HAVING been involved in interior designing for her partner’s construction company, Dawn Argyle was looking for an easier life than what she calls “the rollercoaster vagaries of the property market”.

She found it by launching the Luxury Ice Cream Company in Back Swinegate, York. It turned out not to be easier, “but it is more fun,” she says, as she challenged herself not just to sell the best ice cream, but to make it.

Now Dawn attracts so many customers to her seven-day-a-week operation – sometimes as many as 50 people queuing to sample her range of 187 different flavours of ice creams, sorbets and frozen yoghurts – that she is seeking the Small Business Of The Year and Retailer Of The Year titles in The Press Business Awards 2011.

She not only invested in the best production equipment but also recruited top Italian chefs to give her the necessary recipe development training.

“I sometimes feel I have so many product and marketing ideas I could literally burst, however budgets are a great leveller and priorities have been set.”

With 15 part-time staff – “all passionate about ‘our shop’” – she insists that no customer should have to wait and all should have the chance to taste before they buy.

“Ice cream should be synonymous with pleasure and a visit to my shop must reflect this. It should at all times be a happy place and the display of 24 ice creams should scream handmade perfection and be decorated and embellished to make the content obvious. Once tasted, never forgotten.”