Member Article

Cake Stories enjoys another slice of success

THE co-founder of a fast expanding Tyneside cake business has tasted further success with a prestigious award.

Hannah Evans, who co-founded Cake Stories with husband Ben and parents Liz and Jon in 2015, scooped the regional category in the Family Business Entrepreneur of the Year Award in the Great British Entrepreneur of the Year Awards, held at the Grosvenor House Hotel in Park Lane, London.

Cake Stories opened as a cake and coffee shop in Jesmond in 2015, with Hannah’s mum and dad, Liz and Jon Ward, as partners.

The business grew when Cake Stories started supplying other coffee shops with their tasty cakes, traybakes and brownies – first regionally and then nationally. To keep up with demand, Cake Stories opened a bakehouse kitchen at Hypoint in Salt Meadows Road, Gateshead.

As the wholesale side of the business flourished, Cake Stories opened a café in the centre of Newcastle business hub, Hoults Yard.

The company now employs 45 people across its three sites and growth has been phenomenal – Cake Stories now supplies more than 200 cafés across the country and turnover grew 129 per cent from October 2021 to October 2022.

Now Hannah’s success has been recognised with this respected award.

“I was thrilled to win against such great competition, it’s recognition of the success of the family company and the hard work of our brilliant team,” Hannah added.

“More than 5,000 applied across 13 categories and it was a tough judging process. It was the awards’ tenth anniversary and they’re growing year on year. Former winners include investor and entrepreneur Steve Bartlett and Dragon Den’s star Sara Davies.

“On behalf of my family and the Cake Stories team I was proud to pick up the trophy. It was a business that literally started in my mum’s kitchen – no backers, no investors – and we’ve grown the business organically.

“It’s a simple business really, we make cakes and sell them. The café had been doing well, but the growth really started three years ago when we opened the bakehouse and moved into the wholesale business.

“Cafes like what we do, the variety and colour, and of course the quality. We freeze what we bake, pack them and heat seal them in biodegradable bags, and then post them round the country.

“The award is vindication of our approach – we’re still very much a family business and are proud to be based in the north east, creating north east jobs.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Hoults Yard .