Sweet sister act all set for bake-off
FINCH Bakery’s long awaited new shop has finally arrived, and baked treats lovers are very excited.
The business - run by identical twins Rachel Finch and Lauren Sinclair - has become a social media sensation since first opening five years ago, with more than 141,000 followers on Instagram and 79,000 Facebook followers.
The sisters - who have boomed during lockdown with online sales of sweet treats and baking equipment - were due to unveil their brand new shop on Queen Street, Great
Harwood, on Thursday morning.
And their success has not gone unnoticed, with their own recipe book in the pipeline and due to hit the shelves this summer.
The 29-year-old twins, who now employ 35 staff in Hyndburn at their ‘Finch Factory’, have spent several months on a major refurbishment ahead of this week’s launch. It’s all a far cry from their origins, baking out of their parents’ kitchen.
Rachel admitted they don’t know exactly how things will go over the next few months after the surge in demand during lockdown, but they cannot wait to reopen.
She said: “People are excited to see the new shop and I think people are excited to come back and queue and see what new things we have got.
“It’s been a really long year. With the pandemic we’ve had setbacks and we had to completely shut for ten weeks. Then when the restrictions were lifted we went into work and were predominantly online for the first year. It’s been absolutely crazy. We benefitted from [the pandemic] - as a lot of businesses have. People still don’t have a lot to spend their money on and we sell our own baking equipment, and there has been a boom in home bakers over the pandemic. That side of the business is doing very well as well.”
Over the past couple of years, the young mums, who are from the Ribble
Valley, have been gradually building up the business and got the funds to support buying their own premises. They are hoping to open the new shop on Thursday, May 13 at 11am, although customers are advised to double check their social media channels for latest details.
“We purchased the shop four doors down from the current shop last summer and since then have been doing an extensive refurb on it,” said Rachel, who has a fiance Dec and daughter Alba, two.
“We actually thought it was a straightforward job, but we had to take out the floor and ceiling and roof and rebuild it from scratch! It’s got two floors above it which we are going to rent out. We have always done things at the right time and not bitten off more than we can chew.”
Lauren is married to Ed, and has a son Kit, one, and the sisters feel a vital ingredient of their success is inviting their supporters into their lives.
“We have always run our own social media platforms - we have never paid for any external source or anything like that,” said Rachel. “We always like to keep it very personal and put a lot of our lives on there. As time has gone on it’s been very organic; we’ve never had a massive influx [of new followers] from a celebrity. We write about our lives on there and children and we tie it in with the shop, and post what we have got for sale.”
The finishing touches are also being put to a new book with publishers DK Penguin Random House, containing about 70 cookie, cupcake, and brownie recipes.