Spring 2009 News

Sigep Review

RSS was out in force at this year’s Sigep Exhibition supporting their key suppliers Telme for Corema Ice Cream Equipment, Bocchini for Italian display cabinets and shop fittings and also Sevel for display cabinets. Despite the uneasiness of what the year may hold, the Italians (and Turks) did not hold back on their exhibition stands nor indeed on new product development with many new launches at the show.
If you’re not aspiring for a top of the range Bocchini display cabinet penned by the designers of Ferrari (yes really! See the B45 display cabinet commissioned to celebrate 45 years of engineering), then Sevel have revolutionised their image and have some truly beautiful cabinets at affordable prices. See the Baroque Vision and SLM Baroque for clean straight lines or the Troy S and Millenium New for Curved glass. Sevel have also introduced their own version of the “cold-stone” available in a choice of cabinets at a healthy price.

It was the first time that Telme had exhibited their unique Corema Artisan Pot Filling machine in Italy and rest of the world outside UK and Germany. Not surprisingly, the pot filling machine took the highest number of unit sales at the show. The Eurogel vertical batch freezer has been developed to now include a 60L per hour model and to incorporate a programmable electronic control panel.    

RSS was also able to develop their relationship with the Valmar Ice Cream Equipment company, whose equipment has already been seen on the RSS stand at the ICA show in the UK. New on the Valmar stand for 2009 was a vertical batch freezer line, complimenting their established horizontal freezers with up to 27L batch capacity. Overall the international mood was positive with lots of new ideas for the future.

Nardini’s Revival – at Last!

It was with a quiet puff that the doors of Nardini’s of Largs finally re-opened for business again, just before Christmas. With the inevitable delays incurred on a project that has taken over 3 years to complete, the Phoenix has definitely risen from the ashes. The beautiful art deco building on the sea front in Largs on the west coast of Scotland has been lovingly restored for hopefully the next 70 odd trading years.

We are very proud to say that the ice cream being made in this historic ice cream parlour is coming from our Corema Vertical Batch Freezers manufactured by Telme in Italy. The ice cream mix is produced in two Euromix 120L pasteurisers, whilst two Eurogel 900 machines, each with a batch capacity of 12L, are keeping the 42 flavour cabinets full. Despite such a large building, it took some clever design work from Neil James at RSS and some custom built stainless steel tables and cupboards to result in a very practical and functional laboratory workspace. David Equi shareholder of Nardini’s and owner of Equi’s of Hamilton, says “After working in the lab myself over Christmas I am very pleased with the result – its amazing how you fitted all the equipment into this small space and it was so well thought out – you really know what you are doing”. An ageing tank, a blast freezer, a 64 Napoli storage freezer and a storage fridge are included in the room along with the mandatory double bowel sink and hand wash basin.

We would like to wish David and his partners many years of successful business.

Female Success in Business

We are very pleased to say that one of our customers who has diversified from farming into Ice Cream Production has received the runner up prize for Rural Business Women Entrepreneur for the North East in 2008. Sue Archer started Archers Jersey Ice Cream business in 2006 on her family farm near Darlington but has already opened her second production and retail outlet at Richmond Station in Yorkshire.  The event, organised by Women in the Network and sponsored by Business Link, One North East and Durham University will hopefully bring much deserved publicity for a wonderful product and business. Well done Sue!

Temperature Certification

If your EHO hasn’t already picked up on it they surely will soon enough and if you can have the answer to the following question ready then you’ll be earning brownie points: How do you know that your pasteuriser is reaching 85C? Or rather, how do you know that the display on the machine that says 85C is actually 85C? The answer is simple – you need to have your temperature probe calibrated with a probe that has been certified to be reading the correct temperature. You can call in any testing company who should be able to do this for you, or you can buy your own thermometer that you have re-certified every year and test it yourself. Alternatively you can call RSS and we will include this in the cost of the annual service of your ice cream equipment as standard. By regularly maintaining your ice cream equipment you will benefit from an extended lifespan that will be well worth the money in the end – and you’ll have the answer ready for when your EHO comes to visit! Contact Paul Lewis at RSS for more information.

ICA National Ice Cream Awards 2008

We would all like to congratulate the following winners of awards at November’s Ice Cream Alliance Competition.

Two first prize winners were Charlottes Jersey Ice Cream for orange sorbet and Greco’s of Dunbar for Dairy Artisan both frozen in a Corema Eurogel vertical batch freezer.

Two second prizes went to Andrew Caldwell for Ice Cream – Artisan, and Ruth Pollock of Braemar Farm Ice Cream for their Christmas Pudding flavour.

Well done to all those who took part and better luck next time.