In 1915, Pietro Equi and his uncle Dante left Coreglia Antelminelli in Tuscany to seek their fortune. While Dante ended up in New York, Pietro got as far as Hamilton, where he started a cafe at Burnbank Road in 1922.
Despite having grown to be one of Scotland’s premier ice cream manufacturers in the 93 years since Equi’s first opened its doors at Peacock Cross in Hamilton, it still remains a family business.
Pietro Equi started making ice cream at the Peacock Cross Café in 1922, buying milk and double cream from a local farm, heating up the mix himself and using the ‘put it outside and wait for it to cool’ technique. It was churned by hand and then frozen.
As word about Pietro’s ice cream spread, the Peacock Cross Café was renamed Peter Equi & Sons and soon after was moved across the road to its present location at 9-11 Burnbank Road to make room for a larger restaurant and the growing production.
In the 1960s, Pietro’s sons, Robert and Vincent, took over the business allowing Pietro to take a step back (step back in Italian family business terms means working 6 and a half days instead of 7). It was Robert who started to take production up a notch , purchasing state of the art ice cream making equipment and creating artisan flavours.
The family tradition was continued when Robert’s son, David Equi, took over from his father in 1995. Not only did David follow in his father’s retail footsteps he also opened Equi’s to the wholesale market, making Equi’s ice cream available in cafes, restaurants and ice cream parlours across Scotland.
Recently Alex Equi became the fourth generation to work in the family business.
Source: Nikki Whyte, Digital Marketing Executive, Peter Equi & Sons
http://www.eat-scottish.co.uk/2015/08/29/equi-ice-cream/
See also: Equi’s Ice Cream: About Us: www.equisicecream.com/about/
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/local-news/hamilton-ice-cream-parlour-equis-9934331