Historic Welsh ice-cream maker aims for expansion after landing major distribution deal

A historic ice-cream business is aiming for expansion by teaming up with one of Wales’s fastest-growing food distribution companies.

Sidoli’s, based for over 100 years in the heart of Ebbw Vale will soon be seen in ice-cream parlours, restaurants and cafés across the whole of Wales thanks to a partnership with Harlech Foodservice.

The award-winning ice-cream maker, founded in 1922 by Italian immigrant Benedetto Sidoli, is one of Wales’s iconic brands and is now headed by Ben’s great-grandson, Stefano, the fourth generation of the family to run the company.

Opportunity

He said: “It’s a real opportunity for us to market our ice cream across the whole of Wales, particularly in the north and the west and south west as Harlech have distribution centres across the country.

“It’s an opportunity for us to reach completely new markets and to do it with a company that is very like us, a family business with the same core values.

“It’s a very exciting prospect to work alongside a company of their size and with their resources.”

Harlech, based near Criccieth in Gwynedd, is one of the UK’s fastest-growing food distribution companies and now has centres in Carmarthen and Merthyr as well as in Chester and Telford.

In the past three years their sales have increased from £32 million to a record turnover of around £50 million with profit at an all-time high of more than £2 million.

This has been achieved on the back of a change of strategy which has seen Harlech expand to become a pan-Wales company in 2024 with a dedicated sales team in South Wales backed up by the new depots in Merthyr and Carmarthen.

Family business

Harlech Head of Sales Chris Gregson said: “Sidoli really have a very good story to tell about how the founder of the company came to Wales along with so many Italians in the 1920s.

“He brought with him the skills of ice-cream making from Italy and used them to create a family business that is now over 100 years old and that’s the kind of business that Harlech is so we share the same values.

“It is a high quality product, an authentic gelato, made to a recipe based on the original that Benedetto brought with him and first produced back in 1922.

“We are looking to expand and we have bases across Wales and the border counties of England in Chester and in Shropshire and Sidoli also have plans for growth and we believe we can help them do that, especially in North, Mid and West Wales.

“Partnership working is a positive which can benefit both companies and this is something we can continue as both of us look to grow our markets.”

Bardi

Stefano Sidoli added: “Many people from Italy came to South Wales in the 1920s to look for work in the coal and steel industries and over 80 per cent were from Bardi, in Parma, in the north-west, where my family are from.

“When my great-grandfather began the original café business here in Ebbw Vale there wasn’t any ice-cream making equipment and he had to ship the ice up from Cardiff and break it down by hand.

“He could make two gallons a day, just vanilla, and would sell it at a penny for a cone – nowadays we can produce 264 gallons in an hour and we make over 50 different flavours but vanilla is still the favourite.

“We still do best when the sun shines though and after two poor summers we’re hoping for a real scorcher this year.”

Harlech operate from bases at Criccieth, in Gwynedd, Chester, Merthyr Tydfil, Carmarthen and Telford and between the five locations, the company has increased employment to 250 staff and is running a fleet of 65 vehicles to deliver up to 5,000 product lines to cafés, restaurants, pubs and public sector customers across the whole of Wales, Shropshire, the Midlands and the North West.

For more on Harlech Foodservices go to https://www.harlech.co.uk/ and for more on Sidoli’s go to https://sidolis-icecream.co.uk/