New dairy owner promises to scoop her competition

Former Rob Roy Dairy owner Liz Watson hands the baton (also known as an ice cream) to new owner...
Former Rob Roy Dairy owner Liz Watson hands the baton (also known as an ice cream) to new owner Freya Yin. PHOTO: GERARD O’BRIEN
When the shop that makes the biggest ice creams in Dunedin goes up for sale, the first question on everyone’s tongue is: "Will they still make the massive multi-scoop ones?"

Rob Roy Dairy’s new owner Freya Yin has answered with a resounding "yes".

To do otherwise would be business suicide, she said.

"I want to keep things exactly the same because, [as] you can see, it works.

"It brings people in the door. The ice creams are huge - big enough to keep a panda bear happy."

Mrs Yin said she previously lived in Christchurch and worked at a Wendy’s ice cream shop there.

But when her son decided to study dentistry technology at the University of Otago this year, she moved to Dunedin with him.

She then decided to go one step further and buy her own shop when her close friend bought a shop in Oamaru recently.

In a bid to keep up with the Joneses, she said "I wanted to have one, too" to keep her busy.

The dairy has been in business on the corner of George and Albany Sts for more than 30 years and, for 70% of the year, the majority of clients are university students.

But former owner Liz Watson said its notoriety attracted lots of families and visitors from overseas as well.

"It’s all that sugar, basically. It attracts everyone.

"I don’t feel any guilt about that.

"Ironically, I have dental students and dental staff coming in here for ice creams."

She said the dairy usually sold about 500 ice creams each day.

However, in September 2015 the dairy topped its previous record of 900 sales by selling 1219 ice creams in a day.

After owning the shop for nearly 17 years, she said she had "very mixed emotions" about selling.

The 64-year-old retired yesterday and said said she was looking forward to having a lot more free time without ties to the shop.

"I felt like I was permanently on call.

"But I’ll miss it - especially the social side of it.

"I’ll have to develop my social life in my retirement because I haven’t had much time to do anything else.

"I’m looking forward to having a lot more free time."

john.lewis@odt.co.nz