After dealing with several unexpected and deeply undesired shutdowns earlier this year, it feels funny winding down into our first-ever planned shutdown. We’re taking two weeks off, so all our staff can take their annual leave simultaneously. The idea of quietly hemorrhaging staff over a two month period while we each took turns having a holiday felt counterproductive. We’re such a small team that every person matters, and I’d rather we all enjoyed a break than limped along attempting business as usual for an extended period.
But it’s still scary, when we’ve been chanting ‘churn, churn, churn!’ since we first turned ours on in November, to consciously stop the production we fight so hard to maintain. We’ve actually had to churn more, going into shutdown mode, so that all our wholesale customers will have stock while we are away, and of course there’s the battle of getting orders out of very busy people when they have to thumbsuck their own production needs for the next three weeks.
But I’m also happy for my staff, who have fabulous adventures planned with their hard-earned leave. Marianne is already off gallivanting in Spain, and Harmony and Progress have booked tickets back to Zimbabwe to see friends and family they haven’t seen in two years. I will still be in Cape Town, catching up on sleep and recharging my mojo for the upcoming winter ice cream festival that we’ve been planning in our spare moments.
So, if you’d like a Creamery power-up to see you over the next couple weeks, pop us an email to order or drop by the kitchen between 9am and 5.30pm until Friday, we’ve still got pints aplenty and would love to see you. Otherwise, we’ll see you on the other side.
