Sally Rees turned a family savings project into Wicked Cookies, combining customer feedback, patient recipe development and Leamington Spa’s independent spirit to build a business reaching customers across Britain.
A family business does not always begin with a business plan. For Sally Rees, the starting point was her children’s wish to visit Disneyland. At five and seven, they began selling homemade cookies around their neighbourhood. A decade later, Wicked Cookies had become a wider commercial operation, serving customers across Britain and supporting a distinctive shop in Leamington Spa.
The Value of Listening
Rees brought experience in business development and marketing, but one of the company’s defining products came from paying attention to customers. At a pop-up at Coventry railway station, American buyers repeatedly asked for snickerdoodles. The family researched the cinnamon-and-sugar cookie, tested a version and then adjusted the recipe to suit its own standards.
Their variation became the Snickerwoodle. Rees says the unusual name was trademarked and the cookie became the business’s bestseller. It later supplied the name for Snickerwoodles, the family’s Leamington bakery. A conversation at a temporary sales counter had helped shape both a signature product and a permanent retail identity.
Growth Without Shortcuts
The business’s approach to development is deliberately patient. Rees describes ingredient quality, oven conditions, temperature and portion size as factors in achieving the right texture. New recipes can emerge quickly or remain unresolved for years. A banoffee cookie has proved especially difficult, partly because the family wants natural ingredients rather than a convenient flavouring.
Opening Snickerwoodles was a substantial financial commitment. Rees recalls investing everything the family had without knowing how customers would respond. An opening-day queue around the block provided an encouraging answer, though the shop remains only one part of the operation. Corporate orders, branded cookies, markets and festivals extend its reach beyond the high street.
An Independent Future
Rees values Leamington’s independent retailers and the commitment of the people running them. Further Snickerwoodles bakeries remain an ambition, with Stratford-upon-Avon a possible location. Suitable premises and finance are practical obstacles. Her story illustrates growth built through observation and repeated improvement: understand what customers want, protect product quality and expand when the foundations can support it.
Source: DipTalk. Adapted from the original interview published by Mosaic Digest. Image from the original Mosaic Digest feature.