Couple open microbakery after huge success of lockdown deliveries
Clare Brown outside Loaf Microbakery, which is opening in March in Wymondham and will serve fresh sourdough and coffees. - Credit: Danielle Booden
A couple who began delivering bread locally in the first lockdown are now gearing up to open a microbakery to meet demand.
Loaf Microbakery is set to open in early March in Middleton Street in Wymondham and it will offer fresh sourdough, coffee and other treats to take away.
Owners Clare and Oliver Brown, both 45, started the business less than a year ago, with Mrs Brown baking for friends and neighbours from their home in Great Hockham.
Loaf Microbakery, which is owned by Clare and Oliver Brown, is opening in Wymondham town centre. - Credit: Danielle Booden
While Mrs Brown worked in business development before lockdown, her passion has always been food and since going vegan with her family three years ago she makes most things from scratch.
Mrs Brown said: "In the first lockdown, I started giving things to my neighbours and friends like sourdough, focaccia and cinnamon buns to cheer them up.
Clare Brown, who owns Loaf Microbakery with her husband Oliver, at the new shop in Wymondham. - Credit: Danielle Booden
"A couple of friends were asking for it again and insisted on paying and from that I gained the confidence it could be a business."
Along with her husband, who works as a decorator, they converted their garage into a bakery with commercial equipment as word spread and demand grew.
There will be a range of coffees and hot chocolates available at Loaf Microbakery, which will use oat milk. - Credit: Danielle Booden
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In November, they set up a website offering sourdough and focaccia delivery to nearby towns and villages too and by Christmas she was baking 160 loaves a week.
They were offered the shop in Wymondham, a town they have always been fond of, by the lady that lived opposite them who had previously used it as an art studio.
It has been converted into an open-plan artisan bakery and the sourdough varieties on offer are heritage, seeded rye, stoneground white, chia and flaxseeds and seeded crust.
Inside Loaf Microbakery, owned by Clare and Oliver Brown, which is opening in Wymondham town centre. - Credit: Danielle Booden
Also available is focaccia, cinnamon buns and coffees, which come with oat milk, and everything is plant-based and without refined sugars.
Mrs Brown said: "We have been really overwhelmed with the reaction to the bakery and I even got a letter from the MP welcoming us to the town.
"We will continue to do delivery on Tuesday and Friday as they are the people that got us here in the first place."
Loaf Microbakery will be open everyday apart from Wednesday and Sunday.
