News24 | U-turn for The Creamery: Ice-cream chain to stay open after ‘incredible’ response

The Creamery has been given a new lease of life, with Food Lover’s Market indicating that it will keep the brand’s four stores open.

The Creamery/Facebook

• Cape Town ice cream brand The Creamery’s four stores will remain open after customer appeals streamed in to save the 15-year-old business.
• Food Lover’s Market said it was not ready to spill the beans just yet, but The Creamery “lives on”.
• Analyst Casparus Treurnicht said The Creamery’s key strengths were its loyal customer base and upmarket locations, but the seasonal nature of ice cream sales would remain a challenge.
• For more financial news, visit News24 Business.

Cape Town ice-cream brand The Creamery has been given a new lease of life and will not be closing as was recently announced.

Food Lover’s Market, the owner of Seattle Coffee Company, which in turn owns The Creamery, said in a statement that the 15-year-old ice cream brand would be “moving forward with fresh energy, a renewed focus, and a big appetite for what comes next”.

Its four stores in Mouille Point, Durbanville, Palmyra Junction and Newlands will remain open, with Food Lover’s Market saying it is “not quite ready to reveal all the details just yet”, but “The Creamery lives on”.

“Stores are open, and the scoops keep coming. Watch this space,” said Food Lover’s Market.

In the same statement, it said the response to The Creamery’s future had “been pretty incredible”.

“We’ve been overwhelmed by the messages, memories and appeals from our loyal customers, and by the number of people who believe this much-loved brand deserves to keep doing what it does best.”

News24 first reported that Food Lover’s Market intended to close down The Creamery in July.

After this initial report, Food Lover’s Market indicated that the popular ice cream chain may survive, noting that it had been approached by various interested parties who saw value in the brand.

The Creamery was founded in 2011 by former chef Kate Schrire and business partner Marianne Visser.

Their ambition was to make natural ice cream, with ingredients sourced from local farms. The brand quickly made a name for itself with unique flavours, including jasmine blossom and strawberry basil, as well as inventive crowd favourites such as carrot cake ice cream.

The ice cream was sold at markets and festivals before the first shop was opened in Newlands in 2013. The company has a factory in Salt River, Cape Town.

Shrire remained involved at The Creamery until 2023, according to her LinkedIn page. The company had 65 employees at the time.

Casparus Treurnicht, portfolio manager and research analyst at Gryphon Asset Management, said The Creamery is a “very niche” brand, noting the one in Durbanville is located in the “very upmarket” Village Square shopping centre.

He says the brand clearly has a “very loyal customer base”, but that type of offering wouldn’t necessarily work in every mall.

“They will be located in exquisite locations where the demographics are tilted towards the upper end of the LSM scale.”

While its customers are “overjoyed” that the business is staying open, Treurnicht says his only concern is its seasonality.

“If it can somehow carry itself through the difficult [winter months], then it can survive.”