Former salesman tastes success in ice-cream venture

“I like to cook desserts, so I decided to take a bakery course and adapt dishes to my own recipe, creating ice-cream and dessert menus to serve my customers. I also think that being a salary-man is not sustainable, so I decided to quit my job and start my own business,” the 36-year-old said.
He started the business in 2010 as a parlour on Bangkok’s Sukhumvit 101 serving Taiwanese-style snowflake ice-cream in various flavours, and now offers other menu options, such as honey toast, jelly with fruit salad and waffle served with ice-cream.
Veerapat, who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in hospitality and tourism management from Assumption University, saw a business opportunity seven years ago in that Thais were not yet familiar with Taiwanese snowflake ice-cream.
He therefore decided to open his own shop and take orders for the specialty ice-cream, which led to many repeat customers and Taiwanese-style ice-cream becoming well-known and highly favoured by Thais.
In running his own business, his priorities are the quality and taste of his various offerings, and customer satisfaction. 
Nowadays, location and facilities, such as a parking area and Wi-Fi, are also important for restaurants to keep customers coming back again and again, he added.
Having had such a good response from customers at the Sukhumvit 101 outlet, the second branch of Summer Ice will open soon at Little Walk on Bang Na-Trat Road, at a cost of Bt1.5 million. 
The business – Summer Ice Premium Co Ltd – currently generates sales of about Bt200,000 a month, having experienced annual growth of 10-20 per cent to date. 
Veerapat hopes that once the second shop is up and running, annual sales will increase by more than 20 per cent. 
After that, he will continue to expand the business, opening one more branch each year.
With a customer base including young teens, prices at Summer Ice range from just Bt35 per item to Bt145.