Boutique ice cream co heads back West

Greg Hall and Halley Burd in the new Kohu Rd factory.

A boutique brand of ice cream is being scooped up and served in a new West Auckland factory from today.

It's only natural for ice cream maker Greg Hall to return the premises of his company Kohu Road to its West Auckland origins.

The move was prompted by the company outgrowing its previous site, a commercial kitchen in inner city Auckland.

The new factory is 660 square metres, with more room for the 10 full time staff, many of whom live in the Waitakere area. Hall first began making his premium ice cream in the basement of his house on Kohu Road, near Piha beach.

"When we ran out of room we were really keen to come back west. It's certainly an area on the up and up and we are very enthusiastic about our new base and our future," he says.

Hall is today officially opening the new ice cream factory today in an old tannery, built in the 1880s, a building he says retains some of its old-world character.

"It's not like they've demo-ed the building and built it out of plastic."

The company is also launching a new range of sorbets to sell alongside its ice cream products. The preservative-free fruit used includes Colombian mangoes and Argentinean lemons.

Hall says he is mostly concerned about taste when sourcing new ingredients, some of which are organic.

"We're all about taste. We're not trying to jump on that greenwash thing."

Staff are encouraged to take ownership of their work as shareholders in the business which generated over $1m in revenue last year.

Hall, who has previously worked in IT, says the staff ownership scheme is one that he's been interested it for some time - likening it to owning your own home.

"I really wanted them to have that sense of ownership and to feel like they were working for themselves. You're always going to look after your home and do a bit extra if it's yours rather than someone else's."

That's not the only reason Hall would say the company is innovative. The golden syrup ice cream created by Hall and his wife, a chef, won an artisan award from Cuisine magazine last week.

"No-one has ever made a golden syrup ice cream before, and it's really fantastically New Zealand."

As well as focusing on flavours crafted for kiwi palates, the company is now exporting to Australia. Hall says plans to export to other parts of the world would have to wait until production sites are been set up overseas.

"We're at the tip of the iceberg but there's so much more for us to get over there. In England we could get to Cornwall and use that great source of milk and cream and they would respond to that."

Kohu Road ice cream is free of preservatives, colours, emulsifiers, stabilisers or preservatives. With the exception of its 'cookies 'n' cream' flavour, all others are gluten free and kosher.

The new premises include a tasting room for visitors. But be warned - Kohu Road doesn't come cheap - a litre sells for $17-$20.