Page 4 - Focus on Woburn Road Industrial Estate: Bedford Today

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www.bedfordtoday.co.uk Thursday,February27,2020
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‘Ice lolly king’ hails father’s 50-year legacy for Francos
A man dubbed the ‘king of ice lollies’ has paid tribute to his late father as the business he created celebrates its 50th anniversary.
Pasquale Tanzarella, managing director of Kempston-based Franco’s Ices, said: “We wouldn’t be here now if it wasn’t for my dad Domenico.
“He built the business from the ground up – he used to come to the factory every day up until his death in 2016 at the age of 76.”
Domenico Tanzarella moved to the UK from
Italy in 1960 to work as
a carpenter. One of nine brothers and five sisters, he fell in love with Barbara, who later became his wife.
He bought his ice cream van in 1966 and never looked back, teaming up with his brother Pietro in 1970 to take over a factory in Queens Park.
The business steadily grew and in 1996 Domenico remortgaged the family home to build the Franco’s Ices factory on the Woburn Road Industrial Estate.
“There was no automation in those days,” says Pasquale. “Everything was done by hand.
“I used to go to the factory after school and help make up the cardboard boxes for the ice cream. It was very hard, manual work but fun.
“They would be making ‘family blocks’ which were the biggest sellers then.
“My dad used to work long hours – he would be up at four in the morning.
“When I joined the business aged 18 I was obsessed with sales and
Domenico with Daniel enjoying their work at the factory in Woburn Road. Below: Domenico at the helm of one of his ice cream vans in the 1960s
Managing director Pasquale keeps a watchful eye on the progress of Tasty Orange at Franco’s Ices in Kempston
travelled all over the country bringing in new customers.
“I was very ambitious and just wanted to sell, sell, sell. I wanted a big machine but we couldn’t afford it and the bank wouldn’t lend us any money. So we just started working even harder. I
was going to Mancherster, Bristol, Scotland...
“I went to the bank and said ‘this time next year we will be doing £1m turnover’.
“They said that if we did they would lend us the money. We worked hard, bought the machine and trebled the amount of lollies we could make.”
The business is still a true family affair. Although Pietro was bought out in the early years, Pasquale’s older brother Nicky has worked at the factory since he left school.
And his sister Pauline and her husband Francesco played a huge part in the company’s success before stepping back.
“They were key people and they worked very hard, including coming in on Saturdays and Sundays,” said Pasquale.
The couple’s son Nico still works for the company, which employs 20 staff.
“He is like a little mini- me, out there on the phone getting customers. It is nice that my dad’s grandson is still here,” says Pasquale.
The future is looking as bright as one of Franco’s ice lollies.
“If you see one of the 1,000 or so ice cream vans still operating in the UK, 80% will have my products on them,” said Pasquale.
“Vegan and vegetarian lollies are becoming a craze, but I think the big change will be the increase in own-brand products.
“I see myself as the ice lolly king as I had the smallest factory but we are now one of the few remaining.
“I still go into super- markets and say ‘six for a pound? How can they do that?’ just like my dad used to do. He is Franco’s Ices...”
Flakes and ‘fisticuffs’: The ice cream wars of the ‘70s
Ice cream vans were a nightly sight in their 1970s heyday
Ice cream was a tough business to be in during the boom years of the 1970s and ‘80s.
With more than 10,000 vans plying their trade
– 100 in Bedford alone – competition was fierce.
“There used to be fisticuffs,” says Pasquale.
“When I was about seven I can remember my dad coming home in the evening with a couple of ‘scuffs’.
“It was very territorial and
if a new van started up they had nowhere to go.
“Drivers would block each other in. I often saw vans that had been bashed up.
“Rivals would start getting to the best pitches 10 minutes early and by the time you got there every kid in the street was already sucking a lolly.
“It was mad, crazy. It was only fist fights – and at the end of the week they would all be drinking in the pub.”
He added: “The vans made a lot of money. The shops closed early in those days so the drivers would carry lots of products – things like boot polish. My dad even had a candy floss machine in his van.”
But the boom couldn’t last forever.
“In later years, when the vans sounded their chimes kids would run out waving lollies their mums had bought in the supermarket.”