Meet April, the owner of a local company called ‘The Fudge People’. This is the first business April and her husband have created but with multiple restless nights and many worrying days it was going to be harder than they thought. However with their passion for food, nothing could get in their way.
Imagine this, you are sinking into your sofa after a long day and biting into a smooth piece of indulgent fudge, allowing yourself to feel a kind of sugar utopia. Is there anything better?
Let me introduce you to the The Fudge People. They are a family business located in Southend-on-Sea and run by a husband and wife. The Fudge People has been up and running for almost two years now and they are getting bigger and bigger with more flavours of fudge being added every so often; these flavours are made into dairy fudge and vegan fudge!
One of the owners of The Fudge People is April Papagavriel, she puts her heart and soul into this business as this is her full time work whilst her husband works part time at The Fudge People. She hadn’t always thought about starting up her own business and it was only as she turned nineteen that she found a passion for cooking and baking. Over the years this led her to make many delicious meals and scrumptious treats for her family to try. “When I was in my teenage years I knew I wanted to start a hobby of some sort but I wasn’t sure what to do until one birthday I received a cookery book from my auntie and ever since I followed the first recipe, I knew I wanted to make a living out of this”.
April met her husband at one of the restaurants they both worked in and when they first introduced themselves to each other they “clicked”. They both have a passion for food and after years of knowing each other they wanted to take their passion to the next level and start their own business yet they knew they would come across hurdles, but with their enthusiasm they managed to arrive at where they are now.
They weren’t sure what kind of business they wanted to start up and so after many discussions for years they finally settled for The Fudge People. April and her husband wanted to share with the world their creativity and so therefore many ideas crossed their minds, this included; opening a themed café locally, starting a meal subscription service and opening a cookery school. Starting a confectionary shop was something April was really excited to start as she has always been creative ever since she was little. She said, “I started making Christmas hampers many years ago for my family and friends which included homemade jams, biscuits, crafts and fudge. The fudge always went down a treat so that’s when I suggested selling it!”.
Starting a business can be very challenging and every owner anticipates their first order and The Fudge People can relate to this feeling. They explained to me that they didn’t have many funds when starting up so they had to start small, but ever since then they have worked their way up to where they are now. April said, “it was very challenging at times but getting our first orders was very exciting though and it makes all the hard work and stress worth it!”.
Marketing is something that is really important to any business as it’s the main promotion that gets customers to buy and in The Fudge People’s case social media and market stalls is where they promote their products. This meant that April had to bring her creative flare to the table when she had to make the company’s own market stall. She explained that, “It took a lot of research and trial-and-error to find out what works well to attract customers and to give the right impression”. Both April and her husband decided to not spend any money on advertising as she said, “most of our business comes from word-of-mouth, customer recommendations, or from the markets and events we attend”.
As their business has started to grow and develop their products have grown too as they develop new flavours with both their vegan and dairy fudge. The ‘Veganism’ society is growing everyday so it was important for them to include a vegan fudge with a variety of flavours.
As veganism is becoming a larger community now it was important for April to perfect the vegan fudge as there aren’t a lot of products out there that vegans can ‘treat’ themselves too. The Fudge People feel that their recipe is what makes them unique, April said, “It is a real, traditional fudge recipe which I spent years tweaking and perfecting until it was just perfect. Our vegan fudge recipe was even harder to perfect, but it has had fantastic reviews and is commonly compared as being much better than the large, leading fudge companies’ vegan fudge”.
However, The Fudge People are aware that many people are starting to be cautious of their sugar intake as many companies are starting to reduce the sugar that are in their products and there are many sugar free alternatives. They feel that their products are for a “treat” and not for everyday consumption. “Of course our fudge has a lot of sugar! I am aware that many people are more cautious with their sugar intake these days, but it is fine in moderation. Our product is marketed as an occasional treat, not a daily snack!”.As a company that is still relatively new to the confectionary industry, April has discussed with her husband about experimenting on a sugar free alternative to introduce to their line. She explained, “we get asked very often whether we offer a sugar-free option, mostly by people with diabetes and so this would be a very good alternative to offer for those who need to be even more careful with their sugar intake”.
With April having two children of her own, sometimes it can be a challenge balancing her personal life with her business life, yet, as her company is ran from home it does make a big difference as it means her children can be a part of the fudge making business with her and therefore creating a unique bonding experience for everyone. “Children can be a great helping hand especially when there’s sugary sweetness around!” April says, “they are my best taste testers!”. Having her professional taste testers around her a lot of the time means they always get the flavour right. Along with her children being a great help, they also make suggestions to April which goes to create the majority of new flavours, along with welcoming new suggestions from their friends, family and customers.
April and her husband know that starting a business can be very daunting so they decided to give some advice to people who might want to start one, “don’t start a business just because you want to start a business. Try to use something that you are passionate about, like a hobby or a skill, then turn it into a business. It’s much easier to create success if you love your product and the service you provide”.