Who We Are
Batch 18 was started by me (Andy, aka Hoggy).
My career has always been in the hospitality industry, starting as a chef and then running two pubs in the Sevenoaks area for the past 20 years.
Pictured with me is my partner, Jess (in Christmas gear) and one of my best friends, Sarah (often found helping us out at events). Jess’s encouragement in pushing me forward with this venture has been incredible whilst at the same time she has reigned in my excitement at crazy new ideas. Life is short and adapting my job to fit better with all our lives was a must. Our son, Henry, shares my passion for ice cream, is chief taste tester and created our company name, Batch 18!
How it all began
I’ve always had a passion for Ice Cream, Coffee and HY vans so in early 2022 I decided to make the life changing decision to leave my full time job and buy a Citroen HY van to fulfil my dream of selling Ice cream and so the concept was born.
Rosie the 1976 Citroen HY van. Years ago Rosie was shipped over from France by the National Trust and based at Rhossili Day in North Wales where she was used as a static coffee truck. After some years she was retired and fell into disrepair. I stumbled across her for sale online, and realised she had ended up only an hour away from where I live. I went to see her, and after some fateful interventions, bought her to renovate!
She needed a full engine rebuild, new brakes, exhaust system and total refurbishment of the body work with some of the panels being replaced as they were beyond repair. Once this was done, I renovated the inside, installing all new equipment, worktops, plumbing, gas and wiring.
Unfortunately, like everything we had numerous delays so what was planned as a six month project soon turned into a year to complete.
Eventually we were up and running by early November 2023 with our first event a week later.