Online cake company goes from strength to strength

An online personalised cake company which began as a cottage industry pioneering the sale of cakes by post has seen its trade more than double during the Covid-19 lockdown.

Ollerton-based bakerdays has seen a boom in sales because of the coronavirus pandemic, receiving thousands of orders for its home-delivered cakes.

With restrictions on group celebrations and parties, its letterbox gift cakes have enabled families, friends, and colleagues to remotely celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, and other special occasions.

Increased demand meant the business has had to recruit additional staff and to occupy bigger premises.

Founded by Andrea Guzyova, bakerdays specialises in personalised cakes and cupcakes for any occasion with delivery to customers’ homes and businesses. She is confident her company’s triple digit growth will continue as lockdown restrictions are eased.

She plans to expand its range to include personalised gift hampers and by attracting more clients from the corporate market.

Guzyova, originally from Slovakia, said: “While many businesses have been hit hard by the pandemic, we are fortunate to have grown. Orders have more than doubled since the start of April and they are still growing.

“We’ve tapped into a trend for online parties and functions. People still want to socialise but with social distancing they must be more creative, not just about how they communicate, but about how they share in experiences such as food and drink.

“Our business allows them to share celebratory cakes that are made-to-order and can be delivered quickly.”

Guzyova started the business through her love of home baking but stresses that the success of bakerdays has not been achieved overnight.

After launching the company with her business partner in 2011, it has undergone significant change before they arrived at the current business model.

She said: “We anticipated the growth of food and drink e-commerce several years ago and, while the pandemic has speeded things up, selling cakes online is part of a growing trend.

“We had to think carefully about our products and rigorously test what we think will work well. Given the fragile nature of our products the packaging to protect them and maintaining freshness as well as ease of delivery were critical to our success.

“We looked at the success of personalised online greetings cards and other merchandise and thought, ‘why can’t we do that with cakes?’”

bakerdays allows buyers to design their own cakes, cupcakes, and helium balloons and to create bespoke gift sets with their own photos and have them delivered anywhere in the UK and across Europe.

The company says it uses best quality ingredients for all its products. There is also the option of vegan, gluten, wheat, and dairy free recipes.

Guzyova said: “It has certainly been a challenging time, given stock shortage issues within the supply-chain, so we’ve had to be resourceful when it comes to overcoming these, without sacrificing our brand or customer experience.

“We’re delighted to be expanding against a tide but remain passionate about ensuring the same premium quality of product, so we’re being careful not to cut any corners.

“There’s a sense that the lockdown will change people’s shopping behaviour in the longer term.

“While some consumers might be fearful about returning to shopping centres and high street stores while restrictions are in place, the reality is that many people have found they enjoy the convenience and speed of being able to shop online and they will continue to do that.

“In the future we could look back and view this as a turning point in the battle between online and high street shopping and we’re excited to be a part of that.”

For more information visit https://www.bakerdays.com