If you’ve had an ice cream at the International Isle of Man TT, chances are that it will have come from local producer, wholesaler and vendor Davisons. With all that high performance technology flying around the island, it comes as no surprise to hear that Davisons have invested in their own super machines, which have increased production rates fourfold.
We caught up with Director Greig Davison to find out how his new ROKK MP1200 (1,200 litres per hour ice cream mix plant) is shattering as many records as the riders.
Ian Davison started business on the island 30 years ago as a chocolatier, adding ice cream production from 1995 – and this soon became the mainstay of the business. Applying the same business ethics of never cheating on the quality or flavour of the product, Davisons always use cream from the Isle of Man, British sugar – and the finest flavourings from Italy.
The family business, which rapidly expanded to include son Greig, cousins, uncles and even 90 year old accountant Grandad in the mix, operates 2 outlets, 7 vans – and wholesales to over 95% of the island’s other outlets and distributors.
Davisons have been customers of Machinery World for around 5 years, initially using them to quickly source spare parts for their existing machine. When it became time to purchase new machinery, Davisons didn’t hesitate to turn to Machinery World and sister company ROKK:
“We were keen to find somewhere in the UK to buy from, that kept spare parts in the UK too” explains Greig. “We really liked the simplicity of our old machinery, as if something went wrong, it was easy to diagnose and replace, so we wanted to find something which was intelligently designed with all the leading edge aspects we need, but put together in an uncomplicated way. What we didn’t like with our old machines was the time delay involved when having to deal with overseas suppliers – and the inevitable language barriers. Machinery World ticked all the boxes. Also, because of the similarity of the ROKK MP1200 to our old machines, when the Machinery World engineer came to set it up, we were able to have an extremely detailed training session – learning everything we need to know in just one day.”
Our new ROKK equipment is idiot proof, simple to use with no messing around or unnecessarily complicated technology that could go wrong – but still sophisticated enough to do everything we need it to do.”
And it certainly does everything Davisons’ need: their new plant for preparing ice cream mix includes a boiler for heating the ice cream mix and a chiller plant for cooling it post-pasteurisation – and has increased production capacity from 300ltrs per hour to 1,200ltrs per hour.
“Our ROKK system gives us the chance to do other things in the day, so we are not always playing catch up over the summer,” continues Greig. “And, of course, with Machinery World being UK based, we can get any spare parts we may need the next day. The whole team are approachable, always available on the phone and they certainly know their stuff. If we have an issue, we can send a What’s App video and get an answer within half an hour – which would have taken half a week from overseas.
“As a family business, relationships are very important – and we do like a bit of banter. All the team at Machinery World are not only knowledgeable and helpful, they are also always ready for a laugh -and great fun to work with.”
So with more time on their hands this summer, the Davisons can spare a moment to bet which of their current 32 core flavours will grab the TT’s most popular ice cream trophy this year.
Despite outsiders not knowing a lot about his food habits, Kim Jong Un has been described as a foodie who loves luxury foreign foods—especially cheese, which did not feature on the menu. Today’s working lunch seems lighter on the symbolism than the menu at the inter-Korean summit in April, where South Korea served Kim rösti, a Swiss potato fritter dish he enjoyed in his boarding school days in Switzerland, and a cheery mango mousse cake symbolizing Korean unity that managed to anger Japan.
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