Popular bakery secures funding for new café and workspace

A family-run Midlands bakery that supplies Michelin star restaurants and a leading coffee chain has secured £250,000 debt funding to launch its first dine-in café.

Silver Tree Bakery is to become the anchor tenant at the Gracechurch Centre, Sutton Coldfield where it is opening a 70-seater café and the town’s first dedicated co-working space.

The funding has come from the Midlands Engine Investment Fund II through its appointed fund manager Frontier Development Capital (FDC). It will enable the company to fit out the new 3,000 sq ft unit, double production at the bakery and create 12 to 15 new jobs in the next six months.

Silver Tree Bakery is based at nearby Water Orton, where it produces high-quality cakes, pastries and sourdough breads to supply its growing wholesale trade and also has an outdoor woodland café that is popular with local families and walkers. The business is run by Kirk Bick and his sister Kirsty Cosgrave on a site next to their parents’ home. 

They had previously run a successful catering business but when events were halted during the pandemic in 2020, they began selling to the public directly. Silver Tree Bakery now employs 36 staff and has tripled turnover in the past three years. 

The company has been running a weekend pop-up unit at the Gracechurch Centre for the last 12 months. Work on the new venue has already begun and it is expected to open in early December. The company is also planning to launch a similar concept in Birmingham city centre early next year.

Kirk Bick, founder and director, said: “I started my career at the age of 14 with a weekend job in a hotel kitchen, and it has always been my ambition to run a bakery. At Silver Tree Bakery we offer exquisite handmade products using only the finest ingredients. The new outlets will enable us to expand our business while remaining true to our roots as an independent family firm producing high-quality food.”

Ryan Cartwright from Frontier Development Capital added: “Silver Tree Bakery is known for quality, freshness and friendly service at a good price point and the Water Orton site has become a real success story. The funding will enable it to open its first mainstream retail site. We believe the new Gracechurch venue could have a very positive impact – increasing footfall at the centre, creating new jobs and providing valuable workspace for the local community.”

David Tindall, Senior Investment Manager at British Business Bank, said: “The Midlands Engine Investment Fund II aims to help ambitious entrepreneurs realise their growth ambitions – helping them to scale, generate employment and prosper. Silvertree Bakery is driven by a team doing just that with impressive plans to open new sites, create jobs and broaden their offer with an exciting new co-working space. Helping the team build the business and create a vital hub for the local community is fantastic.”

Paul Atkins of Source Business Finance provided fundraising advice to Silver Tree Bakery.

The £400m Midlands Engine Investment Fund II covers the entire Midlands region and provides equity investment up to £5m and debt finance from £25k to £2m to help a range of small and medium sized businesses to start up, scale up or stay ahead.

The purpose of the Midlands Engine Investment Fund II is to drive sustainable economic growth by supporting innovation and creating local opportunity for new and growing businesses across the Midlands. The Midlands Engine Investment Fund II will increase the supply and diversity of early-stage finance for smaller businesses in the Midlands, providing funds to firms that might otherwise not receive investment and help to break down barriers in access to finance.