No Moo 4 U has found a sweet spot providing delicious dessert options to people with special dietary needs in regional NSW and Queensland. While they’re scooping up success today, it’s been a rocky road to get here.

Every day, Mellissa Speer serves up soft-serve ice cream flavours like Apple Fizz and her personal favourite, Rockin Raspberry, to the people of Condobolin in Central West NSW. Mellissa manages the store and its dessert delivery van day to day, while helping her mum, No Moo 4 U founder and CEO Nicole Simpson, grow the franchise.

The brand launched in 2020 – and the idea came from a personal place. “My sister is quite severely allergic to dairy, and my mum was really struggling,” Mellissa tells Kochie’s Business Builders.

The breaking point was one hot day at a market when Nicole couldn’t find a dairy-free treat for her then-10-year-old daughter Storm. “She got really frustrated and ended up leaving the event just to go home to have something to eat because my sister was so hungry,” Mellissa recalls.

“My mum saw how sad that made my sister to not be included in basic fun things, like shared food experiences. It’s a part of being human. So Mum said, ‘That’s it, I’m going to do something better.’ She mucked around and came up with some recipes, and from there we’ve been able to create an amazing dessert range.”

A decadent gluten-free waffle and ice cream creation from No Moo 4 U. Image: Supplied.

Serving the underserved

While around 80 per cent of their customers don’t have allergies, the goal is to be more inclusive of those who do. No Moo 4 U is Coeliac Australia accredited, certified dairy-free and vegan-friendly, with soy-free options and nut allergy aware – which can often be harder to come by in regional areas.

“I actually have a lady that travels 100km to come and get ice cream from me every week. She’s dairy-free, gluten-free and soy-free. So for her, she walks in the door, it’s not ‘What can I have?’ It’s ‘what would you like to have today?’ She’s got options.

“So it brings us a huge amount of joy to say, ‘Ta-dah!’ and here’s a smorgasbord of inclusive treats.”

An unexpected interruption

When Mellissa opened No Moo 4 U’s Condobolin store in 2023, she faced a setback that nearly wiped out the business.

“I had been open for six weeks and I’d just found my feet. We were on a roll,” Mellissa shares. “Then there was a freak storm that whipped through and knocked the power out. Once the storm had passed, I tried to make ice cream and my ice cream machine wouldn’t work. I was absolutely devastated.”

The equipment was brand new. The machine didn’t just break down on its own. It was “just a freak thing that happened,” Melissa recalls.

Thankfully Mellissa had done her due diligence.

“If I didn’t have my insurance, I probably would be out of business,” Mellissa says. “It was that much of a hit to me being so new to business.”

When setting up her business, Mellissa took out Business Insurance policy to cover her stock, contents and equipment, and she also added on Business Interruption cover. She did her research via her insurance service provider BizCover, and decided to include Business Interruption insurance in her package to address the possibility of unexpected events like fires, storms or theft.

“I did contingency planning before I opened the shop and I was aware that things could go wrong. That’s why I put insurance in place. I just couldn’t fathom that so early into the piece that I’d have disruption with my ice cream machine,” she says.

Having insurance that not only covered her assets but also her finances paid off for Melissa when she couldn’t operate for a few weeks. She filed a claim* through BizCover, and successfully received nearly $18K to recoup the costs of ice cream machine repairs, deterioration of stock, claims preparation costs and six weeks’ loss of wages and profits.

After filing a claim with BizCover, she successfully received nearly $18K to recoup the costs of ice cream machine repairs, deterioration of stock, claims preparation costs and six weeks’ loss of wages and profits.

“I’d never ever made an insurance claim in my life. So this was the first time I ever had to go through the process as well,” she says. “It was a really difficult time, but I’ve come out on top and I learned a lot.”

While claims for Business Interruption cover have a variety of factors involved, Mellissa’s was much more straightforward than she’d expected. “I had my claim wrapped up and the money in my bank account within four weeks of when we’d established what had actually happened to my ice cream machine,” she says.

A lesson for all small business owners

No Moo 4 U assistant director Mellissa Speer with one of her locals. Image: Supplied.

No Moo 4 U was closed for six weeks and received a warm welcome back from locals. “The community of Condobolin was so supportive and they were all banging down the door to get in,” Mellissa says.

Since then, the brand has franchised two vans on Queensland’s Capricorn Coast and Gold Coast, with plans to keep steadily growing and eventually work with distributors to sell their delicious ice cream in bulk.

Mellissa is adamant that other business owners can learn from her experience and bounce back even better.

“Now I have two ice cream machines in my shop. If one goes down, I just turn on the other one and I keep going,” she says.

“So that is my biggest advice –  it’s that proper planning avoids problems. It’s about really sitting down and thinking about what can go wrong and then working out what you can do to stop that from happening.”

BizCover is Australia’s number one online business insurance service trusted by more than 200,000 small business customers. Compare multiple quotes for multiple products at the same time, so you can switch and save in minutes. Head to their website for more.

This article is brought to you by Kochie’s Business Builders in partnership with BizCover.

*The provision of the claims examples are for illustrative purposes only and should not be seen as an indication as to how any potential claim will be assessed or accepted. Coverage for claims on the policy will be determined by the insurer, not BizCover.

BizCover acts as agent of the insurer. This information is general only and does not take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. It should not be relied upon as advice. As with any insurance, cover will be subject to the terms, conditions and exclusions contained in the policy wording. © 2023 BizCover Pty Limited, all rights reserved. ABN 68 127 707 975; AFSL 501769