TAKE £300 and make it into a business targeting a £1 million turnover – but there is no secret ingredient.
That is the success story of Ashton-based Candy’s Cupcakes, which started from owner Candice Bannister’s own kitchen.
Now she has provided delicious delights to Black Eyed Peas/The Voice judge will.i.am, LADBible and the Blue Peter team, along with huge firms like Amazon and Goldman Sachs.
After then operating from a studio in her mother’s garage, the growth meant the company had to look for another base and settled on a unit at The Wellington Centre.
But if it was not for husband Oliver’s initial injection, none of what she has today may have been possible.
Candice said: “Oliver literally gave me £300 from home and said, ‘I like doing these cakes and stuff.’ That’s how it started.
“’Just spend it on getting come bulk products.’ I had to think of a business straight away. I knew if I could do things in bulk, I could make more of profit.
“Now we’re aiming for a £1 million turnover. We did £100,000 sales in a month alone, our best month ever.
“When that’s written, it’s a good hook but the reality is different. Everyone says, ‘You must be doing really well.’ But you always look at the bottom line.”
It was back in 2015 that Candice gave up her work for a charity supporting homeless people in Manchester to begin her business full-time. She had previously done it as a sideline since 2011.
Now her business is booming, after a fair amount of hard work.
She added: “We had to move and found this place. We were told it wasn’t available but I was like, ‘We need it, there’s nothing else like it.’
“Converting it was hard work. I had to put fake ceilings in and had to have office built, with heating put in.
“We had to move everything in one weekend, the amount of work was ridiculous but Oliver’s dad has been amazing – he’s now our little delivery driver!”
Candice can rightly look proudly at how far her firm has come but there is no standing still – 2024 is already being addressed.
However, she has also come up with the ideal Christmas gift with her subscription boxes.
For a monthly fee, starting at £120 for three months, customers get £50 worth of exclusive products – including six cupcakes, a large jar, mini jars, cookies, brownies and doughnuts, plus a 20 per cent off voucher in each of the boxes.
With a final delivery date of December 21, Candice added: ”We’ve gone all out – we’ve got cakes, we’ve got cupcakes, we’ve got filled doughnuts, we’ve got filled cookies.
“There’s loads of exclusive stuff and we held a pre-order, which we’ve found as a business can really encourage sales. We’ve sold more than 100.
“It’s really exciting, I love it. I’m always trying to plan ahead for the next year. What films are coming out? What events are coming? Chinese New Year was massive for us last year.”Candice, whose mother is a midwife, coped during Covid-19 lockdown by successfully launching Cake In A Box cake slices that could fit through letterboxes.
And Oliver is now working with her after deciding to operate his own website business – making a joke reality.
He said: “I left to do own things then got a job at Fujitsu working on their website.
“After then, I then met a business partner and our firm was based in Ashton before moving into Manchester but lockdown hit us.
“We got through but it didn’t grow after that. Candice was like, ‘Come on board.’ It was always a bit of a joke between us but it just made sense.”
*CANDY’S Cupcakes is based at The Wellington Centre on Whitelands Road in Ashton-under-Lyne. You can order online by clocking https://www.candyscupcakes.co.uk/.