Popular ice cream business Mark Toney’s has been sold to new owners after more than 130 years of trading on Tyneside – and the business is staying within the family.
The firm’s owner Antony Marcantonio – the great grandson of the gelateria’s founder – last year announced plans to retire, after dedicating his life to growing the business. Mark Toney’s has served generations of families across Newcastle since the first shop opened its doors inside the Grainger Market in 1892, after Antonio Marcantonio brought a taste of Italian ice cream to the historic market from a tiny mountain village near Rome.
Expansion in the 1960s and 1970s led to two new ice cream parlours and coffee shops, run for the last few decades by Mr Marcantonio and his wife Anne. Now Mark Toney & Co Limited – which includes the two shops, a factory and offices on Benton Square Industrial Estate – has been sold to new owners in a deal overseen by specialist business property adviser Christie & Co.
