The biggest clouds hanging over Zbigniew Grycan's fast-growing ice-cream business are not the shadows cast by the world economic crisis, but by Poland's grey and rainy summer.

The economic crisis has not halted his plans to have 80 ice-cream cafés across the country by the end of the year, up from just over 70 currently. The business has been hurt by the recent fall in the value of the zloty, but the overall effects of the crisis have been generally positive by lowering the price of milk and other locally sourced raw materials, which had rocketed last year.

“I have the largest chain of ice- cream parlours in the country, and I'm continuing to invest,” says Mr Grycan, a heavyset 68-year-old, sheltering from the sun under an umbrella outside his café on Chmielna Street in central Warsaw and sipping tea.