Parlour 'couldn't keep up' with Percy Pig ice cream messages

Fabio Vincenti posted a picture of the ice cream on social media last week and received a letter three days later

An ice cream parlour that renamed a product after a letter from Marks and Spencer said it "couldn't keep up" with the positive messages it had received.

Fabio's Gelato, based in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, was asked not to use the name Percy Pig in its ice cream.

Owner Fabio Vincenti said it was a case of two companies that "came together and came up with a good solution instead of arguing".

"There wasn't any negativity, it was just well thought out," he said.

Marks & Spencer said the Percy Pig name, which started life as a bag of sweets in 1992 but has since evolved to other ranges, could only be used on "official M&S products".

Mr Vincenti posted a picture of the ice cream on social media last week and three days later he received a "polite and fair" letter from M&S asking for the name change.

It said he could continue to use the sweets, but not the name of the product.

Fabio Vincenti runs the ice cream parlours in Hitchin and Letchworth with his wife Hannah

After the letter was posted on social media and featured in the news, he said: "I couldn't keep up with messages and notifications from friends and family and just messages from customers.

"I reckon 99% were positive, [they were] really chuffed to see it on TV, on the news, and saying 'well done'."

'Frantically making more'

The ice cream has now been renamed "Notorious P.I.G", following an appeal on social media for a new moniker.

Based on the rapper the Notorious B.I.G., Mr Vincenti said it was "pretty funny, it made us laugh".

"We saw another really good one - Hog'n Dazs - which was brilliant, but we said, 'we just can't use that'," he said.

• Why are Percy Pigs a headache for M&S?

He said since it had been on sale the flavour had "gone down really well, we're frantically making more".

Mr Vincenti said he had to buy more sweets to make the ice cream "so I'm still funding M&S".

He believed other parlours could recreate the ice cream and "hopefully it'll be the flavour of the summer".