Norfolk-based Macarons & More is launching its first retail outlet at the end of February, British Baker can reveal.

The wholesale and online bakery business, set up by Tim Kinnaird, 2010 runner-up of BBC Two’s MasterChef, will be opening the doors of its first dedicated shop located in the Royal Arcade shopping centre on Gentleman’s Walk in Norwich next month.

The 300sq ft site will consist of a retail premises, which will sell a selection of the company’s macarons, as well as patisserie and an extended cake range, which has been developed by the firm over the last 18 months.

Products will be made from Macaron & More’s production site on Thetford Rd Business Park in Watton, as well as on-site in a dedicated kitchen located above the premises.

Kinnaird, who revealed exclusively to British Baker last January about launching a retail site, said: “For me it’s the most perfect spot. It has an art nouveau-style and is home to a number of high-end shopping businesses, and I wanted to get the best possible site in terms of footfall and people, to ensure overheads were managable.

“The website business is doing really well and we could just carry on doing that. In December, we more than doubled sales year-on-year. But we cannot host everything we want to make online purely for postage reasons, so for the last couple of years we have sold the products at markets and we know they sell well.”

He added that around £60,000 has been invested in total in the shop, as well as new equipment, including a depositor which was purchased in order for Macarons & More to enable consistent-sized products and keep up with demand. 

As a result of the new shop, Macarons & More is expanding its current three-member strong workforce, with the addition of a new assistant pastry chef and Hannah Doncaster, owner of Honeysuckle Cakes in Norwich and a former pastry chef at Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant Claridge’s, who will manage the retail site.

Kinnaird explained that the new shop could lead to further site openings in the future: “The most important thing is to get this site off the ground and get ourselves set up, as I would like to see us established on Norwich high street in the forseeable future. I’m confident it’s going to go well and I think it’s a model that would work in other places.”

To watch British Baker’s Valentine’s-inspired macaron masterclass with Tim Kinnaird of Macarons & More, click here.

Topics