About Us

90 Years Equi Timeline

In 1915, Pietro Equi and his uncle Dante left Coreglia Antelminelli in Tuscany to seek their fortune. While Dante ended up in New York, Pietro got as far as Hamilton, where he started a cafe in 1922.

The rest, as they say, is history…

  • 1914

    Pietro Equi arrives Glasgow at the age of 15.

  • 1922

    Pietro Equi opens his own cafe at 6/8 Burnbank Road, paid for in 2 instalments

  • 1932

    Typical cafe menu from the 1930s.

  • 1952
    Ice Cream Alliance

    Ice Cream Alliance Diploma of Merit for ice cream in vertical freezer class – one of our first ever awards!

  • 1954

    The Queen visits Hamilton.

  • 1958

    Robert Equi graduates from Glasgow University and joins the family business with his brother Vincent & father.

  • 1964

    Robert Equi takes over the running of the family business.

  • 1965

    As the business continued to grow, Equi’s moved across the road to 9-11 Burnbank Road knocking two shops into one making room for a new restaurant, takeaway and ice cream parlour.

  • 1972

    Equi’s celebrates it’s 50th Anniversary.

  • 1975

    Drinks at Equi’s? We got our full drinks licence.

  • 1977

    24 flavour cabinet introduced. Equi’s starts to make different flavours.

  • 1980

    Robert Equi bought some fancy new ice cream equipment to take our production up a notch.

  • 1984

    Equi’s become Winners of the first Scottish National Ice Cream Competition.

  • 1988

    David Equi graduates in Business from Edinburgh, and joins the family firm working on new ideas with his dad.

  • 1990

    We had a fancy rebrand with new logos, packaging and new adverts.

  • 1992

    We celebrated our 70th Birthday - Sophie Equi was born and to celebrate we launched Sophie’s Crunch (which is still one of our top selling flavours!)

  • 1995

    Robert Equi passes away, and David takes over the role of Managing Director.

  • 1999

    To celebrate the first Scottish Parliament elections we created some limited edition flavours.

  • 2001

    David Equi is elected as UK National President of the Ice Cream Alliance.

  • 2003

    Equi’s start to supply supermarket chain Asda, and the wholesale side of the business expands.

  • 2004

    David Equi becomes part owner and Chairman of Nardini’s of Largs.

  • 2006

    Equi’s voted UK Ice Cream Champion of Champions.

  • 2008

    Equi’s voted UK Ice Cream Champion of Champions for a second time.

  • 2010

    Equi’s undergoes an extensive refurbishment, is rated one of the top 20 ice cream parlours in the world, and wins the Royal Highland Show Champion of Champions award for Raspberry Cranachan.

  • 2011

    Gelato the Penguin arrives, Equi’s launch Milkshake Monday.

  • 2012

    Wholesale customers pass the 250 mark, and Equi’s gains a fleet of vans.

  • 2013

    Equi’s start to sponsor local team, Hamilton Accies, opens another store in Motherwell, and gets voted Best Ice Cream Parlour at the Scots Italian Awards.

  • 2014

    Did you see us at The Commonwealth Games? Our stand broke all records! We’re also a very proud sponsor of Kilbryde Hospice – our horse, Equinox.

  • 2015

    A brand relaunch, with all new packaging - Made in Scotland - Di Origine Italiana. We also won our first Great Taste Award (actually we won 3!)

  • 2016

    We were crowned Scottish Ice Cream Champion and Morrisons started selling our ice cream.

  • 2017

    We had our most successful year for awards to date! We won 6 Great Taste Awards (including 3 Stars for our Alphonso Mango Sorbet!); 3 x UK Ice Cream Championship trophies; we won the UK heat of the European Gelato Festival and Reserve Champion at the Scottish Ice Cream Award. Then we won Food & Drink Company of the Year at the Lanarkshire Business Awards and were a finalist in the Scotland Food & Drink Awards for Brand Success – phew!

  • 2018

    Equi’s Ice Cream secures it’s biggest retail contract to date with the Co-op, which saw our signature flavours of Double cream vanilla and Isle of Skye sea salt & caramel listed across the whole of Scotland. Within 6 months Equi’s picked up the prestigious ‘local supplier of the year’ award at the annual Co-op Scottish awards in Glasgow, coupled with the Isle of skye flavour winning Grocery product of the year!

  • 2019

    The Equi’s brand proudly fulfilled our first ever export to Texas, USA by supplying our fantastic range of 500ml retail tubs to the state’s leading supermarket chain Central Market HEB. The products went live in store and online and have been a huge hit across the pond so far!

  • 2020

    Over the past 3 years Equi’s Ice Cream has become an instantly recognisable retail brand across Scotland in the convenience store sector. In early 2020 we have added more key partners in this area by striking deals with Spar Scotland and the One O One convenience store chain to stock our impulse and take-home products in Equi’s branded can freezers.

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