I started selling pick 'n' mix sweets from my spare room 4 years ago – now my business is worth £1MILLION | The Sun

An entrepreneur who started selling sweets from her spare room has turned the enterprise into a £1m global confectionary business.

Laura Scott, 25, from Plymouth, started the Conscious Candy Company, which sells vegan pick n' mixstyle sweets, in 2018.

She spotted a gap in the market for vegan sweets and began selling selection bags of bulk-bought treats, often on her lunch break from her job in graphic design.

In 2019 she was able to officially launch her business, selling out on her first day of trading.

This convinced her that she could go full time with her passion project.

During the lockdown, business boomed and Laura was shipping her sugary goods all over the world, includingfan favourites like cola bottles and fizzy strawberries.

She has customers as far afield as the US and Japan.

Domestically, Conscious Candy also provides a waffle delivery service in Plymouth on UberEats.

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Sweet-toothed customers can order delicious waffles, with flavours from 'strawberry shortcake' to 'banoffee delight'.

By the end of 2020 the company was making a £1m turnover.

It has moved the cramped confines of her spare room to a 5000 square foot unit and Laura is able to employ two full-time staff, including her partner.

Speaking on the company's humble beginnings, she said: "

I've been vegan for quite a while and was veggie for a long time too – my favourite thing is pick 'n' mix as it brings back childhood memories and when I launched there were only a few options on the market," said Laura.

"I really wanted a traditional Woolworths style pick 'n' mix with bubble-gum bottles and I started thinking that there must be other people who feel the same.

"I asked on a vegan forum if it was something people would be interested in and the feedback was overwhelming – I began to research vegan options from around the world and find options I could make for a vegan pick 'n' mix.

"I thought it was going to be side-lined but as soon as it launched, I sold out that day.

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"I was a full-time graphic designer at the time and launched the business on my lunch break at work – I had £1000 come in and at that time it felt like a lot, I thought 'this is pretty much the same as my full-time wage and I've done this in an afternoon."

She recalls feeling uncertain about whether to pursue the opportunity full time, but hasn't looked back since.

"There was a week of deliberating and I decided I wouldn't know if I didn't do it so I just stood up in a meeting and declared I was going and left – I had no plan, I just thought 'whats the worst that can happen' and knew I could always get another job.

"I remember walking home from work in the rain and I didn't even care, it was one of those things I normally wouldn't like but I felt so free.

"In April 2019 we became a business – it was in my spare room when I started and now we're in a five-thousand square foot unit and trading globally."

Despite the success of the business, Laura says she values the ability to work in line with her ethics more than the money.

"When I first started it was just one product and now it's over one hundred products – we do chocolate, baked goods, we deliver waffles, just anything sweet and anything that contains sugar.

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"It's an amazing thing to sit there and think about, for me it's about how I've gained my freedom even though I work more than I ever did when I was employed – I do 4am starts, midnight finishes and a seven-day week.

"I get to hire people with the same beliefs and values and we work with animal charities, to do that stuff means more than the one million mark."

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