Yummy aims to be ice cream of the crop

Ice cream producer Yummy Yorkshire, which is run from Denby House Farm, located near Denby Dale on the A629 between Huddersfield and Penistone, was established five years ago by husband and wife team, Jeremy and Louise Holmes.

Their herd of Holstein cows produce the milk used to create the ice cream, which comes in a range of flavours including the traditional as well as the more unusual, such as Liquorice, Beetroot and Chilli Jam Man.

Yummy Yorkshire, which was founded as an offshoot from the farm’s main business of processing and retailing milk, is part of P Holmes & Son, which is owned by Mr Holmes and his father Philip.

Mrs Holmes said: “We started by just supplying ice cream to people coming on to the field. It was literally the footfall of people who came by.” In 2008, they built a walk-in freezer on the site and converted two redundant calf pens into an ice cream parlour.

Now, the building has been extended and converted into an ice cream parlour and coffee shop, double the size of the previous premises. The plan is to increase production levels by 60 per cent over the next three years thanks to the purchase of new freezing equipment. Ice cream production is currently at 27,500 litres a year, a 36 per cent increase on last year’s level.

The £90,000 project, has been part-funded through a grant from the Rural Development Programme for England, co-founded by Defra and the EU. The match funding grant represents a contribution of £44,600 from the programme.

Mr Holmes said: “We were seating 19 people before and customers were constantly saying we needed to expand.” Work started on the project at the end of November, and was completed at the start of this month.

He said: “It now seats 37 people and it has been totally redesigned inside with larger tables, bigger chairs and more space.”

Turnover for the Yummy Yorkshire ice cream company is at around £331,000, with £69,500 of net pre-tax profits.

The business, which supplies roundsmen, mini markets, garage forecourts and restaurants, is looking to grow the wholesale market as quickly as retail, said Mr Holmes.

He said 70 per cent of business is from customers coming on site, while 30 per cent is from wholesale, adding: “We have a lot of enquiries from wholesale and we are pushing that as hard as we can. We are likely to see that upped to 40 per cent by the end of the summer.”

Yummy Yorkshire’s customers include the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, The Butchers Arms at Hepworth, Hardcastle Crags and The Foundry in Leeds. Mr Holmes said the ice cream business had had to turn away enquiries before the latest investment in its premises and equipment, explaining: “we were scared of not being able to produce enough to supply the demands of customers.

“But now we are more than capable of it. We are cautious but we can take on more this year.”

The extension has also allowed for the inclusion of an extra serving hatch for the busy summer period.

Mr Holmes said: “We have lots of returning customers who have tried every single flavour and know what they want. Those guys can go in the express lane. We want it to be a quick way of serving people.”

And in an effort to ensure the business thrives in all seasons, Yummy Yorkshire continues to serve hot daily specials, cooked up by resident chef Jacqui Rumney, and pushes its themed ice cream flavours sold around times such as Bonfire Night and Christ- mas.

Mr Holmes said the business is looking at employing another two people, to carry out deliveries and to work in the shop.

Currently, there are four staff working on the ice cream side of the business, and six on the milk and farm side.