The upbeat assessment from the Kentish frozen desserts manufacturer came as it announced plans to expand its factory, after a 20% increase in turnover to £950,000.
Simply Ice Cream’s md Sally Newall said: “From a British SME [small and medium-sized enterprise] manufacturing point of view we are actually looking forward to the Brexit implementation.
“We believe there will be so many more opportunities as buyers focus on UK producers and away from the import market.”
Double its production
The company hoped to increase storage capabilities of its Ashford site and double its production by employing more staff in the spring.
“We will be able to increase production without jeopardising the genuine handmade integrity of our artisanal product range,” added Newall. “We have manoeuvred the company into this position due to the increased demand nationwide as well as own label and export.”
“We are working on a 20% increase [in turnover] year-on-year, so for 2017 we would hope for that to be just over the £1.1M”
This year saw Simply Ice Cream begin supplying 98 Co-op stores across the south east of England. Its Heavenly Honeycomb crunch and vanilla ice cream is now available in Waitrose stores and online through Ocado.
Established in 2008, the company produces ice cream by hand in small batches using locally sourced ingredients.
Increase of 25%
In 2016, Simply produced about 8,000 x 500ml pots of ice cream per week, an increase of 25% year-on-year. It also produced 32,000 x 120ml pots per week, a 20% rise since 2015.
The firm also offers a bespoke ice cream and sorbet flavour service for special events.
Meanwhile, the sale of a West Midlands bacon producer has saved the jobs of 13 employees, after the company entered liquidation last week – partly due to rising costs caused by the UK’s Brexit vote.
Craig Povey, from liquidator CVR Global’s Birmingham office, said Turners of Bond Street ran into financial difficulty, partly due to soaring import costs of raw materials.