Entrepreneurs John Whyte & Vivienne Lawson of Johnnie Cupcakes

            

Johnnie Cupcakes is a start up company from October 2009 and was set up by John Whyte and his partner Vivienne Lawson from Rathdrinagh in Meath.
John's previous occupation was an architect and Vivienne's background is in Interior design.  As a result of the economic downturn in 2008/2009 Johnnie Cupcakes was born when a kiosk in the Ilac Centre in Dublin became available and John and Vivienne saw an opportunity to begin trading from it.  With a disused photographic studio and storage area in their backyard, they refurbished this into a small bakery and Vivienne did a crash course in bakery and was assisted by a DKIT lecturer in pastry (Rosemary Leonard Lynch).
With a bakery staff headcount of 2 plus Vivienne the number of kiosks grew to 3 by the middle of 2010 and in 2013 the number of shops in Ireland has grown to 7 and Johnnie Cupcakes is now trading in 11 locations in the UK with 9 pending locations awaiting contracts etc to be completed.

Having won the "Outstanding Small / Medium Business award" in the Meath area in 2012 the company goes from strength to strength having moved their operations from the back garden to a purpose built bakery in Ashbourne Co Meath and now employing staff from the Meath area in their bakery and head office and over 70 staff in total in their kiosks throughout Ireland and the UK.



I asked Vivienne what she thinks sets Johnnie Cupcakes apart from it's competitors and she said "What makes us different, The kiosk model, specializing in one product line, looking at display in a different way to traditional bakery set up"

I asked John what he thinks the secret to their success is and his reply was "What makes it work, we started with an end game in mind, we have a five year plan, we are now in our fifth year and are drawing up another 5 year plan.  We are broadly in line with the plan, some things take longer, but basically it takes strong will, determination, the plan, good people  and some luck to make it work"

Below are some of the delicious items supplied by Johnnie Cupcakes


More images and information on locations and ordering can be found at www.johnniecupcakes.ie