A family-owned ice-creamery that has been operating for 18 years has made the move to the Sunshine Coast.
The award-winning Planet 72 Icecreamery, which has built up a loyal customer base in Hervey Bay, has opened a store in Noosaville.
As the name suggests, the store offers 72 different flavours of ice-cream, along with other sweets, jerkies and more.
Owner Dallas Harch, who runs the stores with wife Tanya and son Brock, says being recognised as the best ice-cream shop in the country last year helped them make the decision to expand the business.
“We have a duplicate store in Hervey Bay in its 18th year now. It’s been a roaring success for many years,” Mr Harch said.
“Last year, we actually won the Wotif Uniquely Aussie Awards best ice-cream shop in the country. We thought with the extra publicity we got for that, it’s time to open another shop.
“We started looking and sort of accidentally came across this site in Noosaville.
“It ticked all the boxes of what we have in Hervey Bay – it’s just across the road from the water, a zebra crossing right in front of it, it’s got good businesses beside it. So, we decided to go with that.”
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Mr Harch expects the Noosaville store to employ between 10 and 15 people, with Brock to oversee its operations.
“Our son, he’s been in the business since he was 12 – he’s 24 now. He’s moved down here and he’ll be the general manager here, but my wife and I will be switching between the two stores,” Mr Harch said.
“During school holidays, we’re not sure whether our time is best spent up there or down here. It’ll all depend on putting together a good team down here like we’ve got up there.”
He said the process of fitting out the store was relatively quick.
“The behind-the-scenes work with council approvals took the longest, but from start to finish, I think it took about two months, maybe 10 weeks,” Mr Harch said.
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Among the 72 flavours, which come from Melbourne-based Everest Ice Cream, Mr Harch said some of the more usual were Peanut Butter Cookie Dough, Snickers, Fairy Floss and Birthday Cake.
“My favourite flavour is Burnt Fig and Honeycomb, and from our few days of trade here it seems the Noosa people think the same thing. It’s been our standout,” he said.
The store opened on Friday, August 11, and Mr Harch said early signs were encouraging.
“The first two days, considering people didn’t really know we were here and we hadn’t started an advertising campaign yet, you wouldn’t get excited about it. But then Sunday, obviously a bit of social media content had gone out and we were very, very impressed. Then yesterday and today so far have been going really well,” Mr Harch said on Tuesday.
“More than a pass mark for the first few days.
“A few people said, ‘You’re brave to open until 9 o’clock’, but even last night, on a Monday night, and only being a new business, we had a good steady stream of people coming in.”
The store will be open seven days from 9am-9pm at Shop 1/239 Gympie Terrace, Noosaville.
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