Newly opened in mid-May among a few curry fishball shops on Travessa de Se, Stickhouse has already attracted hundreds of people’s stop by, via its neat clean shop and an overwhelming variety of Gelato on the sticks.
It is the first franchising store of the Italian famous gelato brand Stickhouse in Macau.
“Gelato has been introduced to Macau for more than 10 years, I always wish I could introduce another brand by myself, a brand that has high quality and its own feature. This brand is specialized in handcrafted Gelato on a stick, and also gives room for creativities on products’ both tasting and toppings. Besides, it’s delicious.” The director of this store, Tammy Lam, introduced smilingly. Gelato the concept itself refers to varies of ice-creams made in traditional Italian style, usually containing lower calories, fat and sugar comparing with normal ice-cream.
Once been a regional represent of an international famous chain restaurant, Tammy is totally aware the importance of brand building. The reasons why she chose Stickhouse, apart from its using of 100% natural and genuine ingredients which is in line with her modern concept of diet, is its quality insist. “The key to build a distinctive brand is the attention on details. Of course I want to control the costs, but I won’t give up the quality for that. ”
To ensure the quality of the products, not only all its ingredients, sticks, package boxes, showcase that the Stickhouse use are imported from Italy, Tammy also shipped three sets of special machines to Macau, specially ordered medical freezers which can keep the temperature at -25°, and rented another place to open a factory to produce fresh gelatos daily. Fruits are also freshly delivered daily. Tammy refused to use frozen fruits only because they are bad on palate. “I have my own standards and principles.”
More than thirty flavors, containing over 50% fruit ingredient, the price of each product is 28MOP. Tammy frankly admitted that this store wasn’t open for money but brand building.
“You cannot just depend on one store. I have my 5-year vision, so I chose a place where locals and tourists will definitely notice us. The store is not making money now, but I’ll try my best to develop this brand. The rent in Macau now is high indeed, but you cannot just complain, I wish I could make qualified products to develop business and then to catch up with the rent increase. But I will never cut the costs. A brand won’t success if you sacrifice the quality for saving costs. ”
Regarding to the future, Tammy said that the store just opened not yet one month, she now only wanted to set up all the business operating system, and then gradually to promote this brand step by step.
“I like the feelings that I can introduce my product to people proudly. I hope after ten or twenty years, I can still be satisfied and have no regrets with what I’m doing now. ” Tammy concluded.