Premium Chocolate and Ice-Cream Producer Salcombe Dairy on the impact of COVID-19

This time of year, in the fashionable South Hams town of Salcombe, businesses are normally struggling to keep up with the influx of tourists from around the country.  The impact of Covid-19 there is huge, with food and drink producers and hospitality businesses suffering badly, many of which are Food Drink Devon members and the organisation is doing everything it can to support them.

There is, however, a level of resilience with companies adapting to change as best they can. Salcombe Gin has created the world's first crowdsourced gin to raise money for the NHS and Salcombe Brewery is distributing its beers and new Ocean Cider nationwide as well as linking up with other local producers, including Sharpham Cheese and Passion for Pies, and distributing locally.

Amongst the businesses who have really taken a hit is Salcombe Dairy.  Awash with ice-cream ready for the Easter holidays, demand has dropped through the floor with the hospitality industry currently dormant.  This highly established enterprise is still supplying farm shops and other retail outlets.

Dan Bly, managing director of Salcombe Dairy, says: “I have a very strong view on this.  The government has been extremely supportive and, although it will, without doubt, damage most businesses, if the lockdown comes to an end in May or June the majority will survive.  If it continues through the summer it will have a dramatic effect.  This would need to be looked at as a separate piece with regard to funding and the support required as it will lead to huge underinvestment in the region for the next five years.”  

Dan continues: “The ability to furlough staff and be able to stand behind them through this has been brilliant, that was a primary concern.  The grants to assist with our retail premises have also been good, as we have three across the South Hams which are all out of action.  We are yet to access the CBILS loan scheme.  We have heard mixed reports on this, but hoping it will also make a difference.

As well as its luxury ice-cream, Salcombe Dairy makes premium bean-to-bar chocolate, ‘The Bar’.  Dan, his wife Lucia and the team have quickly moved their resources to pushing online sales of the chocolate. A huge success over Easter with the Bly family having packed and distributed hundreds of Easter eggs from their South Devon home.  Dan says: “Our chocolate sales are another saving grace at the moment.  We’re hugely appreciative of all those supporting smaller producers like ourselves and can only encourage the nation to continue doing so that they can enjoy such a breadth of seriously high quality products in the future.”

In a bid to help others, the Salcombe Dairy ‘fairy’ is leaving ice-cream and chocolate for those in need, recently delivered a freezer to a local food bank and also helps NHS workers with morale by gifting chocolate.  “At times like this communication, community spirit and creativity are all vital.”