The Oatcake Station was taken over in October 2022 by Barbara Griffiths, but we couldn’t open until March 2023 due to Barbara’s other business commitments. This included a local milk round at the time where she found herself delivering doorstep milk and bread deliveries whilst trying to find a local milkman, plus running her main business which is in the provision of school milk around parts of the UK working with local farmers/processors and distributors to serve milk into schools.
Barbara started to make her own oatcakes during COVID when the schools were closed and found that friends and family quite liked them. She continued to make them for an essentials market where she had a dairy counter alongside butchers, bakers, fruit and vegetable suppliers for a small village in Staffordshire.
After a year or so, Barbara learned of The Oatcake Station becoming available so decided to have a go with increasing the oatcake sales and taking on the takeaway food business. We opened originally in March 2023 but only for 2 days, Thursday and Friday. Having started to get a few customers through the door asking why we were not open on Saturdays, we decided to open on a Wednesday through to Saturday 8am to 2pm.
Although we keep trying to increase the business, it’s not been easy but we did start to pick up just before Christmas and then the subway was closed which then saw our takings plummet, which wasn’t hard, as they were not too plentiful anyway!
After Christmas, and of course, it was January, business was still not too good and although we had some returning loyal customers, the subway closure has massively affected the footfall and therefore, the takings.
In her main business, Barbara won a NatWest Everywoman Hera Award for the most inspirational woman in a business over 10 years old. This was in recognition of her work with small independent milkmen and farmer/processors around the UK. She was invited to speak at the International Women’s Day at the Staffordshire Chamber of Commerce event at Festival Park in March 2022, she also appeared on BBC Midlands news television in January 2022 interviewed by David Gregory-Kumar the BBC Science and Farming reporter to tell her story. A further award was given by NatWest on showcasing Women in Business which involved Getty Images photography at various locations in the UK including a farmer/processor in South Wales, a dairy in the South West and a school in South Wales who receive school milk and kitchen milk on contract from the main business.
Barbara continues to make her own oatcakes and hopes that the business will thrive and improve over the coming months as she also employs a local lady, Amanda so it would be beneficial for all if the business continued.
We also offer homemade chilli, sometimes homemade cakes and are looking to add more homemade items to the menu for maybe ‘specials’ on a Friday.
