DoughGirl is set to increase production capacity through further expansion of its Lincolnshire bakery to help meet skyrocketing online demand for its indulgent sweet treats.
The brand was created in January of this year by Emma and Stuart Colclough, the husband-and-wife team behind The Chuckling Cheese Company, out of their unit at A52 Business Park in Wainfleet All Saints.
It was initially launched on TikTok Shop, with videos of its range of deluxe cookies and deep-filled cookie pies quickly going viral and sees orders quadruple. A concession featuring a refrigerated counter was then opened in February inside The Chuckling Cheese Company’s retail shop at Metrocentre in Gateshead.
A strategic decision was made in March to invest £250k on transforming their existing warehouse into a dedicated bakery, with a website going live the following month to offer another e-commerce channel.
Building work on the new bakery was completed earlier this month, taking their production space from just 580 sq ft up to 3,330 sq ft – this has allowed DoughGirl to increase capacity six-fold and bring its workforce up to 22 employees.
Its current bestselling cookie pie slices are the White Bueno, Milkybar, and Cadbury Caramel varieties, while White Chocolate & Pistachio, Cadbury Wispa, and Triple Chocolate are the most popular flavours of deluxe cookies. It said it regularly introduces new lines such as the recent Yorkie Biscuit & Brownie Deluxe Cookie and Lion Bar Deluxe Cookie for Father’s Day.
Now, with sales continuing to grow, the Colcloughs are planning to spend an additional £300k to extend the bakery site up to 5,380 sq ft over the coming months. This will help increase its output to over 30,000 units per week, with further steps in August and September adding another 10,000 units per week. Five new jobs are also expected to be created from the next expansion phase.
Another sweet treat specialist, Ooh & Aah Cookies in Northern Ireland, has also enjoyed rapid revenue growth via TikTok Shop in recent years, while Doughlicious partnered with Walkers Crisps to sell limited edition Extra Flamin’ Hot flavour of its Cookie Dough & Gelato Bites on the platform in January.
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