The family business began as early as 1960, when migrant Francesco Rizzo purchased a gelato van. Being one of the very first mobile vendors of his time, he sold gelato around the streets of Melbourne, as well as at festivals and other events for over 30 years.

Francesco had a significant influence on his three sons Joe, Pat and Michael and they too entered into the mobile vending business working alongside their father.

Keen to progress however, in 1993 the brothers purchased their very first archaic and labour intensive semi-automatic cone-baking oven, producing traditional single and double wafer cones. In 1994, they travelled to Europe, upgrading their equipment to a full baking oven. This allowed them to approach independent supermarkets, cafés, yoghurt shops and ice cream and gelato bars across Victoria & Australia.

Altimate Foods has achieved a majority share of the Australian market through years of showcasing and building their reputation and relationships with customers.

In 2004 Altimate Foods purchased their first waffle cone oven increasing their product range and enabling the business to supply the popular waffle cone to its customers. Today, Altimate produce the largest range of wafer cones, sugar cones, waffle cones, waffle crunch and dessert wafers in Australia.

The cornerstone of our food safety and quality culture is detailed in our HACCP based Food Safety and Quality Systems. This operates at all levels of the business and its effectiveness is formally verified every six months.

The Food Safety and Quality System encompasses vendor standards including Aldi, Coles, and Woolworths, as well as the Global Standard – SQF. This includes providing technically competent staff which hold responsibililty for the day to day development and maintenance of the Food Safety and Quality System.

Altimate’s Food Safety and Quality accreditations have opened up opportunities with export markets. Through research and innovation Altimate have developed Green Tea, Cocoa Black and Chocolate flavoured waffle cones for both local and global markets.

“We pride ourselves on the research and development our team undertakes and as a result we are the leaders in our industry.”