A HAMILTON based ice cream shop has scooped a national award at the UK’s most prestigious competition.

Equis Ice Cream’s raspberry ripple was judged the best of its kind in the UK at The National Ice Cream Competition run by the Ice Cream Alliance - the trade association for the UK’s £1bn ice cream industry.

Equis have a string of successes at the competition having been awarded national champion three times and last year picked up the trophy for best vanilla flavour.

Gary Munro, Operations Director, said the secret to the firm’s success is their technical expertise along with using the best Scottish milk and cream and the finest and freshest ingredients.

He added: “We’ve been making ice cream since 1922, and although the company ethos remains the same - using fresh Scottish ingredients, we make sure we’re always on the cutting edge for technical advances. This is particularly the case for a flavour like Raspberry Ripple.”

The formula is certainly paying off as the firm continues to expand. Its factory on Burnbank Road produces 600,000 litres of ice cream a year in 50 different flavours and provides jobs for 25 people.

In addition to supplying the company’s own ice cream parlours in Hamilton, Motherwell and Aberdeen the factory also produces products for Asda and Morrison’s in Scotland and will soon be stocked by Co-op stores too.