Sweet taste of success for expanding business
Owners
of popular sweet store Sweet Delight, in CrownGate Shopping Centre have
expanded their successful operation by opening a new store in Windsor.
Paul and Rachel Martin have opened a shop in the hugely popular tourist area of London, hoping to emulate the success of the CrownGate store, which is going from strength to strength.
The enterprising couple also currently has a store in Redditch and short-term lets for Christmas in Cheltenham and Walsall, though say Worcester is their shining example.
“The volumes of sweets we sell are truly eye-watering, as well as mouth watering – Worcester and Windsor are selling about a ton of sweets a week each at the moment,” explained Mr Martin.
“We sold about 10,000 bags of sweets just last week and have sold just over 300 of our ‘Nostalgia’ jars since they came out a few weeks back. In Worcester alone during the week of the Victorian Fayre, we sold sweets to 3,000 customers, which was fantastic.”
Mr Martin, who built up the business from scratch into what is now a thriving local enterprise, said he is also looking into opening a new store in Hereford next year.
“Expansion like ours may seem odd in the current climate, but there are good opportunities for leasing shops and retail outlets if you have the right business proposition.
“We package all our sweets in our 2,000sqft warehouse in Droitwich, where we fulfil our web orders, and we deliver in our van. We also produce all our own artwork for everything from ads and posters to bags and labels.
“I think the individuality of our products and stores is our appeal - we don’t sell branded sweets – if you want those, you can go to somewhere like Tesco.
“We also try to make visiting our stores a really pleasurable experience, creating the charm and ambience of an old-fashioned sweet shop, which many people still remember so well – and it seems to be working.”
Erica Burlace, CrownGate centre manager, said: “Sweet Delight is such a lovely store to have in the centre. The shelves are packed with such a vast range of delicious products in all shapes, colours and sizes – it evokes so many childhood memories and is extremely popular with customers.
“We are delighted that the business is doing so well, and are confident that it will continue to thrive in CrownGate.”
Published on: December 8, 2008
