Starting a mobile ice cream business in France is both a fascinating challenge and a real entrepreneurial opportunity.
The French tradition of street ice cream has never faced a crisis because, no matter the state of the economy, people can always find a few euros for an ice cream and a child’s smile.
But anyone considering entering this market naturally asks themselves:
- will I be able to handle large volumes of customers?
- will the quality of the ice cream and service suffer?
- will the food truck be reliable and easy to maintain?
- will the builder know how to configure it with the equipment and style I want?
VS answers these and other questions with facts: profitable mobile ice cream trucks, designed down to the smallest detail for French clients who are using them successfully.
Our ice cream trucks are not just vans that have been adapted: they are carefully crafted sales tools, attractive to look at and equipped with professional machinery that ensures continuous service even at peak times.
It may seem counterintuitive, but flexibility reduces risks and increases opportunities for profit.
Compared to a traditional ice cream shop, the mobile version lets you go where demand is highest: festivals, sporting events, tourist resorts, public parks, and private commercial spaces.
Here are the stories of 7 French clients who sell mountains of ice cream with their VS-branded food trucks.
Moustache
A chain of ice cream parlors based in Saint Malo, renowned in France for its artisanal ice cream and its ability to innovate: in 2021 it was awarded by Le Monde for the Banoffee flavor, a milk cream that translates the taste of Banoffee pie into gelato. This beloved British dessert combines a buttery biscuit base with banana, cream, and toffee.
The Moustache team uses their Piaggio Ape, one of the most stylish food trucks in France, to participate in events and promote their shops across dozens of French cities.
Meanwhile, as it travels from city to city, the Moustache Ape “shows its moustache” to the French public, who can’t help but turn their heads to watch it go by.
Simone et Maurice
In Dijon, in northeastern France, Simone et Maurice is well known for offering a cozy downtown spot where customers can enjoy delicious homemade brioches for breakfast or a warm hot chocolate in winter, and refreshing drinks in summer. Naturally, ice cream is their star product, the one that has made them famous throughout the region.
With their electric V-Curve Ape, customized by VS Veicoli Speciali, Simone et Maurice can now bring their ice creams and sorbets to private parties (weddings, birthdays, celebrations, etc.) and corporate events (conferences, seminars, anniversaries, etc.).
Pistacchio Gelati
In Cabris, just north of Cannes, Pistacchio Gelati reigns supreme: its artisanal ice creams and sorbets are unmatched. Cakes and pastries round out the offering, making it more than just an ice cream parlor: “a laboratory of taste” would be a more fitting definition.
This mobile ice cream truck, one of the finest examples of a Piaggio food truck in France, allows Pistacchio to share its creations all along the French Riviera. Custom-fitted with an eye-catching design, it delights the eyes before it even delights the taste buds.
Raugi
In Bastia, Corsica, the Raugi family has been making the city’s best ice cream since 1937, along with cakes, cookies, sauces, and popsicles. All products come from an artisanal workshop that uses local, genuine ingredients.
Raugi acquired a fully customized electric V-Curve Piaggio Ape to promote its business at events and fairs across Corsica.
La Martiniere
La Martiniere is a family business with six ice cream parlors in the La Rochelle region, including one in Saint Martin de Ré, known as the “temple of ice cream.” With 250–300 flavors on offer, customers are constantly amazed by the balance between classic favorites and bold, experimental creations.
This Piaggio V-Curve Ape, converted into a mobile ice cream truck, is available for hire at weddings, birthdays, parties, and baptisms. And for macaron lovers, it also features pastry displays that add flavor and color to any private event. A guaranteed way to delight guests.
Maison Charrie
The Lyon area is famous throughout France for its culinary traditions, and Maison Charrie is one of the brands that best represents this heritage. In their boutique on Grande Rue 50 in Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon, the display of pastries, macarons, ice creams, and sorbets is simply irresistible.
The Piaggio V-Curve ice cream truck brings Maison Charrie’s flavours and colours to the streets of the region and to outdoor events. Profit opportunities and mobile advertising travel hand in hand on this refined Italian food truck.
Cheffes
A trio of female chefs, based in the Market Garden City of Romainville near Versailles, offer a fusion cuisine full of exotic flavours and rooted in the principles of social and solidarity based economy. Everything they do is created with love from start to finish.
To promote their restaurant and their original culinary vision, they chose an equally original strategy: a pastry-and-ice-cream food truck built on a Piaggio Porter Craft X, equipped with professional pastry tools, including a soft-serve machine.
What will your new mobile ice cream truck look like? We can’t wait to hear about your project and help you bring it to life.
