article: But the number of ice cream vans has been falling for years, leading some to believe that those bells may mean nothing to future generations of children. A crop of small, family-run businesses is determined to keep the industry alive however. These ice cream entrepreneurs have found business models that enable them to thrive in a market dominated by large retailers. And some have even dipped their toes in the export market. One such success story is Londoner John Bonar, 53, who started selling ice cream when he was just 11. "We would get on a lorry in the East End, fill barrows full of ice cream, get dropped off around Hyde Park or Madame Tussauds and just sell ice cream," he tells me. He launched his own business at the age of 21, selling ice cream from a van with a hole in the floor and windscreen wipers that didn't work. Today his firm Piccadilly Whip operates 20 ice cream vans in London and Essex, and has fixed stands at Tower Bridge. Despite these achievements, Mr Bonar says that conditions have got much tougher for ice cream vans since they first became popular in the UK in the 1950s. "When I was a kid, there was four or five ice cream vans who would come round our streets and they would all earn a living. "But there are less and less over the years, because people can buy ice cream cheaply in supermarkets and everybody has got a freezer in their house." Britain's ice cream market is worth about £1bn each year, according to trade group the Ice Cream Alliance, but there is no concrete data on the number of ice cream vans in operation. The Guardian, however, estimated that there were 2,500 vans on UK roads in 2013, when falling numbers led The Sunday People to launch a campaign to save the industry. Changing tastes may have led to less work for vans on the streets, but there has been a rise in opportunities at festivals, weddings and corporate events. This has become a key source of revenue for Piccadilly Whip, whose vans will sometimes be at seven events at the same time. Piccadilly Whip's vans are made by Whitby Morrison, a Crewe-based firm employing 50 staff, fronted by operations director Ed Whitby. His grandfather Bryan started the business in 1962, taking on vehicle conversions that "everyone else said were impossible" and succeeding, Ed says with pride. The firm became the "market leader" in the 1980s after its main competitor went bust, and today sells around 100 new vans each year, exporting about 20% of them. Its vans sell ice cream in more than 60 countries, including Kazakhstan, Malawi and Guyana - although despite its global ambitions, Whitby Morrison still prides itself on its local roots. "We look to take people on from school, put them through their apprenticeships, suffer all the girlfriend problems, the first mortgage, the first child," Mr Whitby says over the phone. "We're founded on real family values." More stories from the BBC's Business Brain series
summary: For many of us, the distinctive chimes of an ice cream van conjure up happy childhood memories of British summers and dripping ice lollies.