Green ice cream van makes waves on Pembrokeshire's beaches

Seaside customers queuing up for their cones will be feasting from what business owner Anthony Phillips believes is the first zero-emissions ice-cream van to trade on a beach in the UK.

Pembrokeshire Beach Ices – which Anthony runs with his wife Charlie and three of their six children – has invested £50,000 into an electric conversion of a Land Rover ice cream van.

It will be making its debut on Tenby’s North Beach in October half-term, proudly displaying the logo ‘Going green to keep the beach clean’.

Anthony and the boys with the 'Going green to keep the beach clean' ice-cream van. (Image: Pembrokeshire Beach Ices)

“Our family are in this business for the long term, so it’s worth the investment to help create a cleaner environment on our beaches in the future,” said Anthony, 44, who also runs the White Horse Inn in Kilgetty.

“We could see the way things were going with electric ice-cream vans on the streets and parks in London, so why not put them on the beaches in Pembrokeshire?”

The ice-cream van had its electric conversion at a cost of £50,000. (Image: Pembrokeshire Beach Ices)

The diesel vehicle which underwent its eco-friendly conversion in Scotland last winter has been in Anthony’s fleet of seven ice-cream vans for five years.

“So it runs on the road on diesel, but on the beach we switch it to electric power,” he explained. “Our plan now is to convert one of our vans every year, so that by 2030, all our vehicles will be zero-emissions.”

Anthony began his working life as a fisherman out of Tenby and Saundersfoot before becoming an ice-cream vendor.

Anthony at the wheel of the electric ice-cream van which will make its debut on Tenby's North Beach on October half-term. (Image: Pembrokeshire Beach Ices)

Today his seaside empire includes long leases with Pembrokeshire County Council and the Saundersfoot Beach Company, and he sells ice cream from Pembrokeshire's Upton Farm as well as Pembrokeshire Beach Ices' own fresh whipped soft-serve.

The coming year will see his ice cream vans on the beaches of Tenby’s North and Harbour - thanks to a new contract he has just secured - as well as Freshwater East and Saundersfoot, where he also has deckchairs, a bouncy castle and a hot food truck.

So there’s plenty to keep his staff – including older children Courtney, 25, Harri, 23 and Brandon, 20 – busy on the beaches.

“And surprisingly, considering the weather this summer, we’ve had just four days off in 16 weeks,” added Anthony.

“Luckily, people seem to like an ice cream whatever the weather or the time of year, so as well as being in Tenby for October half term, we’ll be down in Saundersfoot for Christmas and New Year.”