Modern Welsh design and traditional Italian flavour
At Shufflebottom we’re always delighted to hear stories of local business success. None more so than our near-neighbour, Carmarthenshire-based Frank’s Ice-Cream.
Starting as a small family business selling ice-cream in Garnant in 1922, today Frank’s is one of the UK’s leading manufacturers of premium ice-cream and a global brand supplying UK supermarket chains – Sainsbury, Tesco, Morrisons, Asda – the NHS, and emerging markets in the Middle East, with their delicious and ever-expanding range of special ice-creams.
Frank’s is a story of continued success founded on vision, hard work, and a commitment to stay ahead of the game in the fast-changing and highly competitive ice-cream market, always looking to develop new products and attract new customers.
Testament to this is their recent investment in a new, purpose-built Gelateria and Innovation Facility at Capel Hendre. Despite the challenges of the Pandemic, this eagerly awaited new retail and product development centre opened to excited customers, as promised, in time for Christmas, on 19 12 2021.
A visit to the Centre will enable you to experience the very best of modern Welsh design along with traditional Italian flavour. At Shufflebottom, we can’t take any credit for the production of the delicious gelato, but we are proud to have played our part in the mix of local ingredients that have fed into the final beautiful building, designed by Sauro Architectural Design Ltd of Carmarthen. We were once again thrilled to be commissioned by our long-standing partner, Carmarthenshire-based, Malpross Services, a multi-disciplined contractor known across the UK, to supply the structural steel for this exciting structure of scale. We delivered approximately 29 tonnes of hot rolled steel and 3 tonnes of cold rolled steel, which provided the framework for this state-of-the-art building.
Inside, the building features transparent glass that enables you to see the finest and freshest gelato being made right in front of your eyes by a top Italian, artisan-gelato chef, who has left London for Capel Hendre to head up this venture. You can see him ‘doing his stuff’, mixing ingredients in the innovative gelato-making machinery to produce the fine tastes that Frank’s is known for, the world-over. Over forty flavours of gelato are available for visitors along with cakes and crepes and all manner of bite-size deliciousness that are synonymous with the Frank’s brand.
At Shufflebottom, we’re delighted to have been part of the Frank’s Ice Cream story as a supplier. As you can imagine, it won’t be difficult to stay part of their on-going story as a customer.