After announcing at the beginning of the year that they might be closing for good, Cookies Ice Creamery has officially been saved, with new owners Anthony and Ashlee Ginger taking the reins in March.
According to Melissa and Guy Cook, who opened the Henry Street store back in 2021, the decision to sell Cookies came down to the fact they simply couldn’t juggle it along with their young children and other commitments.
“It was a hard decision, because we love this,” Guy said.
“The sweat and the tears that we’ve put into this has been absolutely amazing, and the community has been phenomenal.”
After posting the announcement on Facebook on January 2, Melissa recalled an overwhelmingly supportive response, despite some sadness that Penrith locals may be losing their regular ice creamery.
“I had a customer come in and he put his head down and said, ‘I’m just taking a moment of silence, because I just read the post’,” she said.
But, the door was always left open for potential buyers, and it seems that the perfect people have come along in the form of Gingers.
According to Ashlee, the South Penrith family has always wanted to buy a business, but a personal connection to Cookies let her know it was meant to be.
“We’ve been looking at purchasing a business for a while, and then we’d seen an ice creamery for sale on the business pages,” Ashlee said.
“Two days later, my daughter sent me a screenshot of [Cookies’] Facebook post saying that they were closing down or selling, along with a message saying, ‘My life is over’.
“We’d been holding out until something piqued our interest – nothing did until this.”
According to both couples, their first meeting felt like fate.
With big goals in mind for the Cooks before they had to make the decision to sell, Ashlee said they’ll be doing everything they can to fulfil those and more.
“We love it, we want to keep it, we just want to basically grow the business,” Ashlee said.
“Eventually down the track we’d think about franchising, but we’re not in a rush to get there straight away. Where they left off is where we’re picking up from.”
But, Anthony assured it’ll still be the same ice cream you know and love, with the same name.
“Everyone loves this place, they all come here for ice cream and all that sort of stuff, so we don’t plan on changing any of that at all!” Anthony said.
Guy and Melissa assured they won’t be strangers after the handover.
“I definitely think that we’ll be the number one customers,” Guy said.
“Our kids are so used to this anyway – but, we’ve already prefaced with them that when we come to the shop once we’ve sold it, they’re not allowed to go behind the counter!”
Cassidy Pearce is a news and entertainment journalist with The Western Weekender. A graduate of the University of Technology Sydney, she has previously worked with Good Morning Macarthur and joined the Weekender in 2022.
