Nelson ice cream goes national

Anyone who has browsed supermarket freezers for ice cream recently will know the market for producers is tough, with a multitude of brands lining the shelves.

Yet a Nelson company has gone from strength to strength since joining the highly competitive market, saying several ‘‘points of difference’’ set its product apart.

Since launching its locally made range in 110 supermarkets nationwide earlier this month, the number of shops now stocking Appleby Farms Ice Cream has risen to around 250.

This traction was largely down to the company’s ‘‘pasture to plate’’ philosophy, Appleby Farm’s Managing Director Rew Gray maintained.

‘‘We’re probably the only icecream manufacturer in New Zealand that can put hand on heart and say, we grow the grass, we milk our own cows, we bring our own produce to our own factory, we make our own recipes, we make our ice cream and then we take it to market.’’

Appleby Farms built a ‘‘state of the art’’ creamery in Stoke last year, using milk produced by two family-owned Nelson farms, to produce its first batch in Decem- ber. Over summer, five quirkily named flavours were served up to Nelsonians from the company’s ‘‘silver bullet’’ van, at popular local destinations such as Tahunanui beach.

Central to the ice cream’s success was the fact it was made from A2 protein milk, which lacked an amino acid found in A1 Protein milk linked to dairy intolerance for some people, Gray said. ‘‘We are, again, probably the only ice cream manufacturer in this country which is producing an ice cream out of our own A2 protein milk from our own A2 cows.’’

The business first took shape when the owners of those A2 herds, Murray King and Julian Raine, began brainstorming how to add value to their milk in 2015, when the national milk solids payout dropped to about $3 per kg. Local food technologist, Kristy Giles, suggested using it to make ice cream, and the pair didn’t look back.

Gray was brought onboard to carry out the market research, and established that there was a business case for premium ice cream.

The company was now ‘‘flat out’’ trying to expand in the domestic market, with a passionfruit flavour ‘‘Tangled Passion’’ due out in around five weeks, and others in the pipeline.

Appleby Farms also had its sights set on international markets, with plans to export its first product to Asia in about a year. But the company, which uses mostly locally grown or produced ingredients, stressed it wouldn’t forget where it came from.

‘‘The good people of Nelson have been supportive right from the start. Not just in terms of the mayor turning up to help us find a spot at Tahunanui Beach, but all of our all troops come from here, most of our produce comes from here.

‘‘We’re deadly passionate Nelsonians, so we want to stick another fantastic brand on the international stage ... and have Nelsonians as proud of it as we are hopefully.’’

The company says sustainability is a major focus for the business, with tubs, cups and spoons either compostable or recyclable. It is also in the process of forming an independently run charitable trust, in which it plans to put 10 per cent of its profits into each year towards improvement in farming practices.