A BALLYCLARE bakery which creates personalised letterbox cookies is celebrating five years in business by reporting a 75 per cent increase in sales throughout Ireland and the UK in recent months and the creation of two additional jobs.
Ooh & Aah Cookies is owned by Barbara-Anne McMullan and Ruth Armstrong, and despite having ceased trading for five weeks at the beginning of lockdown, reopened in April,
Its unique offering includes 7- and 12-inch personalised cookie cards and limited edition cookies in various fun flavours.
Ruth said: “We've enjoyed steady growth over the last five years, but as a small team with young families, we felt we that we had no option than to temporary close at the beginning of lockdown.
"It didn’t feel like it at the time, but it was actually the best thing we could have done, because until then we were so busy fulfilling orders that we had little time to consider or plan for the future of the business. We took the five weeks of closure to reflect and put a new strategy in place and this has enabled us to adapt and grow."
Barbara-Anne added: “Ruth and I were able to use the time to get creative, and when we reopened and introduced new products and new flavours, the response has been overwhelming.
"Until March 80 per cent of our orders came through third party websites with fees attached. But we changed our business model and now all our orders are made direct through www.oohandaah.co.uk.
"We’ve been able to take all employees off furlough and we now have seven members of staff having just created two new jobs. We have just invested in two new ovens which has enabled us to massively increase the number of orders we can take.”
