Name: Becky Stubbs

Business name: Sweetmere

Opening hours: Currently click and collect only in line with Covid-19 restrictions

Address: 1 Scotland Street, Ellesmere, SY12 0DE

When did you open your business and why?

I’ve BEEN here seven years now.

I opened because I used to make sweet bouquets and sweet trees for friends and there was a gap in the market for it.

There was lots of sweet shops popping up here, there and everywhere at the time, but none of them were making sweets into gifts like we do, so I thought it would be a good idea.

We were one of the first to do what we do in the Ellesmere area.

Why in this location?

It’s SOMEWHERE local to where I live. It’s been good and very positive overall over the years. It’s a good place because all of the businesses support each other and help each other out, which is nice.

It’s a very community-orientated place.

Tell us about your business

We DO bespoke sweet trees and sweet bouquets – so we make them up of people’s favourite sweets and chocolates.

They’re quite popular for landmark celebrations including birthdays and anniversaries, as well as Valentine’s Day and so on.

We also offer balloons and greetings cards as well as the traditional pick and mix and retro sweets.

The sweet trees and bouquets are the most popular items we offer. We usually, in normal times, have people coming from all over the place to buy them – but obviously not at the moment because of the pandemic.

It’s really nice to see people coming from as far as Crewe, Nantwich and Birmingham.

During the pandemic we have been operating a click and collect service – we were offering delivery to some places, but with cost in mind we only deliver in Ellesmere.

It is mainly click and collect now, so obviously the pandemic has affected the way we do things which is a shame.

The support has been good – the first lockdown we were really busy. We were doing pizza boxes of retro sweets and pick and mix which people liked.

This time of year we are normally quite quiet.

What is your proudest moment?

Every year we do something for charity around Christmas time, choosing a different charity each year.

I’m always proud of that because over the years we have raised money for a lot of causes. Every year it’s something nice to give back.

This year we supported a local man who is running back to back marathons to raise money for the charity CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably).

Any strange requests?

It’s not really anything too strange, but once we had someone order a bespoke bouquet, and he put an engagement ring in the middle.

That was something different and it hadn’t happened before.