Earth ‘N’ Sea Pizza have been making the best pizzas in the beautiful Byron Bay region since 1976 and are considered a go-to destination by locals and visitors alike. Their space is iconic and not easily forgotten, serving up fun, old school charm and nothing but the highest quality Australian-Italian cuisine. The restaurant is fully licensed and offers a variety of drinks serviced by none other than Paul Jones of Ice & Beverage Solutions.
The Earth ‘N’ Sea brand was created 40 years ago by two backpackers who had the idea to make pizzas in the back of a cafe. Fast forward to today and Earth ‘N’ Sea Byron Bay is the fifth location of the restaurant that owners, David and Denise have owned for 14 years.
To put it simply, Earth ‘N’ Sea offers an amazing Aussie take on an Italian creation of food. David and Denise have remained solid to expressing that through their cooking since the very beginning and have no plans on changing their authenticity.
When it came to their beverages, David and Denise knew there was no one other than Paul who could service their restaurant in the way they envisioned. David states,
“Paul is the sort of person who is very, very easy to talk to. He had been a regular customer at our restaurant in our old location probably close to ten years ago. The drink supplier that we were dealing with at that time was retiring and handing over their portfolio to Schweppes, so we knew it was the right time to change our beverage systems.”
Choosing not to hand his beverage systems over to a big company, David got talking to Paul about the services he offers and the installation process;
“Paul was very up front and honest from the get go. He came in and said “Look, this is what I do, would it interest you?” I looked at the figures and what sort of installation it was going to be and I said, “Yeah, this is something we can definitely go with.” There was no question or doubt in my mind.”
Ice & Beverage Solutions machinery was then fit into Earth ‘N’ Sea. The post mix machine and the ice machine were installed shortly after David and Paul’s initial chat. Years later, the beverage systems are still going strong.
“In the ten years we’ve been with Ice & Beverage Solutions we’ve done surprisingly little maintenance on the machines. We do pump it out too. In the summertime we’ll put 450 people through here in a night, easily. Over the years, with a little bit of preventative maintenance, we’ve probably only suffered probably about three or four whole days in downtime. That’s quite good, and that’s just basically waiting for parts.”
One of the systems fitted in Earth ‘N’ Sea is the ice well that cools the post-mix without refrigeration. What attributes a huge amount of reliability to the machine, and one of the reasons why so little maintenance has been done, is that the ice system doesn’t bank on refrigeration. David states that due to it only having a few solenoids, valves and a carbonator there is only a bare minimum of things that can go wrong.
When it comes to profitability, Paul Jones and Ice & Beverage Solutions take their customers profit margins very seriously. David believes he has seen an extraordinary amount of profit in comparison to bigger companies and what they had to offer,
“100% truthfully, we profit amazingly from Ice & Beverage Solutions. When a bigger company approached me, their prices were nothing like Paul’s. There were all these added things and everything was cheaper if you bought more of it. I didn’t really want any of that. It was all extremely controlled. We also weren’t able to own any of our equipment through large companies, as they lease everything. Ice & Beverage Solutions’ pricing just made perfect sense and we have been able to own our machines.”
Nothing compares to excellent customer service and a working relationship that stands the test of time. With ten years under their belt, Earth ‘N’ Sea and Ice & Beverage Solutions are a great example of what Paul Jones and his team can offer restaurants in terms of looking after all of their beverage related needs.
“Paul is one of the few people you know if you ring him, you’ll get a reply. You know that he’ll answer as soon as possible. That’s well supported by Cathy, his PA, in the office of course. Cathy is often the person who you can speak to when Paul is busy. To speak in another way Paul has got a number of customers in this area, and even still if he’s around, 99 times out of 100, he will drop in just to see how we are.”
To find out more about the services Ice & Beverage Solutions offer, call (07) 5578 9820 or email paul@iceandbeverage.com.au to get in touch with Paul.
