Mauds Ice Creams facts for kids
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| Industry | Ice cream |
|---|---|
| Founder | Roberta Wilson John Wilson |
| Headquarters |
Northern Ireland
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| Products | Ice Cream |
Mauds Ice Creams makes delicious ice cream in Northern Ireland. You can find their ice cream all over Ireland and even in England! They've created more than 350 different flavors since they started in 1982. Their most famous flavor is Poor Bear, which is vanilla ice cream with yummy honeycomb pieces. Mauds is the biggest ice cream maker in Northern Ireland.
How Mauds Ice Creams Started
Mauds Ice Creams was started by Roberta and John Wilson. It began as a small part of their grocery store in Carnmoney, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. They made the ice cream right there in the store. People loved it so much that ice cream sales became the most important part of their business!
On Mothers' Day in 1982, they renamed the store Mauds Ice Creams. This was a special Mother's Day gift to John's mother, whose name was Maud. For many years, the company used milk from a local dairy called Deerpark. When that dairy closed, they started getting their milk from Ballyrashane Creameries in Coleraine.
By 1998, Mauds Ice Creams had 15 employees. Their main factory was in Glenoe, near Larne, and they had a distribution center in Antrim. In 2002, the company had 18 employees. They were selling their ice cream to over 50 customers in the Republic of Ireland. That year, Mauds planned to hire 20 more people. They also planned to invest about a million pounds to grow their business, with help from Invest Northern Ireland.
In March 2002, all their ice cream making moved to a new, modern factory in Carrickfergus. By 2003, Mauds was making 40,000 liters of ice cream every week. During the hottest summer months, they would make up to 60,000 liters a week! As of 2018, Mauds was the largest ice cream maker in Northern Ireland.
Where You Can Find Mauds Ice Cream
You can buy Mauds ice cream in over 300 places across the whole island of Ireland. These places include special ice cream shops, cafes, restaurants, and hotels. Mauds started by selling their own ice cream. Later, they focused on just making the ice cream for other businesses to sell.
In 2003, people bought 120,000 Mauds ice cream cones every week in the summer. By 2018, that number grew to 200,000 cones a week!
There are also special Café Mauds shops. One opened in Newcastle, County Down in 1992. Another is on Lisburn Road in Belfast. Both of these were started by John and Patricia Pell. The first Mauds shop outside of Ireland opened in Windsor, England. It's right across from Windsor Castle! In recent years, the company even started shipping their ice cream to the Málaga area in Spain.
Mauds has made over 350 different flavors since 1982. Two of their most popular flavors are Poor Bear and Belgian Chocolate. Poor Bear is vanilla ice cream with honeycomb. It used to be called Pooh Bear's Delight. But when Disney opened a store in Belfast, Mauds changed the name to avoid any copyright issues. Belgian Chocolate has fine milk chocolate pieces in vanilla ice cream.
Awards and Achievements
In 2004, Mauds Ice Creams became the first ice cream maker in Ireland to win the Champion of Champions award. This award came from the Ice Cream Alliance. Before that, Mauds had already won more than 50 medals and awards from the Alliance. From 2013 to 2021, Mauds won five awards at the yearly Blas na hEireann National Irish Food Awards.
