Shaw's Ice Cream set to expand to Tillsonburg

Shaw's Dairy Bar isn't going anywhere. 

"We're going to be here for years and years to come," said Kelly Heleniak, who along with her two sisters, Kristine Hayes and Kim McCutcheon, scooped up the local ice cream institution on St. Thomas' rim back in 2001. 

The reason Heleniak wants to make that clear is because a private radio station in southwestern Ontario reported the ice cream shop would be moving from its location on Sunset Drive between St. Thomas and Port Stanley to Tillsonburg. 

Still, the damage has already been done. The rumour has travelled far and wide across the region, reaching long time customers who have been calling or dropping by to find out whether the rumours are true. 

"We were shocked," said a man who would only identify himself as Allan, adding he's been coming to Shaw's with his wife for 24 years. "We couldn't believe that with all the Port Stanley traffic and stuff like that, that they would close it."

The good news for ice cream fans is, they're not.

The confusion lies in the fact the company is expanding by moving its ice cream production, which is currently crammed into a single room behind the St. Thomas dairy bar, to a factory space on the outskirts of nearby Tillsonburg. 

"The three of us were born and raised in Tillsonburg," Heleniak said. "There was an opportunity with a building that was available there that we retrofitted for our ice cream facility."

Add to that the fact the three sisters already owned Tillsonburg-based Dad's Ice Cream, a popular ice cream and frozen yogurt spot in the city, the idea only made sense, she said. 

As for the rumours, Heleniak and her three sisters will address those by speaking to their customers and reassuring them that the decades' old ice cream tradition for local families isn't going anywhere. 

"We're looking forward to 70 plus years," she said.