Know your customer West End Barns
Tell us a little bit about yourself and the company?
My name is Vicky I’m the owner and founder of West End Barns, a small family-run café serving refreshing takeaway drinks and homemade cakes. Our café is based on our family-owned farm near Heartwood, we opened our doors to the public for the first time in March last year! Since then, we haven’t looked back and have only got our eyes on further growth and development. Our family is all heavily involved in the day-to-day operations, my mum handles our accounts, my sister Anna bakes our cakes and my boyfriend and father assist in lots of additional ways. It is extremely important to us to support our local community and as such, we only buy our food and drink from local companies.
2. What was your inspiration for starting up?
There were lots of different factors that motivated us for starting up West End Barns. We found that there was a gap in the market during the lockdown, we are situated right next door to a beautiful park, and we decided to start selling ice creams from the back of a mobile bike. This venture grew rapidly and with funding from the Henry Plumb Foundation and some long days clearing out our barn and courtyard, West End Barns was born! We opened in March 2021 originally as a takeaway café due to the Covid restrictions, as the restrictions eased we opened with seating and invited the public to sit in and enjoy the food and drink we offer.
3. Where do you see the business going in five years?
We have lots of plans with our business over the next 5 years, we have lots of space in the barn where we intend to further expand for additional customer space. One thing which is extremely important to us is staying true to our values, as a family-run business, we want to continue to grow and expand whilst staying true to our values of sustainability and supporting local community businesses.
4. Why did you pick us and continue to stay with us?
We looked at a lot of companies and for us, Cawleys were a clear fit, our ethos towards sustainability was extremely important and it was important for us our waste provider supported the circular economy and was transparent as a business in helping us with any issues or queries. Cawleys provided quick and clear responses and their service has been exactly what we hoped for in a waste provider