Pick & Mix sweets and confectionary supplied by a local family based in Metheringham, Lincoln. Jamie, an original Lincolnshire Yellow Belly, born & bred in Lincoln. Kerry, originally from Nottingham, and a Lincolnshire dweller since she was eight years old. Together we head up the family business, Shugs Sweets.
Being dragged along for the ride, often against their will, are our children. Out of the three, one is now an adult so can’t be forced to comply, one unwilling teenager that can thankfully still be bribed and one willing participant as she’s not old enough yet to refuse, finishes the family element to the business. We are lucky enough to have some very supportive friends that can often be found manning our stalls at events throughout Lincolnshire – without them, taking Shugs on the road to different locations just wouldn’t be possible.
As individuals, we all bring our own personalities, with Kerry’s ALWAYS being louder than the rest! As I’m sure anyone that knows her will agree! Jamie prefers a quieter role within the business and the more serious side of managing Shugs. Whereas Kerry is all about the social side of the business and loves to talk, meet and build lasting relationships with people on a personal level. Our two dream team friends Helen & Isabelle, THE superstar duo bring the fun and laughter at events and can often be seen singing & dancing there way through the day together!
As a business we do the majority of our work by attending events with our pop-up stall and travelling throughout Lincolnshire selling face to face, This is THE BEST part of this job, meeting and engaging with customers, listening to there stories and about there lives, sharing conversations and building relationships and having many fun and silly moments engaging with them.
We have seen an increase in requests for an online service from our customers and so have decided to branch out with a website for online ordering to meet this need.
Other areas of our business have seen a busier time such as our party cone orders, which are now being stocked by three other local party businesses has meant that we’ve taken the decision to base ourselves more at home currently, than away at events.
We will continue to attend events throughout the year, just less of them for now.
How did Shugs become Shugs. The idea started as a question.
‘How can we support our local charities and communities and make enough money to go on holiday once a year with our family?’
And that’s how the idea originally started. Kerry volunteered her time as a fundraiser at our local pre-school which is a registered charity, spending time as a committee member getting to know the families in the area and building bonds with them and their families and raising funds for the Pre-school to buy new equipment for the children. With so many community groups and charities in our area all needing the same kind of support and rarely getting it, it led us to ask. What can we do about it?
At the same time we were also frustrated at how unaffordable holidays are abroad in the summer holidays and our lack of holiday funds we started to want to start a side hustle to afford a holiday with our children every year. After being asked approximately a hundred times in one particular day of the weekend if the youngest can have “sweets” the two had a lightbulb moment and the wheels were rolling.
We are now in our second year with no holiday yet, but we’ve managed to support lots of groups in our local community. Guides, Rainbows, Brownies, Cubs & Scouts, swimming groups, local non- profit organisations, Sschools, sports clubs, care homes, charities and more and the list grows constantly. Its no where near where we’d like it to be yet, but we have plans to make it more, each time Shugs grows it enables more to be given back to the community we live in.
Things we pride ourselves in what our business stands for:
We are a family focused business that provide a variety of quality products at a fair price. We’re proud to use a percentage of our profits supporting charities & local community groups throughout Lincolnshire.
