After being grounded by the pandemic, Scarlett Aldridge and her partner Jack Hancock were ready for a break. In late 2022 they treated themselves to a long holiday taking in South East Asia and New Zealand.
Scarlett’s family had emigrated from the UK to New Zealand when she was ten — she returned to the UK in her early twenties — and so the trip was in many ways a homecoming.
Scarlett had a good job as an account director in an advertising agency but had been nurturing a dream of setting up her own company, and New Zealand provided her with the inspiration she needed for a career pivot.
“Everyone in New Zealand is absolutely obsessed with real fruit ice cream,” she said. “Basically you take fresh fruit and blend it up with vanilla ice cream. It is delicious and everyone eats it all summer long. You don’t really get it here, and I thought: “We are missing a trick.”
When she got home Scarlett, 31, quit her job and began to set up The Real Scoop, a New Zealand-style ice cream brand.
Simultaneously she and Jack, 30, agreed they needed to shake up their home life. The couple were living in a “pokey” rental in Elephant and Castle, paying circa £1,200 a month in rent and with little hope of buying a place of their own.
Scarlett’s mother lives in Ramsgate, Kent, and the couple had stayed with her during lockdown and loved the place. “We really enjoyed the slower pace of live, and being by the sea,” said Scarlett. “Being in the great outdoors is really important to both of us.”
At the start of 2023 the couple moved back down to Ramsgate, and are currently living with Scarlett’s mother while they save up for a deposit for a home; they estimate that with a budget of £350,000 to £450,000 they will be able to find a three bedroom flat or house.
“Hopefully we will be able to buy in the next year,” said Scarlett. “I don’t think we would have had that option in London”.
While Jack is working as a consultant and freelance chef, popping up to London regularly, Scarlett has been obsessing about ice cream. Last summer she ran a pop up shop in Ramsgate and was thrilled by the reception. “I had so many Kiwis coming down for London just for an ice cream, it was unbelievable,” she said.
Ice cream is clearly a very seasonal business so Scarlett is combining it with some freelance advertising work and is getting a mobile catering trailer fixed up ready for summer so that she can sell at weddings, parties, markets, festivals, and corporate events.
“Living at home has allowed me to get it going, and I am very lucky to be able to do that,” said Scarlett.
“Like a lot of people the pandemic was a long pause which gave me time to think about what I wanted to do with my life, and this is it.”
