If you are looking to buy the ice cream from a local farm based producer then the Ice Cream Alliance (trade body) would be able to point you in the right direction. Give them a call, they are also very helpfull.
google them again

Best of luck
Ben

Alison_B

Snugburys are ice cream makers in the North West and they are delicious. Not sure if they would deal wholesale though.

xx_lucy_xx

Theres a very sucsessfull ice cream place near me, it started as a ice ceam/farm shop which was tiny, some chickens and rabbits outside to look and pet while enjoying your ice cream, now they have buit a large extension and have a upmarket cafe selling very bistro style lunches. I think i hurd they even supply to harrods heres there link http://www.thaymaricecream.co.uk/

Peaches and cream is my fav, its lush!

paulwf

I'm curious as to why the evenings are expected to be the busiest time for a cafe based around light snacks?

A good business model to look at is Subway, they are of course mostly serving sandwiches but have a good evening trade, perhaps attracting teenagers who are too young for pubs and in certain areas perhaps attracting people who don't drink for religious reasons?

My local Subway does quite well in the evenings as all the other cafes shut then, apart from KFC and McDonalds the only other place to go is pubs. However, they open 8am to 11pm, you need to have a very good operations management system in place and a way of keeping staff costs to a minimum to open long hours. Personally the town I'm in no way would I want to be working in a shop at 10pm. Check the area out carefully, does your town represent a war zone on a Friday evening and will you attract drunks with post pub munchies? If so are you prepared to deal with them?