St Andrews ice cream firm Jannettas Gelateria is heading to Dundee after announcing it will open a new premises on the waterfront.
Owners Owen and Nicola Hazel will bring a takeaway gelateria to the area where the V&A is based in the hopes of having it in operation by summer.
The company produces more than 100 flavours of ice cream, sorbet and frozen yoghurt and boasts 54 different flavours in its ice cream counter at its St Andrews premises for customers to sample.
Dundee ice cream fans can expect 24 different flavours of their finest ice cream to try out at takeaway outlet in a unit at the waterfront.
Owen Hazel, said: “We should have been in there this time last year, but for obvious reasons we had to shelf it for a while and thankfully Dundee City Council have been very helpful with that and we’ve been working on it again for a wee while.
“The announcement got a phenomenal response on social media – we couldn’t believe how many people the posts reached. We’ll be operating this venue as a takeaway shop only, rather than a takeaway and cafe like St Andrews.”
Why Dundee?
Their second location, Owen and Nicola are looking forward to bringing their fourth generation family business, which dates back to 1908, to the city.
“I got a marketing leaflet through about the V&A and the waterfront and I remember looking at it wondering which continental city in Europe it was. I couldn’t believe it was Dundee and I was so excited by it. As soon as I saw it I thought it would be amazing to have a unit down there,” said Owen.
“We spoke to the council to see if we could get involved and after speaking to them about what their vision was in terms of the type of retail operations they’d like to see in the area, we fitted that profile of being a long-standing family business. It was just a bit different to the national companies.
“This unit was built next to the grassy area and came up for tender in November 2019. We felt it was the right opportunity and was a size we could use. For the takeaway side of things we don’t require a huge amount of space as we won’t be manufacturing ice cream there, so all we needed was a unit to serve customers. The location had ice cream written all over it. It is within a distance that we can logistically overcome. Everything will be made at our small production unit in Glenrothes which we use for wholesale.
“We’re very excited and the response already has just been amazing. We’d like to thank Dundee City Council as we work closely with them to provide the public with the most amazing experience down at the waterfront.
“We’re going to create a special flavour for the opening which we think everyone will love. We would like to be open for summer but we will be keeping an eye on the Scottish Government guidance on how we do this as safely as possible. We most certainly can’t wait to welcome the public to our new premises and share this experience with them when we open.”
Staff numbers
The new premises will see up to 10 to 15 new full-time and part-time staff be added to the company’s books.
He added: “We’ve had so many applications already off the back of our post on social media last night. It has been incredible. We have loads of employees as our business is quite seasonal and sometimes we have 30 odd staff on the books for our takeaway operation in St Andrews.
“We’ll look to have 10 to 15 members of staff working in Dundee, both full and part-time. There’s been a lot of applications from students and we have a lot of student employees which is great as the ice cream business is quite seasonal – and very dependent on the weather.
“The shop fit-out is underway now so we’ll see how things progress and open when it is safest to do so.”
