A SWEET firm is opening its Halesowen warehouse to the public as demand has seen it send out more than 30,000 orders.
Jessica's Sweets on the Forge Trading Estate on Mucklow Hill, is holding an open day for the public to come and look around tomorrow (Friday August 27).
The firm, which has shops in Worcester and Hereford city centres, is offering tasters of sweets and ten per cent off purchases for the day.
It opened the Halesowen warehouse last April after moving to an online business when it was forced to close its shops, which have since reopened, when lockdown hit.
The family firm, which specialises in Pick n' Mix, traditional sweets, American Candy and snacks, started doing deliveries to keep going and could not have predicted the amazing demand.
It was so busy it opened the warehouse, creating 12 new jobs, to cope with the influx of orders and is now opening its doors to the public - with customers able to browse its 4,000 plus lines of tasty treats from all over the world including Australia, Canada, India and Japan.
Jessica Connop, aged 23, of Halesowen, said: "When the first lockdown hit in March 2020 we were forced to close our doors and the future of our beloved family business was in jeopardy.
"As a family who love to work hard and cannot sit still, we decided to deliver door to door to our customers local to Worcestershire and Herefordshire.
"We could not have predicted the demand for sweet deliveries.
"We were working from 6am until 11pm at night taking orders manually via social media messaging at home and delivering ourselves.
"After a few weeks we realised we could not keep up with the demand this way and decided creating a space for ourselves online was the best option.
"We created Jessicassweets.co.uk and moved into our sweetie warehouse right in the heart of our hometown, Halesowen.
"Since then we have sent over 30,000 orders across the whole of the UK and Northern Ireland.
"We could never have imagined the amount of customers near and afar we have reached, a far cry from when we only had our two little shops."
The firm was started by Jessica's dad Stuart Connop around ten years ago. With the help of Jessica's mum Alison Connop and herself and her sister Abbie Didlick they have now grown it into a busy independent business, securing its future.
The sisters partners Talon Didlick and Daniel Fowles have also joined the firm.
Jessica said: "They have both bought so much to the business, along with our fantastic new warehouse team, who without we would have struggled hugely without."
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