Sweet Success
Market Harborough’s favourite sweetshop has become a viral hit, catapulting Randalls into the stratosphere of online fame and opening up exciting new doors for owner Jarrod Burke and his team.
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Market Harborough’s favourite sweetshop has become a viral hit, catapulting Randalls into the stratosphere of online fame and opening up exciting new doors for owner Jarrod Burke and his team.
It’s been a few years since you were last in MaHa, and since then we’ve had everything from new shop locations, a global pandemic and TikTok taking off. It’s been the busiest it’s ever been. I honestly didn’t think that being this busy was possible. We started creating some POV style videos back in November 2025, interacting with customers and creating online orders. The first one we posted hit 2 million views – and since then we really haven’t looked back! We’re now posting five days a week, all POV style, and every single video is performing very well on all our platforms. Which is so rare. We seem to have hit an incredible algorithm on social media, creating a crazy flurry of new customers in the shop. We have had people travelling from all over, as well as hundreds of online orders across the world every day. We have also taken on wholesale clients across the country, including our largest customer, Farndon Fields Farmshop. What has the impact of these videos been in a real sense? A HUGE impact. We have always been a social-media-heavy business, but it’s another level now. To see our videos being pushed out all over the world, and that instantly converting to sales, is incredible. It’s important to keep trying different things all the time. As social media is always changing, we always change with it to adapt to the style of content people are enjoying and what’s popular at the time. Because of this, we’ve been able to expand. We are now a team of nine, and have created a new bespoke Pick & Mix Studio, dedicated to packing all of our online and wholesale orders. The bricks and mortar shop is just as popular as ever, do you have any plans for it? It’s almost too popular! We are experiencing queues out the door, even sometimes on a weekday. We have people travelling the country to visit us because they have seen one of our videos – even a couple from Australia who paid us a visit on their UK tour! It’s such a small space that we struggle physically to get more people through the doors – especially at the weekend. We have just had a huge new sign put on the building; we are being repainted and getting some general upgrades throughout. I’m always on the lookout for our next home, but there’s nothing suitable yet. It would have to be something pretty special, that I couldn’t say no to, to make the move again. Can you share any other exciting plans you have for the business going forward? We’re in the midst of total viral chaos right now. We are bursting at the seams in our working areas, juggling stock and having space for our team members. So, somehow, we need more space –that’s the goal right now! Looking back over the past few years, what has been the biggest lesson you have learned? Don’t be afraid of change. Adapting with the times is essential for any business. We are experiencing our busiest ever year after ten years’ trading, thanks to changing a lot of what we knew and trying something new. What are your hopes for the next few years? To keep taking the business to new levels. We have some exciting opportunities opening up, and collaborating with some amazing brands. The social media sky-rocketing has opened up some exciting doors. Realistically, I’d imagine further expansion, but right now, we’re just trying to cope! It’s absolutely amazing. |
Issue 30
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