THE owner of a popular Wirral ice cream shop has cause for celebration after the business scooped further awards.
The Ice Cream Shop in West Kirby has already been honoured with Family Business of the Year and Newcomer (Family Business) at the Business Awards UK.
At the weekend, it won UK Small Business Awards and National Family Business 2024.
It also won Food Retailer 2024 for Merseyside last week at the Small & Mighty Business Awards and the shop's owner, John 'Kipper' Hughes, has now learned that it has won the E2 Media Award of Excellence 2024 Best Ice Cream Shop.
John, 59, told the Globe: "It's been an overwhelming time, in terms of awards, and I've been shocked at the number the business has won and been nominated for.
"I was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease in February. It's been a rollercoaster time and I've been in a bad way, to be honest, but the awards success just goes to show what can be achieved.
"I just want to thank everyone for their support over the years for putting us forward for recognition such as this, it really means a lot."
John and wife Diane opened the quaint little shop in 2019 and have developed such a reputation that people travel from far and wide to enjoy their delights.
The shop has a revolving and ever-changing range of fascinating flavours of ice creams including dog ice cream, as well as almost 40 different types of bubble tea — something that John says has also been going down a storm.
But what makes him truly unique is that he actively encourages people to challenge him to make bespoke flavours.
Some have been extremely popular, such as ice cream similar to Twister ice lollies and ice cream similar to Vimto, whereas some have been rather ‘interesting’ — such as a bacon and maple syrup flavour for a local business.
If he makes a flavour a customer loves, they can buy tubs of it to take home.
For businesses, John can make them a bespoke flavour that they can re-brand — giving them something interesting to offer, rather than just standard ice cream for dessert.
John said: "I originally opened as Artisan Gelato in 2019 and developed a fantastic reputation, but was forced to close in 2022 due to the council closing the pavement and ruining my trade for four months.
"Closing gave me the opportunity to get creative with flavours, so when I re-opened as The Ice Cream Shop in February 2023 I introduced all sort of interesting flavours."
John said recently that people are loving The Ice Cream Shop 'as much now as ever'.
He spends hours exploring supermarket aisles and experimenting with weird and wonderful flavours — some recent ones such as The Pensby Pig, one similar to Terry’s Chocolate Orange and one similar to Twister ice lollies have been flying out.
John said: "I've had some bad dealings to contend with but I’m more passionate and creative than ever. It's so satisfying to see both kids and adults alike enjoying our creations — from custom ice creams made just for them to our huge range of refreshing bubble tea."
He continued: "Knowing that people love our creations and it makes them happy keeps us going no matter what the council or big companies throw at us.
"We’re a passionate local independent and we also do lots for the community such as sponsoring the local football team and giving ice cream to residential homes.
"We love being an integral part of the community.”
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