Ice cream sellers hit by rising bills put cost of 99 flake up by 10p

Tag : ICE Creams

Vendors have been struggling to cope ever since the price ofpowdered milk rose by nearly 70 per cent last year, and has nowbegun rising again.
The cost of wheat flour has also risen steeply, adding to the costof cones and overheads such as council permits and rising fuelprices which have already seen lorry drivers protesting acrossEurope.
Mark Hunsdon, who runs Lucky Clover Leaf Ice Cream with his brotherScott in Reading, Berks, said he was forced to put up the price oftheir 99 with a flake from 70p to 80p to cope with the risingprices.
"It's the credit crunch," said 44-year-old Mr Hunsdon. "Ice creamsare not a necessity and people are just not buying them.
"This summer I have seen mothers emptying out their purses tryingto find a small bit of change which I have never seen before."
Mr Hunsdon said that the family business, which was started in 1959by their father, has three trailers and seven vans which tourevents and parks in the area.
He believes that ice cream vans could soon be forced off the roadunless the situation changes.
"Ice cream sellers rely on the summer months to get them throughthe winter but if things don't improve in the next five years Ithink we will become a thing of the past," he said. "We thoughtlast year was bad with the appalling weather but things just keepgetting worse.
"It is hard to say if things are going to turn themselves around."