News / Swoon
Popular dessert shop to celebrate tenth anniversary
A popular gelato parlour is celebrating its first ten years in business with a private party and free ice cream competition.
Swoon was founded in 2016 at a shopfront in College Green and has since opened outlets in Bath, Winchester, Oxford and London, plus a second Bristol store in Wapping Wharf.
Co-founder Bruno Forte, who comes from an Italian family, had the idea for the business when he came across a gelato university in Bologna.
It was there he met Stephano Tarquinio, now head gelatiere, and the pair soon started working together along with Bruno’s wife Ana, mum Louise and sister Pat.
Ten years on, the business has seen considerable success, with numerous awards including Great Taste Producer of the Year 2017-2018 and the various Great Taste three-star ratings.
The team originally made everything at the College Green store, but had to shift production to a dedicated unit to stay on top of demand.
“We just couldn’t keep up,” explained Bruno. “There were queues down the road and we were waiting for the gelato to come out of the machine.”
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According to Stephano, the success comes from their use of the finest ingredients, passion for food and constant efforts to improve.
“We are quite maniac when it comes to researching ingredients and getting the best gelato possible,” he said. “Selecting the right ingredients; balancing the recipe. We keep testing to keep moving the bar higher and higher and higher.”
Both men have a passion for gelato dating back to childhood.
Bruno’s grandparents ran ice cream parlours around the UK, and he remembers avidly trying every flavour.
Stephano grew up in Bologna, which he calls “a foodie city”.
“I have always been very, very passionate about sweet stuff in general,” he said. “I remember when I was a kid, maybe five or six, bringing home some gelato and I was the happiest kid in the world.”
The business has won various Great Taste awards – photo: Molly Pipe
But passion alone hasn’t been enough to weather the challenges that have plagued businesses in the years since Swoon opened.
“The first one was the Brexit vote in 2016,” Bruno said. “We buy a lot of products and machines from Italy and the Euro just plummeted. It was a nearly 20 percent price increase straight away for us.
“And then Covid came along. I remember sitting there thinking: everything we’ve worked for we’re going to lose.”
The success of the company’s delivery option (Bruno remembers the order machine pinging into overdrive the moment it was turned on) saw it through the pandemic.
But the cost of living crisis, global conflict and Government policies have meant the hardships are continuing.
“National insurance has gone up. Business rates have gone up. Energy bills have gone up,” Bruno said.
“It’s hard; it’s very hard.”
Challenges aside, the team plans to celebrate its first decade with a private party at the College Green store on Thursday.
It will also be awarding a competition winner with a Swoon Gold Card, granting them free gelato for a full year.
Despite only opening its Winchester store six weeks ago, there is no slowing the business down. More shops and a wider geographical spread are on the bucket list, including a standalone London store.
Though perhaps, as Bruno joked, it might be nice to relax on a beach at some point.
Main photo: Swoon
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