Sweet success for Birmingham social enterprise
One of Birmingham’s best-known social enterprises is celebrating its seventh birthday in style, after securing orders from two of the world’s largest social media platforms.
Miss Macaroon, which was founded by Rosie Ginday to provide training and employment opportunities for disadvantaged young people, was asked to create an Instagram branded wall of 300+ macaroons for a major corporate event in London.
This made such an impression that the patisserie was quickly asked by Facebook to supply logo printed products, adding its name to an impressive list of clients including Goldman Sachs, Virgin Money, Google and BP.
“I can’t think of a better way to celebrate seven years in business than providing macaroons for two of the most popular brands in the world,” said Rosie, who has received numerous awards for her work in setting up and developing the social enterprise.
“We’ve gone from a standing start, £500 and a bit of kitchen space in 2011 to a £350,000+ turnover, employing eight people and working from two dedicated kitchens and our first Miss Macaroon shop in Birmingham’s Great Western Arcade.”
She said the best thing about her company’s growth was that it had enabled her to put 38 people through the Macaroons Make A Difference (MacsMAD) course that aims to give young people not in education, suffering from mental health issues or living in care the chance to learn new skills and gain valuable workplace experience
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“A lot of our students have gone on to have careers in retail or catering and we want to add to these success stories as we move towards our 10th birthday,” she said.
From its dedicated kitchens in Aston, Miss Macaroon makes, hand pipes, bakes and hand fills 5,000 macaroons every day.
All its products are gluten free and, over the course of the year, there will be up to 40 flavours, with passion fruit and mango and tonka bean to be introduced for the spring.
These are sold direct to corporate customers, people looking for wedding/birthday treats or through the firm’s shop in the city centre that will shortly be undergoing a makeover to provide sandwiches and Afternoon Teas as well as macaroons, Prosecco and Indian Pale Ale.
“This is just the start and we have lots of ambitious plans for 2018, there’s no taking our foot off the gas,” added Rosie.
“We will be moving to a monthly MacsMAD course shortly and are just putting the finishing touches to a brand new programme that will look to tackle unemployment in the young Bangladeshi/Pakistani community. I can’t say too much yet on that, but there will be nothing else like it taking place in the UK.”
