Wildcraft bakery - a treat for everyone

Aim

From dining room to Industrial estate, our Allergy Conscious bakery now needs your help to take our next step to a high street Cafe and Shop

The story so far

Who and what is Wildcraft Bakery?

At the heart of Wildcraft bakery are two women who have a passion for good food and believe that dietary restrictions shouldn't mean a life deprived of fresh, tasty bread, cakes, pies, tarts, doughnuts, pastries and all the other things that make life worth living. 

We are so proud that our products regularly bring our customers to tears of happiness. Whatever allergy or intolerance people have they deserve 'real' food. 

And we don't want 'normal' people to feel that our products aren't for them, we don't take anything 'out' (or put anything weird in!) we just use alternative grains like teff, buckwheat, sorghum, millet, gram - wheat is just one (boring!) grain. We use dairy and eggs for those that want them, but we are equally comfortable with using plant based alternatives.  

We want to create a space where families, friends and everyone can eat together and no one feel like the 'fussy' one.

Not being able to eat certain things can leave people feeling isolated and different.  It's often embarrassing and stressful to eat out.  Birthdays, weddings and special occasions can become a miserable experience.

Mina and Sam's baby has come so far in the last three years, we've won awards, been in the newspapers and on the telly.  And our baking family has now increased to six! Everything we have done to get this far has been entirely self funded.  But now it's time for the next big step, and we're going to need some help...

Our future vision

We know we’ve gone as far as we can go from our industrial unit, and we need to move on.  To realise our dream of a mail order service we need more space. So many of our loyal customers are willing to travel miles to visit us on the industrial estate, but it would be so much nicer to have a proper home, to be on the high street, to open a shop and café. 

At the new premises there's enough space for us to have a gorgeous cafe where you can sit and enjoy a delicious meal, regardless of your dietary requirements and a shop where you can buy our baked goods to take home. It will be completely accessible with step free access, family friendly and dog friendly too!

                                Cafe & Shop Space before work starts!

In the kitchen, we will have a bakery space where we can be baking fresh scones and cakes all day long. As well as preparing all the delicious food we'll be serving in the cafe. At the back we will have a teaching and events room where we will run our bakery courses and other community activities. 

We want to do so much there, create a safe space for people to eat out, run our baking courses, board game evenings, children’s baking parties, to become a community focused hub, we have so many ideas!

We’ve been loved and supported by our amazing customers every step of our journey so far, but now we need money to turn our dreams into a reality and to give you what you want from Wildcraft bakery. 

Why pledge?

It's a huge project.  Work is underway, the builders are in, we're buying furniture and although we are borrowing money from the bank, we want to reduce the risk to our families as much as possible.  And with Natwest willing to support women entrepeneurs and throw in £5000 of free cash, this seemed like too good an opportunity to pass up!

We've gone above and beyond to turn Wildcraft from a home business into a thriving, successful food hub. When we opened the bakery on the industrial estate, all we had to throw at the venture was a load of donated equipment, £1000 and a hell of a lot of determination. 

                                             The bakery in 2016

In the last 3 years, every penny that we have earned in profit has been plowed straight back into growing the bakery. In that time, we've learned masses about how to run a successful business and our turnover in the last year was as much as in the two years that came before. This has been an incredible achievement but we've reached the point now where to grow further, we need money. 

We've found the perfect location for our new cafe, bakery and teaching space but it is a bomb site. We need a new floor, new ceiling, new walls, (we're not kidding!) new toilets, hot running water, as well as all the furnishings and equipment.

What will the money be spent on?

Our estimates are that it will cost us around £45,000 to get the new premises up and running and do all the things we want to do. We've invested so much ourselves up to this point, but we really need some help. That's why we've turned to you. £10,000 - £5000 from you and £5000 from Natwest will reduce the amount we have to borrow. Every penny that we raise above this, means less to borrow and less interest to pay and more money to spend on making the cafe awesome. If we are lucky enough to beat our target we will have some amazing extra rewards and special thank you gifts for everyone who has pledged.

To give you an idea, here's a few of the things we're paying for:

• Building work and electrics: £18000
• Security shutters: £4000
• Disabled toilets: £1000
• Flooring: £2500
• Heating/cooling and extraction: £2000
• Coffee machine £2000
• Crockery and cooking equipment: £2000
• Furniture and fittings: £2500
• Roof repairs (thanks Storm Ciara!) £1500

We've proved in the time since we opened that we can make money stretch and we're not afraid to get our hands dirty or think outside the box. Mina, Sam,  our bakery assistant, Regan and our long-suffering husbands are going to be building counters, bench seats, upholstering, painting etc. Every pound that you pledge will be invested wisely into a business that, with your help, will be around for many years to come!

Risks and challenges

The £5000 we're asking for isn't everything we need, but it's a massive step in the right direction. It will give us such a huge boost to be able to open our shop, cafe and mail order service. We are hoping to raise as much as possible through Back Her Business so that we can open in 6-8 weeks time. We're experts at making the pennies stretch but we will have to be careful to prioritise what to spend the money on. A glamorous, fully equipped cafe would be lovely, but we're happy to take our time getting there. So we are going to be a work in progress when we open. We would love to be able to do everything all at once, but we are going to have to be careful and start simply. We have the premises, work is underway, and we are scouring ebay and gumtree daily for bargains! Amazingly, so many of you have already donated your time, furniture, offers of help and creative skills and we're overwhelmed by the love out there.  

We will get your rewards to you as soon as we are able, some of which could be very quickly, but some might take a few months. We promise to keep you up to date with progress!

This project successfully funded on 18th March 2020