New market to open at Orbital Shopping Park in Swindon

Sugar Shack, owned by husband and wife duo Dean and Elly Ireland, opened its first bakery at The Orbital Shopping Park on Thamesdown Drive in May 2022.

The pair say the business has since gone “from strength to strength”, and they are now setting up a monthly market with around 30 stalls at the shopping park, near Boots.

Mr Ireland told the Adver that permission has been granted for the market after a year of trying to put their plans into action.

They are now in the process of finding stallholders with a significant amount of interest already registered.

The first market is due to take place at the end of February and the cake shop owners are excited to provide a place for both independent businesses and shoppers in North Swindon.

Sugar Shack team after opening in 2022

Mr Ireland said: “Coming out of Covid we did a lot of markets and we want to give other people the opportunity to build their brand and get in front of people with great footfall.

“It really gives people the chance to showcase their products but also get some money in, it’s something that’s been missing from North Swindon.

“It’s been about a year we’ve been trying to get this done so we can’t wait, it’s a new market but for us it’s a community thing making sure everyone gets what they want from it.”

The new market will boast a wide variety of “high end” stalls, including food stalls, and will offer customers a range of products, said Mr Ireland.

This will include street food, fashion, and arts and crafts traders, who will all be given uniformed stalls to ensure the market “looks good.”

Sugar Shack also has the contract for the resident ice cream van at the retail centre over the summer.

Sugar Shack food trailer (Image: Sugar Shack)

The business has grown rapidly since it began operating out of the couple’s home.

Mr Ireland added: “We started doing it in lockdown on an affiliate programme, we were doing big numbers just working from home.

“When that died down we started on Deliveroo and Just Eat, and we were so busy that we had no choice but to open a shop.

“We just thought, ‘if we’re going to go for it we might as well invest every penny we’ve made into it’, it’s not cheap at The Orbital but we got that going and we’ve gone from strength to strength.”