Every Friday, in the heart of Prettygate, a Norwegian baker has started selling a range of their homemade products on a stand outside the Prettygate pub, from delicious sweet treats to savoury bites to eat. I was able to find out more from the founder and baker Jessika and her partner, Richard.

 

What is the story behind the business?

 

Since Jessika was young, it was always her dream to be a baker. After sitting outside her local bakery and looking through the shop window “seeing all those amazing bakers dressed in pure white… like angels …doing miracles, transforming simple ingredients into amazing bakes,” she trained as a baker in Norway from the age of 15.

 

In 1997, she decided to move to London where she spent six years working as a baker. Unfortunately she had a nasty accident there meaning that she wasn’t able to work as a baker anymore so she moved back to Norway and completed a degree. 

 

However, Jessika missed England so in 2009 she decided to move back and this is when she met and fell in love with Richard. 

 

After their son was born, Jessika decided to start a home bakery to earn some extra money. Her first market was at Marks Tey car boot sale where they sold warm cinnamon swirls and apple cake which were such a great success that they sold out within an hour. 

 

Once Jessika passed her driving test, they were able to sign up to lots of different markets and festivals and when Richard was made redundant two years later the bakery business had grown big enough for them to make a living from it. Three years ago they decided that their kitchen wasn’t big enough to cope with any more baking so they found a “lovely little unit” in Wivenhoe that has since been their bakery.

 

Where are you currently selling your products?

 

We’re currently selling our products at markets in and around Essex and Suffolk in addition to our bakery in Wivenhoe. We are doing between 3 and 8 markets every week.

 

What are your future plans?

 

Our future plan is to employ one more baker and one more market sales person so that we can expand to more markets as we are currently only able to trade at a fraction of the markets that we are invited to trade at. We have also got a lot of requests for wholesale that we have to decline as we haven’t got the capacity.

 

"We are convinced that we can bake the world a better place"

 

Further details of their weekly bakes can be found at www.norwegianbakers.com