The Inside Scoop
Welcome to the fourth edition of THE INSIDE SCOOP – our Messina staff newsletter. Let's catch up on what's happening!
April 2024
International Women’s Day - Inspire Inclusion
Every year, we come together to celebrate the achievements of the brilliant women who work at Messina and reinforce our commitment to women's equality and gender diversity in our workplaces.
This month, we celebrated International Women’s Day around the country with a variety of events designed to make a positive difference for the women in our business.
Sydney
At Marrickville HQ, we had the pleasure of hosting Michaela Johannsen, a young business owner and founder of the boutique catering company, Aplenty.
Michaela and her team created a delicious brunch in our Messina Creative Department restaurant, and Sian Bishop (our Head of Brand and Marketing) hosted an insightful Q&A about the challenges of establishing your own business in the food industry.
Check out the video of our Q&A session here to hear Michaela’s take on having a vision (and a bunch of self-belief), taking the plunge, the importance of building a supportive network, the benefits of creating and maintaining balance in your work and personal life, and the impressive team of women who now work in her business.
Interstate
This year, our Regional Operations Managers hosted International Women’s Day events in Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and the Gold Coast.
These events provided an opportunity for the female managers and supervisors in our store teams to connect and build relationships and share positive experiences of their contributions to the business.
Our lunch in Melbourne was the perfect opportunity to welcome our newest Store Manager – Loretta Carcamo – to the family. In Adelaide, our new team was able to take a well-deserved pause to reflect on the incredibly successful (and monumentally busy!) start they have had at our newest store.
COMING UP AT MESSINA!
Messina x Snapchat – 8 May 2024
If you’re a serial Snapchat user…get excited as we are collaborating on a special flavour that will be launched on the 8th of May to celebrate Mates Day. Manager’s brief coming soon with all the details…
Mother’s Day – Sunday 12 May 2024
Our very own Head Chocolatier, AKA Millie Wonka and her chocolate team have been diligently crafting a special box of chocolate bars for this Mother's Day release. The box of 8 bars includes Chocolate Brownie, Raspberry Caramel and even Tea & Biscuits in chocolate bar form.
The special edition chocolate box will be going on sale to customers at the end of April, via our website and be available for postage Australia-wide.
Don’t forget - staff members receive a 50% discount on orders – once the product is live on our website, use code STAFFMERCH50 at checkout to redeem.
The Messina Milk Bar is coming to VIVID 2024
Friday 24th May 2024 – Saturday 15th June 2024
We are thrilled to announce we’ll be back at Vivid this year! The MESSINA MILK BAR will be setting up shop for the duration of the festival selling Messina’s own gelato chocolate bars, custom dixie cups, milkshakes and spiders. We're currently in the early stages of construction…stay tuned for more exciting updates!
If you are interested in any event shifts, please speak to your manager and then contact christie@gelatomessina.com for more information!
Dessert Masters
If anyone can be referred to as a Dessert Master, it’s our very own Donato Toce. Donato will be heading to Melbourne in April to be a contestant on the next series of Dessert Masters which will be live on Channel 10 in June or July this year.
Goodbye Grant!
On a more sombre note, it is with great sadness that we are now saying goodbye to our Perth store manager/Messina OG/Customer service guru/Super dad, the one and only Grant ‘Quincy’ Moorhouse.
When Grant came on board all those years ago, he elevated our customer service to the level we now try and emulate across all of our stores Australia wide to this day. The imprint he’s left on us as a company is huge and we at HQ would love to thank him for his years of service and wish him and his family nothing but the best for all their future endeavors.
In the words of the great man himself ‘Thanks, see ya later’
Staff jumpers
We know the temperatures are dropping – staff jumpers for our store staff will be available in the next 4 weeks. Your manager will have all the details, but until then, here’s a peek at what they’ll look like.
A big welcome to our newest permanent team members!
Loretta Carcamo - Store Manager – Richmond
Saroj Khatiwada - Gelato Production & Packaging Team - Marrickville HQ
Paola Pellegrini - Demi Chef – Messina Creative Department
Amelia Voisey-Youldon – Event & Booking Coordinator - Head Office
Julia Sauter – Pastry Chef - Shadow Baking
MESSINA ON THE POD – Latest Podcasts we’ve appeared on:
The Producers: Donato Toce – Cow to Cone on Deep in the Weeds
The Secret Recipe Behind Australia’s Favourite Gelato – Nick Palumbo on The Mentor with Mark Bouris
How Gelato Messina Collaborate: Declan Lee on This is How We Do it
Is it Christmas already?!
We’re already starting to plan for Christmas 2024 and we’d love to hear from you if you have any ideas you think our customers will love as Christmas gifts this year. Whether it be a gift idea we could sell on our website, a flavour idea or plans for an edible product you think would sell well over the festive season, send it over to Sian, our Head of Brand & Marketing at sian@gelatomessina.com
Last but not least
Finally, we are sad to say that our wonderful Customer Service & Staff Engagement Coordinator – Nahreisa Butler – will be leaving us this week to return to an operations role at Sydney Airport. Reice has had a big impact in the short time that she’s been with us, and we wish her all the best for her new role.
We are actively recruiting for a number of new Head Office roles in our events, marketing, social media and customer service teams. Keep an eye out for a bunch of new starters!
Useful links
MindFit At Work is our staff assistance and wellbeing provider. You can login here. Use the same email linked to Deputy and this code to login 095954
Staff portal - Check out the staff portal here to find staff discounts and more.
We hope you have enjoyed the fourth edition of The Scoop. Had a team outing? We would love for you to share your pictures! Send to HR@gelatomessina.com