Simply Doughnuts has sweet taste of success

A START-UP food business has the sweet taste of success after winning orders from national retailers.

Simply Doughnuts, which has received financial advice and support from local agency Regenerate Pennine Lancashire, only opened for business this month, and has secured a deal with the Poundland and 99p Store chains to be sold in 800 shops around the UK

Its doughnuts – which uniquely have a 17-day shelf life – will mostly be sold at independent garage forecourts around the North West.

Simply Doughnuts received help from the European Regional Development Fund supported Lancashire Innovation Network (LIN), which is delivered by Regenerate Pennine Lancashire, to create an automated online ordering system.

Regenerate also helped source funding for required machinery from Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council’s Assistance To Industry programme.

Simply Doughnuts currently employs six people and predicts it will double in size in the next 12 months.

Managing director Shiraz Master said: “The project initially took a while to set up as we didn’t want to rush into things without in-depth planning.

“We received a great deal of support from Regenerate’s advisors and were able to move quickly in order to begin production. Once we had completed market research and finalised a recipe we received an excellent response from clients and gained lots of interest rapidly.”
 
“In addition to the funding support they provided, Regenerate also helped us consider different areas and approaches to our business in order to strengthen our new firm.”

Hugh Roberts, business support and innovation manager at Regenerate, said: “We help Lancashire businesses access technology to grow and compete, so are pleased that Simply Doughnuts have already secured distribution around the UK from their base in Blackburn.”