CHAIRMAN

David Martin

Tel. 07597 301748

DEPUTY CHAIRMAN

John Parker

Tel. 07970 568425

SECRETARY

Allan (Mac) Black

Tel. 07512 022949

TREASURER

Duncan Pickard

Tel. 01334 870203

TALK CONVENOR

Graeme Hogg

Tel. 01334 653043

COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Jim Lawrence

Maurice Shepherd

David Sinclair

ASSIST.SECRETARY

Vic Broad

ASSIST. TALK CONVENOR

Bill Bowman

TALK RECORDERS

Jim Lawrence

Tony Miklinski

Brian Murray

Graham Pirie

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Wednesday

26th November 2025

10.00am

Talk: 'Ethiopia Medical Project'

Presenter: Jo Middlemiss

Club News

Secretary email: macblack.author@gmail.com

The talk about a well known Ice Cream Parlour brought an excellent attendance to the meeting on 12th November in Castlehill Hall. Chairman David Martin was delighted to welcome todays speaker, Owen Hazel, to tell us about the history of Jannettas of St Andrews. Owen is the director of Jannettas Gelateria. The sample products he generously brought with him were much appreciated at our coffee time!

Jannettas of St Andrews

The first generation of Jannettas, Benedito Jannetta, his wife Rosa and their four children, Benedito Jnr., Charlie, Mary & Louisa, travelled from a hill village south of Rome and opened a shop at 31-33 South Street, St. Andrews. Benedito ran the shop as a confectioner at first but the gelato (a secret recipe) increasingly became more important. In 1930 Benedito Jnr. took over the business and introduced bicycles to sell ice cream in outer districts, and also extended the interior to sell fish and chips. Charlie started to modernise the interior in 1960 and introduced more ice cream flavours, and no longer sold fish and chips. The father to son succession lasted to 1990 when daughter Nicola married Owen Hazel and they took over the business. 

Owen introduced modern management techniques such as ideas of ‘Quality Matters’ by increasing the range of flavours for summer and having a different set for winter. The selection of flavours also took in the tastes of American visitors into consideration. They have a 54 flavour range. At Halloween, they have a spice chocolate run leading to chocolate and pudding over Xmas.

To be competitive, Owen realized that the goal was to surprise the customers and leave a lasting impression to inspire them to come back… again and again.

As an aid to remaining competitive, he has been running a training programme allied with a selective interview system to employ people who will talk with customers. He now believes that they have a marketing system that can last.  Owen has now stepped back and Nicola is the production manager; their two sons also set up a Gelateria shop in Slessor Gardens for summer months only.

The vote of thanks was given by David Galloway who was impressed by their successful battle against supermarkets and on-line competitors.

Brian Murray