Gluten free bakery business expands

A gluten free bakery is moving into new premises and opening a café this spring.

Wildcraft Bakery is opening a unit on Green Road in Meanwood, Leeds, in April and is currently crowdfunding to raise funds to support the opening.

The bakery is owned by Mina Allsopp and Sam Havas. While studying for her PhD, Allsopp began Wildcraft Gluten Free Bakery in her kitchen, using her foraging skills, her passion for baking and bringing in influences of her Kenyan heritage. She moved the business to an industrial unit in Praveen Street and developed a steady customer base.

Among her customers was Havas, a fellow Coeliac who hadn’t eaten ‘real’ bread in years. She was so impressed with Allsopp’s sprouted buckwheat sourdough, she quit her 15-year career as a midwife and joined Mina on a quest to share artisan gluten free food with Leeds and the wider world.

From there the business grew, with Allsopp leading on the food side and Havas on the business development.

Havas said: “Our customers are at the heart of our business. For example, we make customers cry with joy nearly every week when they eat our food as they haven’t eaten food like this for years due to dietary restrictions. We want people to love our food as much as we do.”

As the customer base has grown, Mina and Sam took the decision to open a café. To do this they embarked on a crowdfunding campaign and selected the Back Her Business Programme.

Back Her Business is a partnership between NatWest and Crowdfunder. Most of the funding will come via crowdfunding, although the bank has said it will provide top-up funding of £1m per annum and will offer up to 50% of an individual’s fundraising target (capped at £5,000) for certain successful projects.

Havas said: “We knew crowdfunding was going to be part of the new café and Back Her Business was the perfect solution as we are two women doing something we love – working and building this business together.”

She said they are looking to expand the mail order side of the business in the months ahead.

Rachel Middleton, business growth enabler at NatWest, said: “Back Her Business has been created to help businesses like Wildcraft Bakery thrive and grow, and we wish them every success with the new café.”

The crowdfunding campaign closes on 18 March. To support, visit: https://natwestbackherbusiness.co.uk/wildcraft-bakery