Bakery fully booked in 2021 – but business has dried up this year
Debbie and Giles Cowley of Sassa's Bespoke Cakes (inset) are booked into 2021 but are struggling with cashflow. Picture: Sassa's Bespoke Cakes - Credit: Sassa's Bespoke Cakes
A family bakery specialising in wedding cakes has said that it may have to pivot its offering in order to survive.
Sassa’s Bespoke Cakes is run by husband-and-wife team Debbie and Giles Cowley, who bought their home in Banham because it had two kitchens.
Having also had their children help out in the business the pair have seen their revenue slowly dry up as engaged couples move their big day into 2021 - when they can have more than 15 guests.
Mrs Cowley said: “It’s entirely understandable that people want to move their weddings to when they can have more than 15 guests.
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“So the vast majority of our bookings for 2020 have moved to 2021 – to the point where we’re turning away customers because we’ve got full books. But we haven’t got anything coming in at the moment. We’ve tried to diversify as much as we can and start baking lockdown cakes – we’ve added Christmas cakes to our offering which we don’t normally do as well.”
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She said: “It feels to us as though our business is the victim of confusion in government. You can have 30 guests for a funeral but not a wedding – and I think we would see a lot more people holding weddings if they could have more than 15 there.
“Of course the other problem is that at first we were awarded self-employment grants of 80pc on previous earnings which has now been massively reduced.
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“For the chancellor to turn around and say ‘retrain if your business isn’t viable’ is so unfair. We are clearly a viable business and we have trained and worked incredibly hard to build our business and reputation up to what it is. But we cannot control this situation and we may not survive it though we’re doing all we can to.”
