“Changing the world one macaroon at a time” may sound a bit cheesy. But the slogan for Birmingham-based French macaroon manufacturer Miss Macaroon accurately reflects the sweet nature of a social enterprise that has big expansion plans.
The patisserie, founded by 32-year-old managing director Rosie Ginday in 2011, plans to open 103 sites by 2021 to capitalise on the rise of gluten-free eaters in the UK and bring macaroons into the mainstream across the country.
At the core of the business is its aim to become the UK’s foremost social enterprise “treat” destination. Registered as a community interest company, Miss Macaroon helps young care-leavers and ex-offenders to gain training and employment through learning to hand-bake French macaroons. The firm reinvests profits to provide training and employment opportunities to give people skills and, ultimately, a job.
Ginday’s ambitious growth plans include a flagship store in every major UK city, plus around five satellite stores in each location. The fine art student and former pastry chef is also targeting high-footfall transport hubs and premium mid-mall sites in commuter towns.
Midlands-based agent Boston Fieldgate will lead the firm’s charge into cities including Birmingham, Leeds, London, Newcastle, Cambridge, Manchester and Southampton. “Our strategy is to flood the market. In London, macaroons are mainstream, but not in the regions. It is all about getting out there quite rapidly and our brand being synonymous with French macaroons,” says Ginday.
Three sites are planned by the end of the 2017 financial year, a further 21 by 2019, and a total of 103 over the next five years.
Sitting in her Birmingham office – a lively business accelerator hub – it is difficult to find a quiet spot to talk. The large space is filled with a constant hubbub and disparate groups of people huddled together, blue-sky thinking and brain dumping in every spare space. But there is a creative buzz and a high-energy feel that suits Ginday’s personality.
The self-confessed control-freak is hands-on in all aspects of the business, from overseeing and on occasion helping to hand-make up to 5,000 macaroons per day in the tiny Hockley-based kitchen, to coming up with new interactive concepts for the fit-out of her stores. And she is effusive about Miss Macaroon’s first stand-alone store.
“It’s here in Birmingham. The fit-out will be beautiful,” she says. The 320 sq ft unit is due to open next month in the Great Western Arcade, a Victorian retail thoroughfare linking the city’s prime commercial centre of Colmore Row to the core retail area. The arcade is located directly opposite Snow Hill Station.
A five-year lease has been agreed at a rent of circa £20,000 pa. The day-to-evening concept is a high-end macaroon and prosecco bar, where customers can engage with the colourful, interactive fit-out, where the history and ethos of the brand can be accessed via strategically placed screens.
Ginday adds that she is also poised to sign for Miss Macaroon’s second outlet, this time in Leeds, at Hammerson’s new Victoria Gate scheme, which will open next month. Miss Macaroon will trade from a 646 sq ft kiosk at an undisclosed discount. Ginday says: “Hammerson has been brilliant. The saving the company gave us will fund a part-time apprentice, so they will be a Hammerson’s apprentice. It is nice to work with landlords in that way and show them the real effect of the deal they have done with us,” she says.
As for the next store, Ginday doesn’t know yet where that will be, but hopes it will be in a transport hub, such as a major railway station, possibly in London. “We have been speaking with Transport for London and Network Rail about various options,” she says. Would Miss Macaroon go out of town? “I would really like to get into Bicester Outlet Village, but that is a bit further down the line for us.”
While Ginday is trialling her new concept using an initial £130,000 of seed capital from her financial backers, once the first two stores are open the company will go out for its next round of funding. This time it will be for significantly more – between £500,000 and £1m – and shares will be offered in the business to expand it further.
This funding will also help with her search for larger manufacturing premises. Ginday wants a building in Birmingham – ideally in the Jewellery Quarter, where she also lives – of up to 10,000 sq ft to house an enlarged kitchen, with a second floor to open a further development kitchen and academy.
And she doesn’t plan to stop there. Ginday’s long-term aspirations are global. She says: “My dream is to build a macaroon empire and have the trainees at the top, running the business, and for me to go off, travel and set up social enterprises around the world.”
Profile: Rosie Ginday
Walsall-born Rosie Ginday learned her craft under Michelin-starred chef Glynn Purnell. After working at Purnell’s in Birmingham, she set up her first business with £500 of her own money at the age of 22.
Miss Macaroon’s USP is that it is the only patisserie in the world that can Pantone-match the colour of macaroons, making it popular with corporate clients and the fashion industry. Ginday – a Goldman Sachs 10k Small Business graduate and regional winner of the 2016 EY Entrepreneur of the Year awards – now counts Karl Lagerfeld, Hendrick’s Gin and Virgin Group as clients and Sahar Hashemi, founder of Coffee Republic and Skinny Candy, as her business mentor.
Asked how the idea for the business came about, she says: “The social enterprise side of the business came first and I was looking for a product to build the company around. I became obsessed with macaroons and it all fell into place.
“When I was growing up in Coventry there was a big homeless population and I befriended a young guy who was living on the streets. I quickly came to realise that we are all just one or two missed pay cheques away from being homeless – and that’s scary. I saw the power of food and how it can pull people together.”
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