A LEEMING BAR ice-cream maker is extending its interests in the impulse buying sector with the addition of a unique dispensing system.

Richmond Foods has bought stock, plant and equipment to manufacture and sell the Ice Creamery system, and its soft ice-cream products, following a £561,000 deal with the Dairygold Co-operative Society.

The system uses revolutionary, pre-portioned 125ml cartridges which, when dispensed, deliver ice cream in the traditional "soft whipped" format and can switch flavours on demand.

Operational simplicity means there are no breakdowns or maintenance and no staff training is needed. The Ice Creamery costs a fraction of traditional "soft whipped" systems which, apart from being expensive to maintain, need a high degree of operator training and are limited mostly to just one flavour.

Since being launched three years ago, several Ice Creamery systems have been installed in outlets ranging from corner shops, theme parks and restaurants to stations, pubs and supermarkets.

The system and its soft ice cream will complement the range of Nestl and Treats products supplied to the impulse market by Richmond, the UK's largest ice-cream manufacturer by volume.

James Lambert, chief executive of Richmond Foods, said the expanding soft serve ice-cream market was worth about £65m a year.

The Ice Creamery gave Richmond an opportunity to develop further the sales of Nestl brands acquired last October in a deal worth £10m.

In 1998 Richmond merged with the Leeds lollipop manufacturer Treats and two years later bought the ice cream division of Allied Frozen Foods.

Richmond has a workforce of more than 800, spread across four sites at Leeming Bar, and in Leeds, Cornwall and Devon.

The firm is building a new factory at Leeming Bar, capable of producing about 175m litres a year, making it Europe's biggest ice-cream factory by volume and producing about 30pc of all UK ice-cream eaten in the home.

Richmond announced a record turnover of more than £88m, an increase of 25pc, for the financial year ending on September 30, 2001.

Mr Lambert is seen, right, trying out the Ice Creamery dispensing syste