Weekly meeting with Guest speaker from Crolla Gelato

A Crolla & Sons (Crolla Gelato)

At the weekly meeting of the Rotary Club of Lockerbie & District held at the Sure Hotel, Lockerbie on Monday 4 September, President Alan Carmichael welcomed Martin Crolla from A Crolla & Sons (Crolla Gelato) as guest speaker.

Martin said he was the 4^th generation of the family to live and work in the Lochmaben business, selling ‘Gelato’, having arrived in the town in 1915.  He continued, “The family left Italy at the time of the ‘Unification’ in the late 1800’s, as did many Italian families who migrated to the United Kingdom and America, searching for a better life.”

“The family moved to Scotland and following spells in the Central belt of Scotland, Langholm and Carlisle, eventually laying down their roots in Lochmaben where they remain to this day.”

“For many years vanilla flavour was the only type of ‘Gelato’’. Fish and chips formed another part of our business for a short time.  From the 1950’s until the 1980’s whole sale and ice cream vans formed a large part of the family business.”

“I came into the business in 2012 and the situation soon arose where we had to update our machinery for producing ‘Gelato’.  This resulted in us rebranding and introducing new flavours.  The result was on Good Friday 2019 we introduced 12 flavours all based on our traditional ‘Gelato’ recipe, which became a massive success.  We were of course hit by the pandemic but we have continued to expand our range to 20 flavours.”

Martin concluded by answering numerous questions from those present and of course served all present some much appreciated ‘Gelato’.

Past President Roger Claymore in giving the vote of thanks, thanked Martin for a fascinating insight into the Corolla family business and its development over the years following which those present showed their appreciation in the usual manner.