Mike Munro: 'Selling Welsh Ice Cream by the Sea' (2021)

Description

Lede
Mike Munro tells his story about how he opened his ice cream van in Holyhead as the town emerged from pandemic lockdown.

Story
I’ve been a truck driver for 30 years. In recent years I've been delivering food to supermarket main depots, so I worked all through lockdown.

I've lived in Anglesey for nine years, but for the last three years, after my divorce, I was travelling back to Manchester for work. And as the father of three kids who I have for 50% of the time, it was the only way to make life work. But after three years of travelling to Manchester, I knew I needed to do something different.

I saw an ice cream business for sale and this inspired me to set up my own business. I took out a personal loan and had a lot of help and guidance from Business Wales, and the people at Anglesey County Council were really helpful too. It took me seven months to set up the business, which I opened just as we came out of total lockdown in April 2021.

I wanted everything to do with the business to be from Anglesey or Wales, and I used local firms as much as possible. From Seren Embroidery for my shirts, to Môn Ar Lwy island-made ice cream, to Harlech food supplies and Môn Fire Management for my extinguishers. I did a Welsh language course at my kids' school in the past, and enjoy trying out my Welsh on some of my customers.

There was a lady who used to run the ice cream vans down on Newry Beach for many years - she came to see me when I started. She wished me well and gave me some bits to help me on the van. That meant a lot to me and was really nice of her.

The response from the local community and holiday-makers has been really positive: the ice cream seems to be going down really well! I love my new lifestyle; I have a cracking view from my van looking out over the harbour down on Newry Beach Holyhead, and I get to chat to nice happy people through the day.

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