You can’t keep a true icecream man down
Brian Simon dreams about making icecream. And now the 79-yearold Manda and Deep South brand founder is back in the business, sort of, as the churns at the famous Rockdale Rd plant are turning again thanks to Christchurch-based company Dairyworks.
Brian is on-site adviser to Dairyworks, which in January started producing icecream in Invercargill and is now pumping out 3000 2-litre containers a day. The icecream is sold around the South Island, with plans to expand nationwide.
You could say it’s a dream come true for Brian, who is rapt to be back in his element. He and wife Jeanette sold Deep South to Christchurch interests in 2010 and he had to put his skills on ice for a while as a condition of the sale.
But you can’t keep a good icecream man down.
‘‘I’ve always had [icecream making] in my blood. I was brought up in an icecream factory in Dunedin,’’ he said.
Somewhat ironically, the story of how icecream came to be made in Invercargill again, traces back to Christchurch. Brian met Dairyworks’ Peter Cross when they were neighbours at a business park in Christchurch. Brian was managing a factory there and the pair got to know each other. One day when they were chatting, Cross asked him about the Invercargill plant. Cross’s son, Simon, flew down to Invercargill on a Sunday late last year to scope out the plant. By early January, the wheels were in motion. The plant now employs 10 people, with the possibility of more as the business develops.
‘‘You’ve got to walk before you can run,’’ Jeanette says.
Dairyworks is producing eight well-known flavours, including vanilla, chocolate, cookies and cream, mint chocolate chip and banana chocolate chip. Brian said they still made icecream the oldfashioned way, although ‘‘technology was creeping in’’.
He said he would stick around as long as required as the Dairyworks team was schooled in the great tradition of icecream making. ‘‘They’ve got a whole new team and they’re picking it up well.’’
Dairyworks head of sales Simon Cross said the company, which originated in Temuka before moving to Christchurch six years ago, had a twoyear plan to crack the New Zealand icecream market. The company also processes cheese, butter and milkpowder, under its own and the Alpine and Rolling Meadow labels.
Cross said the Invercargill operation was ‘‘ticking along nicely’’ and it was great to have Brian on board as an adviser. The icecream was being sold in selected New World and Pak ’N Save supermarkets, and retailed at $4.50 on special. They were trying to get it into Invercargill supermarkets, he said.
The Simon name is steeped in industry tradition. Brian’s father Max started the eye-catchingly named Phantazzi brand in Invercargill in the 1930s, then moved to Dunedin to start the rather more traditional sounding Newjoy. Brian went farming for about three years at one stage but ‘‘that was too slow for me’’ so he and Jeanette founded the Manda brand in the 1960s in Invercargill.
‘‘We got quite big and had depots in Central Otago and Dunedin,’’ Brian said.
The couple then started Deep South in 1978 and owned the well- known brand until 2010. In 2013, Deep South’s new owners closed the Invercargill factory.
The industry has changed markedly since the early days where ‘‘there was an icecream factory in just about every town’’, including two in Invercargill. More than 60 companies would flock to three-day association conferences, including old names such as the West Coast’s Snow Flake. Nowadays, there were some boutique operations, mainly in the North Island, while more budget products called frozen dessert lined supermarket freezers. To be called icecream, it needs to contain at least 10 per cent dairy fat, Brian said.
Their children had been a big part of their success and icecream had always on the menu at home, Jeanette said.
During the periods away from the icecream industry, it was never far from Brian’s thoughts – both consciously and subconsciously. ‘‘I’ve been making it in my sleep for years,’’ he said.
I’ve always had [icecream making] in my blood. I was brought up in an icecream factory in Dunedin.
Brian Simon