Page 23 - MarketTimesOctober2020
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MARKET TIMES • OCTOBER 2020 Emma said she was thrilled to win the
competition and hopes it will be a launch pad for her fledgling business.
“My mum baked, which is where I got my love for baking, but I have worked at Lidl since I was a child and I am now a store manager working a 50-hour week,” she said.
Baking was just a hobby until she hit on the idea of combining her love of cocktails and baking and created a unique business, The Tipsy Bakery.
“Normally when you put alcohol in cakes it evaporates when you bake them, but I found these pipettes which I have to import from China filled with imaginative cocktail-type alcohols. I have created cupcakes with tasty combinations that are complemented by the customer injecting the pipette into the cake before eating it,” she said.
Her best seller is a vanilla cupcake with homemade passion fruit curd, topped with vanilla butter cream with a passion fruit coulis and fruit slice on the top. The pipette contains passion fruit gin.
Emma launched her business in February.
“I began giving away the cakes to family and friends, then I was encouraged to sell them online through social media.”
She soon realised she needed a physical shop window for her enterprise — and where better than her local market?
“I started selling my cakes at Gravesend indoor market on Saturdays and that went well,” she said. The virus situation stopped her market operation just as it was taking off, but she returned to market after lockdown and is gradually gaining a loyal customer base.
She has also added to her range to include brownies and cakesicles — a cake on a lolly stick within a white chocolate shell.
Emma took a week off her day job to prepare for the Young Traders Market final and was stunned by the wonderful atmosphere and brilliant footfall at the Waterside event.
“From all my years in retail I know how important friendly customer service is for any business, but I have never known a market like the Waterside and I really enjoyed the two days of trading there. I wish I could trade there every day,” she said.
Emma would like to use her win to develop her business.
“Myaimistogodowntofourdaysaweekin my store job and expand my business. I know it is a unique product and I have found markets the ideal place to build a new business — you
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really need to talk to your customers and build a rapport, then you can develop a strong and loyal customer base.”
Joe Harrison, the NMTF’s Chief Executive Officer, said: “We have nurtured the Young Trader of the Year initiative over a number of years because we understand the vital importance of getting young people into the markets industry.
“Also, in these uncertain times, retail markets up and down the country are the ideal first step for budding entrepreneurs to test the water for their new businesses and really understand what their customers, the general public, want. So many household names started on their local market and judging by the brilliant ideas and professionalism on show in Stratford, one of these small businesses could be the next big thing.”
Joe said that despite COVID-19, the initiative had once again been an inspiring success, and he thanked Stratford-upon-Avon Town and Stratford-on-Avon District Councils for their support, as well as private market operator LSD Promotions for their help and hard work.
Thanks also go to the four judges — district councillor Ian Shenton, town councillor Kevin Taylor, and Dale Maybury and Nigel Palmer from Manchester Markets.
   Highly commended were (left to right): Owen Lewis (food and drink, from North East), Kimberley Gregory (general retail, from East Midlands), Chloe Jackson (arts and crafts, from East Midlands), and Amy Halford (grocery, from East Midlands).
The judges – left to right Dale Maybury (Manchester Markets), Coun Ian Shenton (Stratford-on-Avon District Council), Coun Kevin Taylor (Stratford-upon-Avon Town Council) and Nigel Palmer (Manchester Markets).
 











































































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