Mrs Chills Ice Cream Parlour, the coolest business in Bewdley

In the hope of summoning a much-needed heatwave, Bionic decided to celebrate independent ice cream shops in June. We chatted with Corrie Hill, who runs an ice cream parlour in Bewdley. We discovered how she made the jump from primary school teacher to small business owner and found out how Mrs Chill’s Ice Cream Parlour got its unique name.

Bewdley - a quaintly attractive Georgian town nestled on the River Severn - is a real tight-knit community which thrives on the success of its local businesses. One of these is Mrs Chill's Ice Cream Parlour, aptly named after owner Corrie Hill (C.Hill=Chills, for all you readers who love a clever play on words).

“I stock 31 flavours of ice cream plus a wide selection of soft serve desserts and sundaes alongside the traditional Mr Whippy 99,” Corrie explains when Bionic asks her what makes her business stand out from the crowd.

“I also have an extensive range of gluten and dairy-free ice creams which are extremely popular, especially as we stock gluten-free cones too. With the increase in allergies and intolerances as well as dietary preferences, families love visiting us as we cater for all, so everyone gets to indulge in a treat. We even sell ice cream for dogs!” She smiles happily.

So how did Corrie start the business? Did she always know she wanted to run an ice cream parlour? She says it was always a dream. Originally a school teacher, Corrie decided the career wasn’t for her after suffering severe burnout.

“I was a primary school teacher and taught for 15 years in inner city Birmingham schools,” Corrie tells us, “but it was really hard and I burnt out before I was 40. So, I moved to this beautiful little town by the river called Bewdley,” she recalls fondly.

“There was an ice cream parlour here and I absolutely love ice cream. I’ve always had this dream about one day owning a parlour by the river. This one was already here and within a few months I heard through the grapevine that it was coming up for sale,” she grins, continuing, “I desperately wanted to leave teaching, so I bought the ice cream parlour and I've never looked back. It’s the best thing I've ever done!”

And what about the logistics of taking the premises over? Was it a struggle? Corrie says it was hard, but she cites that part of her business journey as one of her biggest achievements so far.

“It was already established when I took it over and it had been here for about ten years before I bought it. It was doing okay but needed some work. I could see where I could take the business and what improvements I could make,” she tells us, “so my biggest achievement has been the growth of the business.”

But what about obstacles, has Corrie faced many in her small business journey? 

“With struggles it's always going to be the weather for my line of products,” she laughs, “I'm completely in the hands of the elements. If it's a horribly cold day or if it's snowing then footfall is going to be low.”

“It's very much all or nothing,” she adds, “It’s either queues up the road all day long or there's nobody around.”

And how does Corrie combat this? Does she close during the winter months or pivot her business to sell winter warmers and seasonal treats?

“For the first couple of years, I thought ‘I'm going to open and diversify’. So, I tried doing hot food and jacket potatoes. I bought a jacket potato oven and started selling soups,” she tells us, “but people just couldn't make that connection between us being an ice cream parlour in the summer and doing jacket potatoes and soup in the winter.”

She goes on, “And there's lots of cafes around here already, so I was stepping on the toes of other businesses. People say, ‘I'll eat ice cream all year round’, but the truth is that they don't. In the winter, people don't want to leave their homes to venture out just to buy an ice cream. I realised after the first year that it wasn't really working.”

“Again, I tried a few different things the second year and closed earlier, and then the third year I just decided to close up shop when it got to October, hibernate, have a holiday and start again next year.”

Mindful energy-saving tips

And what about the cost of living crisis, has Corrie had to adapt how she runs her business to save money? She says she’s always been mindful about energy conservation but is especially aware now.

“In terms of the energy crisis, I've got huge freezers and a huge soft serve machine. So, when the prices went up, it really hit me hard. My prices actually tripled per month and that was a panic,” she explains.

“Also, I appreciate that ice cream is a luxury item, it's a treat. It's not going to be a necessity for people. They need to buy their staples first and then if they've got any money left over, they might buy treats,” she says, “so I was very conscious about putting my prices up. I worried that I could be pricing myself out of that treat market. So, instead, I turned off a couple of my freezers in the stock room and increased my delivery days so that I wasn't storing as much stock.”

She goes on, “I was pretty much using and then replacing stock as fast as I could, so I was saving money on electricity there. Then obviously, I closed over the winter completely whereas previously I've been open, having to keep the freezers on at a certain level.”

Corrie had lots of practical advice for saving energy on her premises too.

“I did lots of other things, like replacing my light bulbs with energy-saving ones. I put timers on some of the electrical equipment that needs to be on at certain times, that has meant I'm saving two or three hours a day's worth of electricity,” she tells us.

She also discovered that taking note of her customer habits helped her save too.

“I used to open quite early on the weekends at around 10am, but I wasn't seeing many people until about 11am. I realised looking at the trends, that people weren't buying ice cream before 11am, so now we open at either 10.30am or 11am. Just that half an hour an hour a day adds up over a whole season,” she says.

The practicalities of ice cream

Bionic was eager to find out if Corrie thinks there's enough practical information out there for business owners just starting out. She says no, it was a huge learning curve getting to grips with the basics.

“I was massively stressed, I didn't have any clue!” she laughs “I came from being a primary school teacher to then suddenly being given the keys and told ‘here's the business, off you go.’ I was just thinking ‘oh, my God, what do I do?’, I was on the internet all the time, on Google, looking at forums. I joined networking groups and bought books.”

She carries on, “I got books like ‘The Dummies’ Guide to Running a Small Business’. But then again, you haven't got time to actually read these books because you're working around the clock trying to do as much as you can  to save money and learn on the job. You haven't got time to do all the all the research. But there’s definitely not enough information out there.”

“Even small things like setting my prices, I had no idea how to do that. I was looking at competitor’s prices to begin with, but then I had to take into account that some of my products were better quality or more expensive for me to buy,” she explains, “so I had to understand profit margins and start doing my accounts. I’m absolutely still learning, every day is a school day.”

And what is Corrie’s bestselling flavour? She says there are definite fan favourites but jokes she can usually tell which ice cream someone is going to order as soon as they walk through her doors.

“It’s quite funny,” she laughs, “we have a bit of a joke, you can tell by the customer which flavour they're going to order. The grandparents are usually rum and raisin or vanilla. The kids are often bubble gum or something sweet.”

“The mums usually like ‘very cherry’, blackcurrant, clotted cream or a’ heavenly honeycomb’. It depends on the customer and their age. We’ve also got the classic Mr Whippy, the traditional soft-serve with a flake.”

“But our newest addition is Black Vanilla ice cream," she tells us excitedly, "we must be asked at least fifty times a day what flavour it is. The answer is it’s vanilla, but black! Our supplier Marshfield Farm have cleverly added charcoal to their award-winning clotted cream vanilla to create this amazing colour. It’s a beauty."

Building customer bonds

It sounds like Corrie knows her customers really well, but how does she create these special relationships? She says greeting everyone with a smile is so important.

“We've built quite a loyal customer base now and we’ve got our regulars. It's great, we see them weekly at least and it's nice because I've seen the children grow up and start school,” she recalls warmly, “I've been there when they've celebrated anniversaries or come in for special events or maybe the child has had a bad day at school.”

She adds, “I've got a sign up in the shop that says ‘life is better with ice cream’. So, they’ll come in after a bad day and I say ‘come on, get a photo under the sign’, you know, to make them smile.”

Corrie says that her wide range of allergen-friendly ice cream helps her create good customer relationships too though.

“I get to know the dietary requirements of my customers. I've got a lot of celiac and dairy-free customers and they trust that I know my product inside out so it's safe for them,” Corrie says, continuing, “but above all, I've got a policy that every customer is greeted with a beam and smile to welcome them in. I always want my customers to feel welcome and appreciated for spending their money in my business.”

And what’s the best part about being a small business owner? Corrie says her freedom. Although it can be tough balancing home and work life, she says being her own boss and managing her own time is invaluable.

“I think being my own boss is one of the best things, that and just being able to make people happy. I love being able to suggest flavours and just make someone's day with ice cream,” she grins.

In terms of staff, how does Corrie ensure her team stays motivated and happy?

“I've got a brilliant team. I'm really lucky to have them,” she tells us enthusiastically, "I tend to have staff in what I call ‘cycles’, so they start after their GCSEs, then usually stay through their A levels. Then they go off to university and come back each summer. I tend to have them for four to five years.”

“But in terms of keeping them motivated, freebies always go down well. When it gets busy here, it gets really busy. It is incredible and we work flat out. We're like octopuses, doing multiple things at once!” Corrie jokes.

“I always make sure my staff get free ice cream every shift they work, or free milkshakes or drinks, but something I always make a real point of doing is thanking them,” she says, “after every shift that they do, I individually thank them for what they've done and let them know how much I appreciate them. I've worked in jobs before where it's been a thankless task and I want my business to be a happy place to work.”

Aiming high

What is Corrie excited about in the future, does she have big plans to expand or take on more staff?

“Every year I try to introduce something new, the farm makes new flavours each year, so we always have something brand new to start the season with,” she says, nodding, “in terms of expanding, when I first took on the business I tried a few different things."

"I bought a 1920s ice cream bicycle and started off doing weddings alongside running the shop. Then at the same time, the café next door to us came up for sale so I took that on." 

She goes on, “I did that for a couple of years, but then Covid hit and it was impossible to run the café when I could only have six people at most in there. So, I let that go in the end. I've tried things like that but found that the wedding bicycle detracted my full attention from the parlour.”

She carries on, “I’d been spreading myself so thin, running the parlour, taking on the café and running the bicycle. I was so reliant on other people to help that my work in the ice cream parlour was being diluted,” she explains, “so I decided to sell the bike, sell the café and just concentrate on the parlour. By doing that, the parlour has been really successful as a result.”

And how does Mrs Chills market itself? Corrie says it’s a mix of everything but social media is really important in this day and age.

“TikTok is quite big for us and that's another motivator for my staff because I haven't got a clue and they’re really into it. So, they love creating TikToks and it's good fun for them to watch the account grow,” she says, “I employ someone to do my social media in terms of Instagram and Facebook. They take good photos and take care of all the posts for me.”

“But I've got the most incredible location,” she trills, “so I've got a lot of natural footfall and word of mouth. People look for me on Google and I can see on the analytics, that you know, this many people have looked for directions to the parlour.”

And finally, if Corrie could give another business owner some advice, what would she say?

“Research,” she tells us thoughtfully, “do as much research as you possibly can. Research your area, your competitors, your product and trends. You want to know what's what. In terms of my business, it's all about new ice cream flavours, so it helps to scroll through social media, look at TikTok and see what's trending at the moment.”

You can check out Mrs Chill's delicious array of ice cream flavours on Instagram, Facebook or TikTok or pop in for a treat if you're around Bewdley.