A popular Egremont café has expanded to include a playroom and sweet shop.
Emma’s Bakes, based on Main Street, has exploded in popularity since it first opened its doors back in July 2023.
Owners Emma, 31, and her husband Chris Scurr, 39, of Egremont have now expanded their business by transforming their upstairs into a sweet shop and playroom complete with extra seating.
With over 11,000 followers on Facebook – Emma’s Bakes has gone from strength to strength serving everything from sausage rolls to sandwiches, cakes, afternoon tea and more.
The decision to set up the sweet shop was inspired by the duo’s partnership with Candy Cabs, a Cleator Moor-based business that delivers and mails sweets, snacks and drinks to people’s doors.
The shop is being run by owners Dave Hampson, 31 and Louise Milfull, 34, both of Cleator Moor, and is open to everyone – not just café customers.
Dave said: “We started as a pre-order and collect service working from Phoenix Court in Cleator Moor and last year I messaged Emma saying would it be possible to put bags of sweets in the shop and give them a commission and we started from there.
“We did want a sweet shop but the price of finding one wasn’t financially an option for us, so when Emma and Chris offered the spare room we said yes.
“It has definitely helped us, we went from 182 followers to over 600 followers in a few hours on Facebook and had an influx of orders and similar customers coming to us.
“The café has become a proper hub – and we’re thinking about doing more together like cake and sweet boxes and things like that.”
Plans are also afoot to create a separate entrance via the alley beside the café – so customers looking to get sweets can bypass the café queues.
Emma said: “The sweets are really well priced so we’ve seen a lot of kids chuffed with the cost of 20p bags. I think kids don’t know about the typical 20p mix bag we’d get as kids, so we’ve had a few come in quite excited especially with the choice they’ve got.
“But we’re getting more people coming to the sweet shop now, and we’re hoping with word of mouth it’ll grow even more.”
Emma and Chris also decided to create a playroom for children in the cafe’s upstairs after their small downstairs children’s play area proved popular with parents and carers.
The new playroom is recommended for children aged six and under and additional seating is also available in a separate room upstairs.
She said: “It’s had some really good feedback so far. We’ve had a lot of people say it’s nice to not just be in a soft play with it being both an adult experience in the café and a child experience in the playroom where they have something to do.
“As long as the behave they also get a bag of sweets on the way out. We do get people walk here with their kids and I think it’s nice that people in Egremont don’t have to travel too far for a trip out and that there is options in the town.
“I do think more stuff is coming to Egremont and it does feel like there’s a bit of a buzz around here with more people in the town.”
Emma added that the team in the café haven’t slowed down since they first opened their doors to the public.
She said: “I don’t know where people come from – we still haven’t quietened down! We do it and we go home and I think to myself oh it hasn’t been that busy today and then I look at the takings and it’s just out of control, it’s bizarre how it’s took off.
“We’ve had people coming from Maryport and Carlisle to visit too, but it just makes you buzzing when people come back. It’s seeing the repeat customers and the people who come in every day that makes it.
“We’re in an old building and we’ve had to cover up a lot when we’ve decorated it but we haven’t had one person who hasn’t come around the corner upstairs and said wow.”
Emma added that she felt there was also a growing sense of community between business owners in Egremont.
She said: “It’s nice to support other people and it’s been great with Candy Cabs so far. We’ve also got good relationships with other businesses in the area like Deja Brew and we help each other out if we run out of stuff.
“I do feel like there’s enough mouths to feed and by helping each other you really reap the benefits of it.
“There used to be so many established businesses in Egremont and I feel like we’re seeing it come back, I hope in years to come people will see old pictures of the café and it will be like one of those shops people remember.
“I genuinely hope we’ve helped to start something in the town, I’m just so grateful for all the support we’ve had so far.”
