Island Gelato expands into retail
Masterchef runner-up Ana Schwarz is co-founder of Island Gelato, which grew from a single Waiheke Island kiosk a decade ago into a chain of five retail stores with a wholesale arm. Schwarz says her gelato business is gearing up to expand into more supermarkets and take its business offshore. She tells of how the company is also set to increase production of upcycled gelato using fruit and vegetables diverted from landfill.
What has your venture set out to achieve?
Island Gelato is a manufacturer of artisan gelato, sorbets and artisanal celebration cakes. It has been a huge learning curve since we set up shop, [husband and co-founder] Geoff [Tippett] and I have very much been hands on for a long time.
I started in the kitchen myself and have developed the flavours to date. When we first opened it was a lot busier than we expected and we saw an opportunity to move into the city, took a tenancy in the Auckland ferry building, and opened up an oyster bar at the same time, and it’s grown from there. We’ve had a couple of people approach us and we’ve been strategic in opening in busy locations.
Our production facility is in Auckland’s Eden Terrace, and we had looked at a plan to expand further prior to Covid into six to 12 retail stores, but we’ve taken a bit of a side step and now are pushing into FMCG, expanding into Farro with our take-home tubs.
How much time and money have you invested?
Investment is constant. Geoff and I are keen to perfect what we offer so we are always investing back into the business. When you work in your business you don’t equate how much time but it is significant and it has been a lot of work, a lot has been enjoyable. Covid was incredibly hard, but we survived and it feels like we’re taking on a new surge. The first 10 years feels like it has been the embedding in of the business, it feels like now we are able to grow and flourish.
What’s next for Island Gelato?
Gelato is a fairly new category in the ice cream world, so it is going to take a little bit of time educating people around what the differences are, and why they may choose gelato over ice cream.
The expansion into FMCG is going to take a lot of our attention. We’re not targeting being stocked in the main supermarkets at the moment.
We need to look at our production facility and whether we can manufacture to such scale from our own site or whether we look at contracting out to have somebody else manufacturing for us. We don’t want to change our recipes as we want to stay artisanal but are looking to expand our retail offering.
In three years’ time you will be ...
We’re always focused on flavour; trying to perfect our recipes. As far as FMCG, we’re starting with artisanal supermarkets, Farro is our first, and I think as we grow we’ll start looking at model to offer into more speciality stores. Potentially we will export, but that is our plan for the next three to five years. At the moment we are very Auckland-centric, so domestically, we’re trying to set up in FMCG outside of Auckland.
Tell me about how Island Gelato diverts food from landfill?
Island Gelato upcycles gelato by taking unwanted produce and processing it either cooking it down into a jam, turn it into a reduction or into another product that is then added to our gelato. The process involves peeling, roasting, and/ or cooking the fruit and vegetables, depending on the specific type of produce.
The volume of diverted food varies, but we use up to a third of a tonne per week.
The usable product from this can result in around 400-450 kilos of gelato.
Approximately 30-40% of our gelato is made up of the waste fruit and vegetables. We are looking to scale up operations by moving to a larger facility and increasing the amount of fruit and vegetables we can divert.
The development of a future export market would help us divert more produce from landfill.
What’s one thing you wish you’d known beforehand?
How important marketing is. Geoff and I worked really hard to be product-focused, which has got us a long way and enabled us to win awards for our product. But maybe if we had a good idea of building a brand and the importance of marketing sooner than we had, we wouldn’t have focused so much on that part of our business. If I was going to do this again, I think I would try to do both side by side.
What’s your background?
We’ve owned cafes, and I’ve worked for myself chefing and in catering. Geoff had West Coast Coffee at Sylvia Park prior to us starting this.
Most helpful piece of advice you have received?
Passion will take you a long way. Being passionate makes me strive to do the best I can, and never look backwards. It is always easy to compare yourself to others, but it is passion that helps make you believe what you do is unique and special. Teamwork makes the dream work.