A Nottinghamshire businesses is going from strength to strength after what started in a Bottesford home has now grown into a massive unit as the owners plan to open a shop next week. Amy Stroud and Simon Dickinson set up Exploded Sweets a little over two years ago in October 2022.
The business, located between Bingham and Grantham, offers a range of freeze dried sweets, which can be bought by customers or sold to wholesalers, and is now one of the UK’s leading freeze dried sweets suppliers. Freeze drying something involves freezing the item and then removing all of the air and water vapour, before then gradually warming it back up.
Amy explained that they have recently secured a big contract with Home Bargains, and they also hope to open their own shop next week. At the moment the business primarily sells sweets through its website and social media, with a following of around 80,000 on TikTok, but they are looking forward to opening a physical store in Bottesford in addition to their industrial unit.
Amy explained that they are trying to make enough stock for the shop so it can open but they “keep on selling out.” Luckily, the business now has a team of 24 people and 19 freeze dryers to help them meet their customer demand.
Whilst the couple plan to open the store next week, they advise people to check their social media for when an official opening date is confirmed. Speaking about the business, the 37-year-old shared: “We are so proud of ourselves.
(Image: Amy Stroud)
“We could not have done it without our team, they have been amazing. Some of the staff that we have now are people that used to be in our house and in our spare bedroom and we used to have a run up and down the stairs and our dining room was constantly full of sweets.”
She described the whole process as being “such a journey.” However, before Amy and Simon started creating their sweet treats they used to freeze dry something else.
Amy explained: “We had our own freeze dryer at home and we used to go freeze dried vegetables. We heard about freeze dried sweets and thought we would give it a try.
(Image: Amy Stroud)
“We went to a trade show and brought the vegetables and the sweets with us, and the sweets had a queue as long as you could see. Everyone loved the sweets.”
The business offers a range of sweets, including a variety of sour, vegan and halal sweets. Not all sweets can be freeze dried, and depending on the type it can take anywhere from six hours to 12 hours to make them.
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