From a sweet treat start-up to a bakery empire, Blooming Baked is cooking up a storm as the business goes from strength to strength.
Blooming Baked is the brainchild of Daniel and Danni Horton. The Deeside-based married couple, and now business duo, found themselves at home, isolating with two young children, and looking for a way to pass time during the frustrations of lockdown.
Now, the business novices run a thriving online operation with a shop set to open in Shotton later this year, the cherry on top of the cake for the entrepreneurial pair.
Starting out with just brownies on the menu, and originally known as Blooming Brownies, the husband-and-wife team taught themselves all things baking from the comforts of their home kitchen.
Daniel said: “We decided to start a bakery business because the first lockdown was a scary time and we wanted to bring happiness to the darkness. Everyone loves a delicious treat, and we thought it would be a great way to connect people together again.
“We didn’t have any previous baking experience, but we had time. We committed 100 per cent of our time, around looking after our two young children.
“After nine months of planning and practising, we launched to the public in January 2021
After selling solely through Facebook for the first six months, the business launched a website and began to grow in popularity.
Customers began asking for other tasty creations, like rocky road and cupcakes, which led the Hortons to rebrand in January 2022. Renamed Blooming Baked to encompass the new products, the rebrand included a new logo, uniforms, and a greatly anticipated refreshed menu.
At this time, Daniel enlisted the support of Superfast Business Wales with the aim of driving further business growth through online sales.
Daniel said: “Our sales through Facebook and the website were going well, and we were posting content on social media, but I knew we could have a better online presence and generate even more online sales - I just didn’t know how to make it happen.
“Nick Palmer at Business Wales helped us when we first started the business, talking us through our general business strategy, and he pointed us in the direction of the Superfast support. Nick has gone above and beyond his role and has been a huge asset for us.
“We began working with an advisor, Catrin Williams, who carried out a full review of our website and marketing. She gave us a detailed report of the pros and cons, with recommendations on what could be improved - it was more than 30 pages long and gave us so much to work with.”
Improvements focused on search engine optimisation (SEO), including keyword research and on-site performance. Interested in learning more about paid-for advertising, the report also provided Daniel with a better understanding of how to run tailored pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns on Facebook and Google.
Daniel added: “The main suggestion for us was to optimise our website with keywords that would rank on Google. SEO can be a challenge if you don’t know what you’re doing, so it was helpful to have some guidance on where to start.
“We initially spent some time doing keyword research and have now begun making changes to our website, such as adding the keywords to our web copy, adding meta descriptions, and making the flow of the site more user friendly.
“Our online sales have doubled since before the rebrand and we know that all the changes we’ve made are cogs in the wheel to make this happen.
“We’ve recently added SEO analytics to our website, so we’ll be able to monitor the progress and continue to improve the site over the coming months. We also registered our business with Google geographically and we’ve seen almost instant results from this - our local customer base is growing, and our customers tell us they found our website or Facebook page from Google.”
With the Shotton-based shop set to open in September, the baking duo are working round the clock to fulfil orders whilst fitting out the unit on Chester Road.
Excited for the future, Daniel said: “Getting the shop ready to open has been stressful, but we’re working hard to meet our goal of launching in September.
“We plan to continue selling through Facebook and online and we’ll be hiring staff to support us in the shop.
“The running of the business and our online presence will remain with us as we continue to work through the report from Superfast Business Wales.
“We know we’re on the right track to keep growing and our main goal over the next 12 months is to welcome customers through the door in Shotton, as well as further driving the commercial side of the business.
“We supply baked goods to several businesses for resale, such as cafes, soft play centres, and ice cream shops, and we know there’s a lot more potential there for us within foodservice.
“The support from Superfast Business Wales has helped us massively and we’re so grateful to Nick and Catrin for working with us and truly understanding our business and what we’re trying to achieve.
“The increasing sales across Facebook and the website has meant we’re able to open the shop - we’re at a point I never thought we’d be at when we first had the idea back in lockdown.
“I would definitely recommend the support to small businesses, and especially start-ups with no previous experience in running a business.”
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