Leeds biscuit company The Biskery in Chapel Allerton shortlisted for Great British Entrepreneur Awards 2023

Founded in 2016 by new mothers Saskia Roskam and Lisa Shepherd, The Biskery has grown from small beginnings at the kitchen table to supplying specialty biscuits to people and businesses across the UK and abroad – from Fendi to The BBC to Natwest.

It originally started as a passion project after the pair discovered their mutual love for baking while working at a marketing agency. The biscuit brand has now been shortlisted for the Great British Entrepreneur Awards 2023.

Lisa, 37, told the Yorkshire Evening Post: “Being shortlisted for the Maker & Creator category in this year's Great British Entrepreneur Awards is just incredible. This award celebrates some of the brightest minds in business in the UK. Being part of this supports us as founders, our team, and the people of Britain to keep on spreading kindness and joy one biscuit at a time.”

The duo made plans to start a business at the end of 2015 – and the next year they began selling their bakes at markets.

Saskia, 40, said: “Lisa brought a sourdough starter into the office and I loved it – that’s how we started talking. I told her I’d been selling apple pies at a local market and it turned out we both had something in us that said we might want to start a cafe”.

Lisa said she had been on maternity leave when the duo first started their side hustle, joining forces with fellow mum Saskia to create a business that could work around childcare.

Lisa added: “When I returned to the office after maternity leave I found out that I’d had my senior title taken away from me. This was a bit of a pivotal moment because I decided then that I wanted to put my energy into my own business”.

Meanwhile, Saskia was made redundant from her previous employer during the Covid-19 pandemic.

She said these changes pushed the two mums to pour everything they had into the business – and now the business has the capacity to sell 300,000 personalised biscuits per year from its shop in Chapel Allerton.

She added: “We were extremely risk-averse in the beginning. When you’re in employment and have a safety net it’s incredibly difficult to let go of it - especially when you have young children.

“It’s weird when something goes so far beyond what you had pictured in your mind. You start to think ‘if this is possible then so much more is possible too’. We’ve now pivoted into providing personalised biscuits for gifting and it’s such a beautiful thing to create a product that makes people happy – it brings so much joy to me personally”.

Lisa said: “It was hard working until midnight then going to my day job, all while juggling childcare - but in a way it felt effortless. We never forced anything or made a big sales push, we were just there showing up and doing what we were asked to do”.

The Biskery now accepts orders for corporate and private events and occasions. It specialises in wafer printed, hand-iced, impressed, fondant and jam biscuits.

The business employs nine women and many of them are working mums.

Saskia said: “There aren’t many jobs available for mothers that are five hours a day, which means having to put your child in breakfast club and afterschool club.

“There’s something really heartbreaking when your child has longer days at nursery or school than you do at work and we wanted to create an option for working mums. So, we’re only open during school hours – we’ve cut the working week by 50%.

“If you say that to any other business person they'd think you're mad for throwing money away, but we know time with your children is priceless. Work is never going to be more important than your children and we of all people completely understand that”.