A mum who started her own “artisan” scones business after being placed on furlough has landed some lofty deals delivering to TV crews and the Archbishop of Canterbury. Alex Whitmore, of Joyden’s Wood, near Dartford, was furloughed like many others working in the hospitality industry when the pandemic hit last year.
The mum-of-two is used to running around securing big deals for large hotel clients based in Ashford and around Kent. But when the sales director was faced with the prospect of up to a year’s down time she knew she couldn’t wait around for her next venture. “There was no rush for me to be brought back,” the 34-year-old said. “But I didn’t want to sit around and do nothing.” That’s when Alex teamed up with a friend and started delivering scones to neighbours and isolating friends and family during lockdown. The word got out and before long she was making up large batches and catering for around 250 plain scones on VE day Bank Holiday in May.
The run up to Fathers Day also saw lots of enquiries. Alex, originally from Liverpool, soon began eyeing up a larger business opportunity catering to other events such as baby showers, birthdays and hand delivering them around Kent and south east London. In August she was laid off from her hospitality job and decided to take the plunge and focus on “House of Scones” full time.
She said: “I thought I better take it more seriously… and so I got my food hygiene certificate and set up with the local authority as a business. “Over time I started to do bespoke hampers – I just went with it.”
Alex added: “I’ve got some lovely feedback: ‘best scones ever’ and things like that.
About The Author
Harrison Okafor
editor
Judith is a believer, a lover of Christ and a Gospel freak person. A passionate gospel blogger and press writer. I work with GospelHitsNaija.net Media, no 1 Gospel music platform.
