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Wilma's Bakery | Essex Coffee & Cake Shops

@wilmasbakery

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Specialty Coffee & Award winning Cakes in Essex.
Visit us: Leigh on Sea | Rayleigh | Southend
Open 7 days | Order Online | Brownie delivery nationwide

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This is how you do it…. by @wilmasbakery

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2 months ago

Give yourself a point if you’ve been to Wilma’s Rayleigh, a point if you’ve been to Wilma’s Southend, annnnnddd… A point if you’ve been to Wilma’s Leigh-on-Sea.
You can have a bonus point if you’ve been to all three shops. (Yay, 4 points for me!🤪)

Let me know how many points you’ve got in the comments!

(And, your favourite shop if you fancy! 😉)

👇 👇 👇
#wilmasbakery by @wilmasbakery

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2 years ago

✨ Will + Gemma = Wilma! ✨

People aaalllllwaaaays question, who is Wilma? Sometimes when I’m working behind the counter people ask my name and I tell them that “I’m Gemma” and they’re always disappointed and look to the next staff member to see if they’re ’Wilma’ (poor Will never gets questioned!)
Sometimes people assume it’s an older relative of Will and I. Several times I’ve been asked if it’s called Wilma’s because I’m ginger (Flintstones reference - quite a lot of you all made that presumption!) But, recently, one of my friends of almost 7 years questioned why our business is infact called Wilma’s AND IT MADE MY DAY! 🤣
I asked her why her and her husband thought we were called Wilma’s to which she replied:
“I don’t know, maybe a dead dogs name….?!’🤣😂🤣

So now you and (hopefully all of our friends) know that Wilma, isn’t named in memory of an old relative/a cartoon character or a dead dog! 🤣

Literally, it’s our names above the door!

Did you know this? Pleeeeaasee Let me know below 👇🏻 by @wilmasbakery

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2 years ago

With the Budget fast approaching, to say small business owners are feeling a little twitchy would be an understatement.
So naturally, we’ve been down to the basement, dusted off the soapbox and…
TA-DA. A LETTER TO THE CHANCELLOR. 😂
@johnhealeymp
Recently, @andy.burnham has been having some very serious conversations about “growth” with founders and bosses from Revolut, Starling, Octopus Energy, HSBC, Morrisons, BP, Shell, BT, Vodafone, Rolls-Royce and BAE Systems.
And GOOD. Government absolutely should listen to big businesses.
But erm… Could somebody pull up a little chair for us too? Because we don’t have “how do we get our company onto the stock market?” problems.
We have:
“How do we keep employing people when the cost of employing them keeps rising?”
“How do we invest in another shop, better equipment or more training when there’s less and less left to reinvest?”
“How do we keep prices affordable while VAT, rates, wages, energy and ingredients keep taking bigger bites?”
“Why does growing turnover increasingly feel like growing costs rather than growing profit?”
And ultimately…
“At what point does GROWTH simply stop being financially possible?”
We don’t have teams of tax experts.
We don’t have clever international structures.
We definitely don’t have a tax haven to send our profits off to.
WE BARELY HAVE PROFITS TO SEND ANYWHERE. 😂
We’re not asking government to stop listening to big business.
We’re asking them to listen to the thousands of little businesses trying to build something too.
Because small businesses don’t just want help to survive.
WE’D QUITE LIKE THE CHANCE TO GROW TOO!
Just because we’re small doesn’t mean growth shouldn’t be possible for us.
It doesn’t mean our contribution is insignificant.
And it certainly doesn’t mean our voice is less important.
We want to employ more people. Train them. Pay them well. Invest. Open more sites. Make more things.
But you have to leave businesses with enough oxygen to actually DO IT.
So, with the Budget coming on 28 October… small business people, if you got 10 minutes at that Downing Street table, what would you say?
Soapbox assembled. Letter written.
Over to you, Instagram! by @wilmasbakery

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18 hours ago

Apparently good Christmas marketing starts in October.
Which feels frankly offensive when I’ve only just accepted that summer is over. *snuggles into hot drink*

BUT... we’re currently working on our Christmas range, and before I merrily base everything on last year’s sales figures, I actually want to know what Christmas 2026 is looking like for people.
Because spending habits are changing SO quickly.
Are we doing big family Christmases with a proper centrepiece dessert?
Smaller gatherings, but spending a bit more on the few things we really want?
Less cheap excess, more “if I’m buying it, I want it to be REALLY good”?
More gifting? Less gifting?
Are we organised in November or are we ordering Christmas dessert while shouting “WHY IS NOTHING AVAILABLE TO ORDER?!” on 21 December?
No judgement. I know my people - my people know me! ✨
This is genuine market research before we finalise everything, so:
Tell me what you’re actually doing this Christmas.
Not Pinterest Christmas.
Not what you’re supposed to do.
Your actual Christmas.
And if Wilma’s could make items that you’d actually purchase…
what would you want? by @wilmasbakery

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3 days ago

First: Do the scrolly thing 👉🏻👉🏻
Then: You do the commenting thing and tell us which drink you NEED IN YOUR LIFE.
Then: You do the swipey thing to remove to drool.

Ps. Our Autumn drinks are here and I genuinely want to know which one is your fave.
Comment your order below, unless you’re like me who simply plan on working through the entire menu in the name of research! Obvs, no judgement on that…!
Tag the person who’s coming along for the tasting mission! 👇 by @wilmasbakery

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4 days ago

A tasting night, a half marathon, too much Wilma’s and a very good reason behind it all…. by @wilmasbakery

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5 days ago

The vibe: cosy autumn days 🍂
The drink: Wilma’s Blueberry Muffin Iced Matcha Latte 🫐

The vibe: cosy autumn days 🍂
The drink: Wilma’s Cinnamon Roll Iced Latte 🤎 taken in Wilma's Bakery by @wilmasbakery

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5 days ago

Well, I mean, the things at Wilma’s I’d like to eat this weekend… but let’s not get bogged down with the little specifics, ay?

What’s your Favourite Wilma’s order?
Ps. All shops are open until 5pm today. Leigh on Sea & Rayleigh are open 10-4 tomorrow and Southend is 10-4.30. See you soon guys! by @wilmasbakery

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9 days ago

Apparently, Autumn doesn’t have to exclusively taste of Pumpkin…

And so, ladies & gentlemen….
The Blueberry Muffin Iced Matcha Latte.

(Pairs beautifully with a cinnamon bun and (or if you can’t have both 🥲) Banana bread. Just FYI, obvs!) by @wilmasbakery

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9 days ago

Welcome back pumpkin spiced latte ☕️🍂

#essexcoffeeshop #perkyblenderscoffee #wilmasbakery #essexbakery #pumpkinspiceeverything taken in Wilma's Bakery by @wilmasbakery

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11 days ago

Pat asked me a question today because she’d read an article about how long customers should be allowed to sit in a café after buying one drink.
(It was in The Metro 23/09/26 - have a read if you fancy!)
Pat on the day of asking me this question had bought two coffees and a GF brownie and wanted to know if that was “enough” for her to sit for a couple of hours.
Pat comes in 2–3 times a week.
She brings Margaret & Ray.
She stays behind with the newspaper after they leave so she can eat her brownie in peace and without having to share.
She offers spare seats to strangers. I’ve seen her rope other customers into her crossword and heard entire tables debating the problems of the world.
She isn’t occupying our coffee shop.
She’s part of it.
HOWEVER…
I’ve also watched two people spend under £7, occupy a large table for three hours and request free hot-water refills while other customers came in, couldn’t sit down and left. And therein lies the problem.
We’re a business. We need tables to generate revenue.
But we also want Wilma’s to be somewhere people can actually BE.
So I’m curious…
How long do you think one coffee reasonably buys you before you should buy another? by @wilmasbakery

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11 days ago