The Nugelato experience
Neighbourhood Retailer finds out more about the ice cream concept taking County Down by storm.
When Neighbourhood Retailer visits Nugelato’s newest outlet on Bangor’s high street, it is a Saturday evening and every table is packed out. As a queue begins to form at the counter, one of the staff cheerfully says: “Here we go girls!”
While the sounds of Bangor’s lively nightlife can be heard on the streets outside, Nugelato is filled with families, couples, and groups of friends – a welcome reminder that a new ice cream concept is just what Bangor has been waiting for.
“We knew we had something different during the first summer,” says owner Michael Nugent. “Ice cream in Newcastle has always been very seasonal but we were busiest in the evenings when the day trippers went home.
“Ice cream has always been a traditional treat in Northern Ireland, so the business of ice cream is a balancing act. We can make any flavour you’ve ever dreamt of but we’ve found you can’t go too mad. Instead we’ve focused on traditional flavours and putting our own unique twist on them.”
Nugelato is the brainchild of Michael and Catriona Nugent and has stores in Newcastle, Newry, and now Bangor. Four generations of the Nugent family have been making ice cream at The Strand café on Newcastle promenade since 1930 but, Michael – who owns Sucos juice bar in Newcastle – always had an idea to take the popular dessert to the next level.
“I developed a keen interest in the ingredients and the process of making ice cream. I kind of got it from my father, who always enjoyed the ice cream side of the business. The opportunity came to open Nugelato in 2015 when a shop adjacent to my juice bar in Newcastle became available. I’d talked about it for 20 years, so I thought I might as well do it.
“We introduced the first hot chocolate tap to Northern Ireland which we imported direct from Italy and we also believe we have the world’s first ice cream burrito.”
The business grew rapidly from there, with customers travelling from all over Northern Ireland to sample the ‘Nuggypot’ – a Nugelato speciality made with gourmet ice cream and a selection of toppings. After 11 months, Michael and Catriona opened the second Nugelato in Newry, making it two shops within a year.
With brisk expansion comes certain challenges and the Nugents found they that in order to continue to grow at the current rate they had to invest heavily in machinery to keep up with consumer demand. During this time they also had plenty of offers to franchise out their Nugelato model but were wary of making any rash decisions.
“We did a lot of homework about franchising,” says Michael. “We don’t like to back down from any new challenges and we understood it as an avenue to explore and grow further.
“My background is in engineering and Catriona is a qualified barrister so everything was new to us. Within two years we found ourselves with two booming shops, trying to organise the production side of the things, while also trying to grow the business. We can research and read all day long, but I felt we needed some guidance.”
Seeing Ulster Bank’s Entrepreneur Accelerator programme advertised, Michael and Catriona thought this fully-funded programme designed to empower entrepreneurs by providing emerging and established businesses with practical support and advice was the assistance they had been searching for.
“It offered a mentoring programme which was exactly what we needed. Our Entrepreneur Acceleration manager, John Ferris, was able to look at the business objectively and give insight into the possibility of franchising.
“Everybody has their own ideas and if there was a blueprint to running a business then everybody would have a massive company. We definitely needed to talk to somebody who was impartial and who could offer advice.”
With a new found confidence in franchising, when Nugelato were approached by a well-known, local businessman with an idea to open the Bangor store, the couple agreed.
“Bangor’s been brilliant for us. I knew we had a big South Down following, but Bangor was unchartered territory and we just couldn’t predict how we would be received there. But it has opened up a whole new batch of customers from the surrounding areas and we’ve just been blown away.
And the power of Instagram and social media has certainly played its part.
“Social media has been massive for us. When we opened our first shop in Newcastle in June 2015, I watched the first customers sit down and take a photograph of their ice cream, and then I noticed the second customer doing it, and so on.
“In many ways it was a natural phenomenon and it just grew from there. Social media allows us to see what our customers are interested in and gives us a channel for speaking with our customers. We really value our loyal customer base and it’s a relationship that is built on trust and positive experiences.”
