Notarianni Scoops Up Energy Savings

Thanks to Blackpool Net Zero Business Academy, Blackpool ice cream legend Notarianni has got energy saving licked.

Notarianni Bros is a Blackpool institution. Since 1928, the South Shore parlour has been serving its only-ever-vanilla ice cream to generations of locals and visitors who continue to make it one of the UK’s best places for ice cream[1]. It’s certainly one of the most popular, with hungry tourists scooping their way through 12,350 gallons of milk and cream each season.

But if Notarianni’s eager customers love the unchanging nature of the secret recipe vanilla, behind the scenes, Notarianni is a very modern business.

Carbon friendly cones and cups

“You have to see the bigger picture,” explains MD Luca Vettese, fourth generation descendant of the original Notarianni family founders. “Operating in a carbon friendly and environmentally friendly way is important to all of us. It’s why we source as many local ingredients as we can. We have a compostable and biodegradable packaging. All our packaging carries the Keep Blackpool Tidy logo and recently took part in Blackpool Sea Life Centre on a beach clean.”

Engaging Blackpool Net Zero Business Academy

Luca first became aware of Blackpool Net Zero Business Academy through his work as a board member of the Blackpool Tourism Business Improvement District (TBID).

“We’re always looking to improve as a business, whether that’s in terms of saving energy, saving money or reducing our carbon footprint. This seemed a really good way to take that a step further.”

Megan Tucker of the Blackpool Net Zero Business Academy visited Notarianni’s parlour and manufacturing site to carry out a review and produce a report which explored opportunities for improvement.

“It gave us a really good understanding of the business, where we could implement new things and what impact those changes would have,” says Luca.

The Blackpool Net Zero Business Academy report provided prices for installing daylight saving sensors for the shop front, motion sensors for the factory (“to make sure we can’t leave lights on accidentally”) and voltage optimisation for both premises.

“Megan got prices from a few local companies to carry out the work and, although we can’t shut down operations now, we’ll be putting all those changes in place at the end of the season.”

Megan also provided estimates for installing solar photovoltaics. “Our factory has a flat roof so we’ve been looking at installing solar panels on it,” says Luca. “We've got to have some structural surveys done on the roof to make sure installing solar is viable, and Megan is looking at whether there’s any funding available that may be able to help us.”

Targeting payback

Vital for any business in deciding where, when and how to invest is the payback period. “That’s been really eye opening,” explains Luca. “Payback for the work we’ll be doing at the end of the season will be about two-and-a-half years. The solar is a little longer. But what’s great about Blackpool Net Zero Business Academy is there’s no pressure. We don’t have to implement anything that we don’t want. We can pick and choose from the options presented and select the improvements that we think are affordable, deliver the best ROI and make sense to us as a business.”

Get help to decarbonise your business with Blackpool Net Zero Business Academy, support fully funded by the UK Government’s Shared Prosperity Fund.