Sometimes customers throw challenges for modified waffle cones to our production team. The case study we would like to share with you below is exactly that. David Antonelli our Production Director starts the story …
“The enquiry from the guys at DÁPPA arrived on my desk in September, which fortunately is the perfect time of year to embark on an R&D challenge. Justin sent us the recipe they had devised for making their own hand rolled waffle cones on a small scale. Immediately it was clear to our production team that we would need to amend the recipe for these special waffle cones to be made on our high speed machines. The Chia seeds did initially cause us some difficulties making the batter very thick, but after some further trials we came up with a different mixing strategy. In fact, the end product surpassed even our own expectations with the cinnamon giving the whole factory a real Christmassy aroma.”
Ollie from DÁPPA takes up the story….
“We have always regarded the cone as a real point of difference so we were keen to make our waffle cones stand out, both in look and flavour. After developing our own recipe using cinnamon, chia seed and charcoal we used a single waffle iron to make our cones. We loved the results but this painstaking process was not scalable so we started the hunt for manufacturing support.”
Interrupting Ollie briefly, we should probably just explain at this point that the DÁPPA brand is all about demonstrating how vegan ice cream and vegan cones can taste at least as good, if not better than standard ice cream/gelato products on the market. Back to Ollie…
“We knew immediately from our initial conversations with Antonelli that we had found the right partner. It was completely evident that we were dealing with a family business as they do things their own way with a great deal of flexibility and trust. Despite DÁPPA being a new brand with small initial volumes David and Ryan treated us with total respect as if we were an old customer.”
Sorry Ollie, but we will just interject here once again. The benefit of having our own UK production line and generations of skills and knowledge about making ice cream cones, means we can adapt recipes and production techniques to meet particular customer requirements. Let’s hear what happened next in the DÁPPA case in Ollie’s words …
“After a highly collaborative development process we got our first 5,000 waffle cones delivered and were absolutely delighted with the results - a fantastic, highly differentiated product. We debuted our 'Triple C' cones at an event at Alexandra Palace in London and the results hugely outweighed our expectations. People were wowed by the flavour and we ended up selling far more than we had budgeted for, resulting in an immediate re-order of another 20,000 cones! It has been a real pleasure dealing with Antonelli and we look forward to a long relationship.”
No doubt you will see some of the images below on social media if you haven’t done already as it looks like these London customers are keen to spread the word about these innovative new waffle cones.
We will leave the last word to Ryan Cox, Antonelli’s Business Relationship Manager for the South East…
“Justin & Ollie from DÁPPA have been a pleasure to work with from day one. I was intrigued by their differentiation in the market when we first met about 9 months ago and delighted by the response they have received to the new Triple C cones. I look forward to hearing more about their business success in the coming months.”
If you have any enquiries about waffle cones or any other Antonelli products you can contact us or call 0161 789 4485 or email info@antonelli.co.uk.
