Setting up a business in a pandemic might sound crazy, but for one local entrepreneur it has worked.

Barefoot Bakery, owned by Fraser Lloyd Jones, employs 20 people and relocated to Oxford’s North Parade at the beginning of November.

He said: “The first lockdown made my wife Emily and I take a step back and seriously consider every aspect of the business. We made the decision to close our Woodstock site and relocate to North Parade. We have always had a love for North Parade and sold our first slice of cake at the North Parade Farmers Market over five years ago.

“Our Marston site was open as serving through the hatch made social distancing very easy but our Jericho site wasn’t set up for social distancing and we couldn’t see a way of making it work. “North Parade was set up as a mainly takeaway site and it has worked really well allowing one customer in at a time.

“When we first went into lockdown and closed all sites, people were needing cake in their lives to get through the hard times but we were completely stunned by how busy we were. We have extended our opening hours to try and ease the congestions.” But, he admits, it has been “incredibly stressful”.

“Our wholesale business is down heavily and no Woodstock or Jericho hit us hard. It has been constant juggling of rules, safety procedures, busy spikes. Our main goal has been to keep all staff employed and I am thrilled to say that so far we haven’t had to let anyone go.”

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