The creative woman behind a growing Sussex ice cream company has hopes to become a household name

Hannah Miall runs Miall’s, an artisan ice cream and sorbet company, from a unit at Dower House Farm, in Blackboys, near Uckfield, East Sussex.

Hannah, 31, said: “I was working at Waitrose after college, didn’t know if I wanted to go to college. I was a bit bored, and I realised I had had a real interest in business when I was younger. I often used to do garage sales, and when my school had selling days it was was my favourite day of the year.

“Something in me really enjoyed business, and I absolutely love cooking and good food. It occurred to me that nobody was making sorbets with good ingredients, so I thought maybe I would try. As time went on it evolved into making sure it was UPF free.

“I started making it with all real ingredients and that translated to making ice cream that was completely UPF free.”

Hannah moved into the unit at the farm towards the end of last year after outgrowing production from her parents’ kitchen in Lindfield, West Sussex.

She started her business in 2019 by making boozy sorbets, but they didn’t take off as well as hoped due to regulations around alcohol licensing. So, in late summer 2023, she pivoted to ice cream and the business soared.

She is now stocked with 17 suppliers across Sussex, as well as doing some home deliveries. Some of her stockists include Butterbox Farm at Scaynes Hill, One Garden Brighton, Gun Brewery and Everyday Brew Co at Sheffield Park.

Hannah also has a vintage caravan which she uses to sell her ice cream from at festivals throughout the year.

Her next step is to employ somebody to help her, as she has ‘completely reached capacity’ to grow the business further by herself.

She added: “I need to double my summer sales, and then I will be making profit and a living, and that’s where having somebody to help me will come in as I can’t do any more alone.

“The equipment is very expensive, but once you have it you’re off. All the money I do make at the moment I put back into the business. I think I’m at a bit of a cusp now and in the new year I really want to drive forward.”

Hannah would also love to be stocked in local theatres and cinemas, as well as find more stockists in Brighton and move into London.

During the summer she made 1,000 tubs of ice cream a week, and on event weeks that would be 2,000 – meaning working long days, seven days a week.

She was delivering everything herself, but her parents have since stepped in to help with deliveries, packing and other bits.

Hannah said it is important to her to use good-quality ingredients, such a milk from nearby Northiam Diary and bean to bar chocolate.

Chocolate brownie is her best seller and salted pistachio is what she described as a ‘cult favourite’. Her new flavours of mint choc and salted caramel have also been well-received.

Hannah did home economics for GCSE but all her cookery skills are self-taught. She said she loved watching Saturday Kitchen Live and Raymond Blanc shows when she was younger, and was always experimenting in the kitchen.

“I loved the technical side of cooking. I love making things from scratch like bread or croissants,” she said.

“One of the best things about watching the business grow has been the recipe development because I absolutely love the science behind cooking.”

Hannah said working through the heatwaves this summer was ‘full-on,’ as making ice cream in the heat is very challenging.

Her machinery was constantly getting hot and she was having to get each batch into the freezer incredibly quickly to cool it down. But despite the challenges, she said she still loves what she does.

And while she said starting a business selling ice cream wasn’t guided by the fact the world is getting warmer, she said the warm weather means there has been a longer natural window for selling her products.

Hannah added: “I did have slight imposter syndrome when I moved to this kitchen, but I am starting to believe in myself. I really hope to grow the business and one day would love to be like Jude’s ice cream – well, Jude’s adjacent.”

For more information, see https://www.mialls.co.uk/