ONE of West Somerset’s favourite family businesses is moving home and looking to diversify after 35 years of making sheep’s milk ice cream.
Styles Ice Cream was founded by David and Sue Baker in 1988 and has operated from the family’s Exmoor farm in Rodhuish ever since.
Now, the family has bought the 17-acre Wibble Farm Nurseries site, in West Quantoxhead, near Williton, and will relocate the business next September.
The plant nursery, which has been in the same family ownership for two generations, was put up for sale with a guide price of £650,000 because of the retirement of Kevin and Michelle Francis.
The Styles relocation will open exciting new business opportunities for the Bakers, whose family had farmed the Rodhuish tenancy for 125 years across five generations.
The firm’s lease on the farm with the Dunster Estate was due to end next year and Mr Baker told the Free Press he initially thought about negotiating a new agreement, but then saw the opportunity with the Wibble nursery site ‘and we took it’.
Mr Baker said: “The attractiveness of Wibble is it means we have ownership, and we have potential there for other things with 17 acres.”
One idea he hoped to put into practice was to create a hub for business start-ups, subject to gaining the appropriate planning approval.
He said: “We are trying to create something there that is of value to the area, because it has quite reasonable road access, especially from Williton.”
Mr Baker said there were two existing tenants on the site who would carry on as normal, and he wanted to find somebody to continue running the plant nursery, which was currently closed.
He said Styles would also become ‘greener’ with an aim to produce more than 80 per cent of its own power requirements from renewable energy sources.
The company already operated some solar-powered ice cream sales vans and Mr Baker said he planned for them all to be electric, which as well as helping the climate would also save £4,000 on diesel fuel per vehicle.
Mr Baker said: “All of us in business need to operate simpler and we need to have minimal waste.”
Styles sells more than 100 tons of sheep’s and conventional dairy ice cream annually and in the summer season can be found at 180 agricultural shows and other outdoor events throughout the country.
It operates a fleet of 10 ice cream vans, three large parlour units, four small ice cream trailers, tent units, and a number of trikes.
The company sells its ice cream direct to a host of Westcountry retailers, including, cafes, pubs, restaurants, and hotels, and distributes nationally via third parties.