Louise Putt, Audit Executive, and Ally Allington, Corporate Business Services Partner, talked to Katie Bray from Gwella Dairy about her journey into ice cream.
The history
Katie grew up on her family dairy farm in St Martin, near Helston in Cornwall where her business, Gwella Dairy, is based. Katie’s family are currently milking around 220 cows, alongside Katie’s growing sixteen pedigree jersey cows (the Gwella Girls!) which are used for the ice cream.
This year Katie has her first home-bred pedigree jerseys joining the milking herd to grow the ice cream business.
Gwella chose to use jersey cows as they produce a very creamy and rich tasting milk compared to other breeds, which in turn makes delicious ice cream.
The name
Katie got the name Gwella as it is the Cornish word for “best” and therefore the name translates to “best ice cream”.
She wanted to keep the ice cream business separate from the farm and have it linked to Cornwall, and thought the name was nice and easy to say and denotes exactly what it says on the “tin”.
The journey
Katie started making ice cream because she wanted to add value to a product that has been produced on her family farm for decades and enjoys selling direct to the customer, especially in retail where she gets to see the enjoyment her product brings first hand.
After gaining a degree in Agriculture at Harper Adams University, she initially moved away from the dairy industry into vegetable agronomy. Katie moved back home to her family’s dairy farm in 2020, with dairy experience and the drive to produce and promote great local farm produce.
All dairy products had been considered (and not completely ruled out yet!), but with having previous experience in Devon with ice cream making she has chosen to initially keep with ice cream where there’s a quick production turnover, and great opportunities in Cornwall with the tourism.
Six of Katie’s ice cream flavours have won “Taste of the West” Gold awards; three in 2021 and three in 2022, which is an incredibly impressive feat for a new small business!
With Katie having two young daughters, it was vital for her that the business could work around the family. To begin with the plan was to sell the ice cream wholesale, but with Covid restrictions in place when the business first started, there was limited opportunity at the time.
Occasionally, a customer would come to the farm whilst Katie was there making the ice cream, wanting to purchase some. With only takeaway being allowed, Katie began to sell the ice cream out of a hatch as takeaway on the farm. When she became inundated with customers, she soon needed an extra pair of hands, employing Betty to serve so that Katie could continue to make the ice cream.
The hatch has now grown into a small café area, where she also sells delicious coffee and has an area for children to play, including an iconic wooden swing hanging from the beams.
Gwella’s ice cream is also sold to local shops and restaurants via wholesale throughout the year.
Katie said she has faced several challenges since starting her business, with a big one being juggling family life and the business. With two young children, she said the summer can be particularly difficult and gets serious “mum guilt” as it is her busiest time for the ice cream, but the girls are off school, and she feels like she should be doing things with them.
She said that she would love it if the girls wanted to get involved in the business in the future.
Other challenges she has faced include having enough funds as a start up to do everything she wants to do, as well as brand awareness and social media presence.
Moving forward
Katie would love to continue to grow the business, and has some exciting plans to allow her to reach more customers with her ice cream through the sell-by-scoop side of the business. She has secured a spot at the Royal Cornwall Show this year and is also going to be at the Porthleven and Falmouth Food Festival.
Advice to other start ups
I asked Katie that if she could give one piece of advice to other startup businesses what would it be.
She said:
“Be prepared to be adaptable to all aspects of the business. Know your goal and try not to lose focus on that goal. Success can be different for everyone, know what a successful business is in your eyes and try not to be swayed by others."
If you fancy checking out Gwella’s impressive range of flavours and finding out more about them, please visit their website.