The owner of a Worcestershire bakery says the business has grown bigger than she ever expected.
Three Bears Bakery has been attracting long queues at farmer’s markets in Worcester and Malvern - but started out in the kitchen of mum-of-three Nicky Riley.
“I started six years ago, baking from home,” she said. “I had three young children and the job I had at the time wasn’t ideal so I started doing birthday cakes and they proved popular.
“In lockdown, the parties stopped so we started doing brownies, blondies, cookies etc and delivering them locally. That’s when we grew massively.
“People wanted to have their treats so we would do ‘knock and run’ street deliveries.”
The company now operates from its own bakery in Hanley Swan and makes monthly appearances at Worcester Market and Malvern Farmer’s Market.
“We don’t do the birthday cakes any more, it’s just the brownies, blondies etc. We now have a little counter at the bakery - we’re not open regularly, it’s more a pop-up shop.
“We advertise it on social media and people can come and get their stuff. We do a few postal orders as well, something else that started in lockdown.
“I always wanted to run my own business - my degree was in business management - but the baking just kind of happened. It has grown bigger than I ever expected, but in a good way.”
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Nicky doesn’t believe there’s any one item that could be described as the bakery’s bestseller.
“It’s a bit of everything, really,” she said. “We advertise a lot on social media, showcasing our new bakes and things that people like. At the moment it’s the Easter-themed things that are doing well.
“People like a mix of things. We do a mix box of six and nine times out of 10 that’s what people buy.”
As for the future, Nicky says the plan for the next year is to “keep doing what we’re doing as it’s definitely working for us right now.
“We’ll be sticking with our regular monthly markets in Malvern, Worcester and Edgbaston as well as getting involved with events such as the Malvern Food Festival and Three Counties Shows. We also have a couple of secret projects up our sleeve.”
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