Kate Schrire was a chef before she started making ice cream, and the flavours she and Marianne Visser put in the cabinet in 2011 were not the ones a factory would have chosen: jasmine blossom, strawberry basil, carrot cake. Fifteen years later, the brand they built was closed, then reopened, by somebody else's decision.
The Creamery belongs to Food Lover's Market, through its Seattle Coffee Company arm. In July the group said its broader priorities had evolved and the brand was no longer part of its long-term strategic focus, which in retail usually ends the conversation. Then it said several parties had come forward who saw value in the brand.
On Tuesday 15 September it changed course in public. The Creamery is “moving forward with fresh energy, a renewed focus, and a big appetite for what comes next”, the group said, and its four stores, in Mouille Point, Durbanville, Palmyra Junction and Newlands, all stay open. “Stores are open, and the scoops keep coming.”
What the statement does not say
It does not say what actually happened. Food Lover's Market says it is “not quite ready to reveal all the details just yet”, so there is no buyer named, no structure described, and nothing to indicate whether the brand has been sold, licensed or simply reprieved. What the group does credit is the reaction, which it called “pretty incredible”: messages, memories and appeals from customers who thought a much-loved brand deserved to keep doing what it does best.
The winter problem
Casparus Treurnicht, portfolio manager and research analyst at Gryphon Asset Management, told News24 the brand is “very niche”, pointing to the Durbanville shop's position in the upmarket Village Square centre. The loyal customer base is real, he said, but that kind of offering would not work in every mall: these are shops for locations where the demographics are “tilted towards the upper end of the LSM scale”.
His concern is not whether people want the product. Customers are overjoyed that the business is staying open, he told the same outlet, and the thing he would watch is seasonality. If it can somehow carry itself through the difficult winter months, he said, then it can survive.
The Creamery sold at markets and festivals before opening its first shop in Newlands in 2013, and it still makes its ice cream at a factory in Salt River. Schrire remained involved until 2023, according to her LinkedIn profile, when the company employed 65 people. Whoever is behind the reprieve has bought it a summer to prove the point.
