by business editor Trevor Sturgess

A Kent entrepreneur is quitting farming, fruit-growing and farm shops to focus on what he believes is the more lucrative business of ice cream.

Alastair Jessel has a strong track record of business success in the county, and has given talks on enterprise. But in a radical shake-up in his life, he has sold a 260-acre farm that has been in the family for more than a century, put Taywell Farm Shop, Goudhurst, on the market, and moved his family to a new home in Sissinghurst.

He recently closed his specialist shop in Tunbridge Wells - it sold local produce and refreshments - after failing to attract enough paying customers.

He claims there is too little profit in farming and is investing £100,000 in expanding his Taywell Ice Cream business.

After what he says were unjustified complaints from neighbours about the ice cream business located on his farm, he is shifting it to Paddock Wood where he began his entrepreneurial career with a stone tile business two decades ago.

"All farms are struggling," he claimed. "It's terribly sad that farming is under such pressure. The ice cream business is where I see the future for me. I've had more interest in the ice cream business than I've ever had in anything I've ever done in my life."

He plans to offer an Ocado-style home delivery ice cream service with online orders. Taywell already sells more than 40 flavours, as well as three made with goat's milk. "I want to take something I've already got and build on it. We make so many people happy. I just love it. It's really fun."