Craig Taylor first started making cheesecakes for his family and friends in December 2019. Fast forward two years and he now has two shops and around 40,000 fans on social media.
Though the 28-year-old from Merthyr Tydfil had always enjoyed cooking, it wasn't until his parents gifted him a stand up mixer that Christmas that he started to experiment with desserts. As photos of his beautifully decorated cheesecakes - with fresh fruit and favourite chocolate bars - were shared on social media, more and more people wanted one of their own.
In March 2020, Craig took a leap of faith and opened his own cheesecake and dessert business, The Cheesecake Guy, in Pant Industrial Estate just a stone's throw away from his home. Despite the business opening at such an uncertain time with the fist coronavirus lockdown being announced, eager customers would queue from inside the shop right into the streets to get their hands on one of Craig's treats.
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Since then, the shop's success has snowballed and the brothers have just opened a second shop in the newly refurbished Newport Market. "It feels awesome to be in this position now. It feels great knowing we're doing well so that we're able to open a second shop, especially with how it all started," Craig said.
"One of the guys who's running Newport Market got in touch with us and we went down to have a look and thought it would be perfect. We get a lot of people who want to buy our cheesecakes who tend not to drive, so we've had a lot of support from people around Newport. We had the soft opening on Thursday and It was brilliant, there were lots of people there. It opens fully on Saturday."
When Craig first opened his first shop in Merthyr, he said he was taken aback by how much support they had so early on. Craig said "As soon as I opened, it just went crazy. On the first day, the queue went outside the shop and around the corner and we sold out within two hours. I was originally going to stay at my old job and my partner, Alice-Kate, was going to run the shop in the day while I went there to make cheesecakes in the nights. However, it didn't work out that way and I had to give my notice in and work here full time.
"My brother, Ricky, came over to help one day after work and he ended up staying as well. He's now 50/50 my business partner. Then my mum, Tracey, got made redundant, so she's working here as well, so it's pretty much family run."
Even though it was clear that people loved his food early on, Craig said the business was initially overwhelmed by the unexpected demand. He said: "My father was going around every single Lidl and Aldi because we were getting our stuff from there before we secured a wholesaler. He'd go everywhere, even to Swansea, to fill up our fridge for us because it was hard to keep up with the demand. The first day we opened, it was me, my partner and my mother and then my sister-in-law offered to give us a hand. We would stay and make cheesecakes until 2am or 3am so we had them ready for the next day. Back then, we only had a shop which is small and not big enough for us to make the cakes while we were open."
But now as the family open their new venture in Newport, Craig said things had been much more manageable with the business in general - albeit busy. "We do still have queues like we did before, but they are usually a bit more manageable. People know our times more so they tend to come spread out throughout the day rather than all coming out at once in the morning. We've upped our stock and are able to keep on top of it all better now," he said.
"We've been trying to get [the Newport stall] all sorted in between things so it was a bit of a mad rush, especially with us being based in Merthyr. We were waiting for the paint to dry just in time for our first customer.
"With the soft opening...it was mainly people from the council and other important people from Newport. We're looking forward to opening properly. You always think you might have forgotten something, but the soft opening has given us good peace of mind that we are ready. Me and my brother are going to be putting some hours in at Newport as well to get a feel for what we need. And where we can go further with it. We've employed two more staff members to be down in Newport, but we're in the process of looking for a third."
But that's not all for The Cheesecake Guy. Craig said the family have big ideas to keep the business growing so they can serve their gorgeous cheesecakes to as many people as possible. Craig said: "We have some big news coming up as well, we're hopefully opening another store - but that's still in the early stages." He didn't want to reveal the location yet, but said to keep an eye out for the announcement coming soon.
The stall in Newport Market is open Wednesdays to Saturdays 12pm until 10pm and Sundays between 12pm and 5pm. To get the latest news from Merthyr Tydfil straight into your inbox, click here.
