Surfing Cow Ice Cream on the crest of a wave after winning prestigious award
A company from South Devon has been named one of the best rural businesses in the country after winning a regional Rural Business Award.
Surfing Cow Ice Cream from Holbeton near Plymouth from was named best Food and Drink Business at the South West regional finals of the Rural Business Awards in partnership with Amazon which were held at the Royal Agricultural University and regionally sponsored by Openreach and Millsted Langdon.
Following the impressive achievement at the regional final, Surfing Cow Ice Cream will now go on to represent the South West at the national final in February 2020.
Surfing Cow Ice Cream, is owned by dairy farmers Lee and Lawrence Glanville, and their business partner Alistair Graham. The ice cream parlour is less than a 100 metres away from where high health herd of 450 Jersey cross cows are milked and within a few metres of the fields they graze in, overlooking Mothecombe beach.
The parlour is open to visitors at weekends and during the school holidays with an acre garden to enjoy, and interpretation boards in the indoor area to provide engaging an educational information about farming to visitors.
Linked in is an educational programme delivering farm and beach school packages on the farm and at nearby Battisborough House where students and children are based during residential stays.
Lee Glanville said: ‘It was quite a shock to win and we’re over the moon. We’re a relatively new business but since we set up last year, we’ve gone from strength to strength with people travelling miles for our ice cream, and visitors to the region including it as one of their bucket list destinations. People always comment that the is ice cream is very rich and creamy and full of flavour and I think this is why it is so popular.
“The team here all work very hard, but it’s a lot of fun, and when people give us such wonderful feed back, its all worth it.”
Now in its fifth year, the Rural Business Awards is the only UK-wide programme dedicated to showcasing the success of rural businesses. It is run in partnership with Amazon.
“I’d like to congratulate all the businesses shortlisted and wish Surfing Cow Ice Cream the best of luck ahead of the national final in February.” said Doug Gurr Amazon UK Country Manager
Awards co-founder Jemma Clifford said: “Anna and I are so proud to be hosting the fourth annual Rural Business Awards together with Amazon. When we started the Awards we wanted to shine a much-needed light on successful rural firms but the success of the RBAs is beyond what we ever imagined. We were blown away with the diversity of our entries this year so winning any of the categories is an extraordinary achievement – hearty congratulations to Surfing Cow Ice Cream and all the other finalists.”
The Amazon Rural Business Awards is the brainchild of Leicestershire businesswomen Anna Price and Jemma Clifford, who wanted to showcase the wealth of entrepreneurial talent in rural areas of Britain – a sector of the economy they felt was all-too-often overlooked in favour of large, city-based firms.
The awards are organised by rural business for rural business, with winners in the 12 categories - ranging from Best Rural Start-up and Best Rural Diversification Project; through to Best Rural Professional Services Business and Best Rural Social Enterprise, Charity or Community Project - decided by an independent panel of judges drawn from the rural business sector, rural public sector agencies, and rural charitable organisations.
The Rural Business Awards is hosting a series of regional finals in the North, East, Midlands, South East, South West, Wales and Northern Ireland, throughout October and November 2019, ahead of the National Final next February.
To find out more about Surfing Cow Ice Cream, go to www.surfingcowicecream.co.uk or to learn about the Rural Business Awards visit www.ruralbusinessawards.co.uk
