Katherine and Ian O’Dea celebrating 10 years on the Esplanade. Photo: Nikki Bailey.
It took a dream board and a Christmas holiday to Esperance in 2014 for Aurelia’s Ice Creamery and Café owners Katherine and Ian O’Dea to reinvent their careers.
Now the couple is celebrating their 10th anniversary in the business.
“I’m really proud because with small businesses it’s really hard to make it past two years, let alone 10 years, and we just keep on growing and getting stronger,” Mrs O’Dea said.
“We’ve got a lovely team and we thought if we didn’t do this now, we’d still be flogging ourselves doing other things.”
The couple moved to Esperance from a farm in Pingelly, in WA’s Wheatbelt.
Mr O’Dea said he spent his life on the land while Mrs O’Dea, who is a chef by trade, said she started her own catering business as a hobby, worked at a nursing home and dabbled in Tupperware.
“I just said to Ian, Pingelly wasn’t working for me anymore — it was a small country town and you’ve got to travel kilometres to do anything, so we both looked for a business and this one came up,” Mrs O’Dea said.
“On the dream board I had to be here by June 2015.
“We signed the paperwork in June and we were here by July.”
The O’Dea’s said the eatery, which specialised in ice cream, home cooked meals and baked goods, had grown remarkably since they first opened.
“It took a long while to get known,” Mrs O’Dea said.
“The first year we started, we’d leave one girl here on Sunday but now by 10 o’clock on Sunday there are five people [working] here,” Mr O’Dea added.
The couple said they had received great support from customers, local businesses and suppliers over the years, which they said had helped them grow as people too.
“The community is just beautiful — there’s nobody saying you can’t talk to them because of competition —it’s like ‘how can we help?’ and vice versa,” Mrs O’Dea said.
“We’ve both grown a lot and communication for us was the hardest thing to connect with,” she added.
“I’ve come from working on a farm where I didn’t see anybody for most days to having to smile at everybody every day,” Mr O’Dea said.
“It’s made me a bit more outgoing and able to speak up a bit more.”
The O’Dea’s said they had worked hard to instil confidence in their employees too by creating a family work environment.
They said they had 20 staff at present, many of whom had been with them for more than three years.
“One of the biggest things for us here is seeing the growth in the juniors,” Mr O’Dea said.
When [employee] Charis started nearly five years ago she was so shy and now she can nearly run the place.
“It takes a lot of work but we offer boundaries, as in I have a philosophy of 70:30 – 70 per cent we put in the effort within the first couple of weeks and then it should be 50:50,” Mrs O’Dea said.
“The ones that have moved on and had families themselves are saying it’s the best memories of work and it’s a lovely accolade to know what we are doing is actually right.”
The O’Deas said they would keep evolving and listening to the community as they head into the second decade of serving ice cream and food to Esperance.
Birthday draw
Aurelia’s Ice Creamery and Café has turned 10 and to celebrate it’s having a birthday draw.
Customers who spend more than $10 in any transaction are automatically in the running to win a prize, from Aurelia’s food vouchers to jars filled with goodies.
Youngsters can win a prize too by drawing or painting a picture that represents Aurelia’s.
Submissions can be made in person to one of the café staff. The artworks will be displayed around the café.
The competition starts on Friday July 24, and winners will be selected on August 20.
