A NEVER-ENDING LOVE STORY
The incredible growth of Love Brownies has reached another milestone with the acquisition of their new bakery and HQ on the outskirts of Harrogate. We speak to founders Chantal and Lee Teal to discover how it all began and their next exciting plans.
When Chantal Teal first started baking brownies from the comfort of her kitchen table in 2009, little did she realise just what a phenomenal success story she was about to create.
But the proof was in the pudding and 13 years on, the name Love Brownies has become one of the country’s fastest-growing brands with a raft of awards, a thriving online store, 20 franchise shops and cafes across the country and now the acquisition of a stunning new 14,000 sg ft bakery in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales.
Their arrival at the site near Menwith Hill on the outskirts of Harrogate, is a reflection of the company’s incredible growth in recent years and just reward for the long hours and dedication that Chantal and her team have put into creating the ultimate brownie for the nation to enjoy. It is a far cry from her cramped kitchen in Ilkley where Chantal once juggled a young family with a bowl of flour and cocoa powder in her quest for perfection and as she takes us on a tour of the new bakery which now employs 14 brownie chefs, her passion and enthusiasm still burns as brightly as it did all those years ago.
As head baker, she is still very much hands on and alongside overseeing the daily bake of up to 2,000 brownies – which are then delivered up and down the country – she is busy working on new ingredients and twists to their ever-growing range of 12 different brownies.
Talking about this latest exciting chapter in the business’ growth, Chantal said: “I feel so lucky to have been able to grow something I am so passionate about into such a success story and moving into this new bakery shows just how far we have come.
“Not everybody gets the chance to fulfil their dreams and run their own business and I feel incredibly blessed that I can still do it with the help of such an incredible team.”
Chantal, a chef by trade, first started selling her brownies online with a mission to inject some luxury into the much-loved sweet treats and to this day she and the team still adopt those early principles of handmaking all their brownies and baking them in individual tins.
She added: “Considering how many brownies we are now producing it might seem crazy that each one is still scooped into a tin by hand but that is where our little bit of magic, love and individuality comes from and we will never compromise on that.
“Catering is in my blood and I think the gift of food is one of the few things you can always offer with pride and accept with pleasure and I love having the opportunity to make people smile when they eat one of our brownies – that’s what really matters to me.”
Alongside Chantal, her husband Lee has proved invaluable to the growth of the business and with the arrival of new Manging Director James Moore, the couple have built up a strong team both on the bakery floor and in the office to help drive and deliver sales.
Speaking about the coming year, Lee said: “Our ambition is to open a new café every month this year and by 2027 we hope to have grown the number of branches to 80 across the country.
“The last two years have proved incredibly challenging for everybody in the catering industry but having focused on our online sales and developed our franchise opportunities we are now in a strong position to take Love Brownies to the next level.”
To pick up some delicious treats, pop into one of Love Brownie shops or if you are looking for the perfect gift, you can order brownies online. They will arrive beautifully packaged and finished with a handwritten note.
