Monthly Archives: September 2015

Online / Digital Award Winnner Yorkshire & North East 2015

 We were delighted to have been shortlisted in two categories for the Forward Ladies Business Awards 2015 - Yorkshire & North East Region. The regional final was held in Newcastle yesterday (29th September) and we were absolutely thrilled to have won The Digital/Online Award for Yorkshire & The North East. What an accolade!

This means that we're now into the National Finals in Leeds on 20th November 2015, but before that we have to work a little harder to impress the judges at a Live Panel judging session on the 4th of November!!!

Please see below for all the details of the awards from our PR friends at 2B Communications.

Sweet success for confectionery entrepreneur as she storms through to national finals for Forward Ladies Women in Business Awards 2015

A Yorkshire sweet entrepreneur who spearheads a retro sweet business has forged ahead to the national finals in the Forward Ladies Women in Business Awards 2015.

Lucy Scott Paul, owner of Bah Humbugs won the Digital/Online Business of the Year Award 2015 for Yorkshire and the North East region at an awards ceremony yesterday (Tuesday 29 September) in Newcastle upon Tyne,in recognition of her 12 years of experience in confectionery and her success in the digital side of her business.

The 38-year-old who hails from Masham, North Yorkshire where her business is based, started her business with a shop on the market square and has grown the online side of the company with a website which now takes orders from across the globe, and a strong social media presence. The Bah Humbugs website http://www.bahhumbugs.com/has received close to 10,000 new visitors since January this year spread across the UK, USA and Norway.

She specialises in liquorice confectionery and stocks nostalgic sweet hampers whilst she also suppliessweets and hampers for corporate clients, events and weddings.Lucy has strong relationship with her customers and has harnessed her online community’s views to help shape her themed sweet products to mark occasions such as the Queen’s Jubilee. Her latest range of sweets features ‘Decade Buckets themed sweets. .

Lucy now joins start-ups and multi-million pound businesses for the 2015 Forward Ladies Women in Business Awardsfinal which promises to be one of the most closely run finals in its six-year history.

“I am absolutely delighted to have won Digital Business of the Year 2015 for Yorkshire and the North East region and cannot wait for the finals. The digital side of the business has enabled me to expand my client base across the UK and beyond including wining new corporate contracts.

“Running your own business can be isolating at times and making decisions can be hard. I found it really motivating being at the awards ceremony and in the company of such successful women who all have inspiring stories to share.”

The mother-of-two won regional Retail Business of the Year 2012 in the same competition and now joins 142 entrepreneurial female business leaders who are competing in rounds in Newcastle, Manchester, London and Nottingham across 11 categories to reach the finals to be held in Leeds, West Yorkshire in November.

Fellow winners at the Newcastle awards ceremony included Claire Young of BBC’s The Apprentice fame in recognition of her School Speakers business.

Forward Ladies Managing Director Griselda Togobo said the standard of entries this year was one of the highest ever.

“The calibre of entries has been increasing year on year, but this year we have a number of outstanding entries, which have attracted women from all ages, all professions and all walks of life.  We are also delighted to hosting regional heats in Newcastle, Manchester, London and Nottingham for the first time, which means we can showcase some of the best talent from across the whole of England.

“We also have categories to showcase the underrepresented women working in traditionally male dominated fields such as STEM, Digital and Online category, and have received some outstanding entries in this category.  The judges have seriously had their work cut out for them this year.”

This year’s judging panel was made up of leading business personalities and entrepreneurs including Karen Boswell, the managing director of Hitachi Rail Europe and former managing director of East Coast Trains, Ajaz Ahmed, the founder of Freeserve and Debra White, the Regional Director of Small Businesses at HSBC.

Bah Humbugs has over 3,500 twitter followers and over 4,000 facebook page. To follow on twitter visit https://twitter.com/bahhumbugs and to become a facebook fan visit http://www.facebook.com/bahhumbugs. To visit Bah Humbugs You Tube page visit http://www.youtube.com/user/englishsweetshop

For more information visit http://www.bahhumbugs.com/

ENDS

For interviews/photos or more information please contact Audrey Barton at 2B Communications on 07769334877 or email Audrey@2bcommunications.co.uk

All the Regional Winners for Yorkshire & The North East

Lion's Sports Mixture

Well Summer is most definitely over, not that we had much sunshine that's for sure! This weekend sees the annual SHEEP FAIR here in Masham and this year it is the 30th Anniversary of this great weekend.

If you don't know Masham, we have one of the largest and finest market squares in England, and it was always famous for sheep sales. Historically up to 70,000 sheep were sold each year. Today, the annual Sheep Fair raises lots of money for local charities, and the weekend is full of fun activities - not all sheep related!!

Anyway, the Sheep Fair marks Autumn here in Masham, and i thought i'd take a moment to let you all know what the Top Ten Best Selling Sweets have been here in Bah Humbugs Sweet Shop over the Summer.

1. Pontefract Cakes - what needs to be said about these Best Selling Sweets? They're a chewy liquorice coin, synonymous with the town of Pontefract which has a history steeped in liquorice.

2. Lemon Sherbets - tangy, crunchy lemon sweets with a sour sherbet centre

3. 1950s Decade Sweet Bucket - 1950s Sweets crammed into one of our new Sweet Buckets, fabulous selection, great for sharing.

4. Lion's Sweet Hamper - A hamper full of the entire range of sweets made by Lion's including Midget Gems and Sports Mixtures.

5. Lion's Midget Gems - the absolute 'proper' ones - with black liquorice ones.We only sell the authentic Lion's Sweets, the hard, chewy, fruity gums, so you won't find any blackcurrant flavoured black sweets here!

6. Lion's Sports Mixtures - proper Sports Mixtures, with the black liquorice ones, just like the Midget Gems.

7. Haribo Giant Strawbs - the best selling Haribo Sweet, Strawberries, Chewy Strawberries or whatever you like to call them! they are a scrumptious strawberry flavoured chew!

8. Raspberry Blue Bon Bons - why are Raspberry flavoured

9. Liquorice Torpedoes - Crunchy hard shells with a lovely liquorice centre

10. Cherry Lips - love them or hate them, they're a floral, fragrant and hard chewy gum.

Are any of these sweets one of your favourites? What sweet IS your favourite?

Today in Bah Humbugs Sweet Shop we have had an order for a 1950s Sweet Hamper from a care home in the South of England. We are often contacted by people caring for the elderly to provide selections of sweets from a certain decade for use with their residents, or for people who are suffering from dementia.
Sweets evoke so many memories - everyone can remember their first favourite sweet, and I love being able to grab that jar off the shelf and find that particular sweet for my customers. We're told that the sweets such as aniseed balls, cough candy, Floral Gums etc have such distinctive flavours that they can help people with memory problems to go back in time as they trigger many happy memories. Much the same as music does.

Sugar is in the news a lot at the moment because of the adverse affects it has on the teeth of children who don't brush their teeth. It's absolutely right that sweets contain a lot of sugar and if sweets are eaten constantly without brushing your teeth that you're likely to get a large dental bill.

But our sweets aren't so bad, eaten in moderation they will take you on a happy trip down memory lane, back to your school days; they can help to cheer up the glummest of moods and they also serve to give you a big energy boost.

What i love best of all is to serve my elderly customers. I love to listen to all their stories of how they used to get their first sweets, what their favourites were, how much they cost, where they bought them from, what they tasted like - the amount of detail that they recall is quite phenominal, especially for those customers who are unfortunate enough to have dementia and memory problems.

If you would like a selection of sweets for someone born during a specific decade/era, do let us know and we will happily put together a selection of sweets for you. Whether you're looking for sweets from the 1940s, sweets from the 1950s or 1960s sweets, we have a fabulous selection and can definitely put together a scrumptious assortment for you.

So let's not be so quick to bin sugar, it does have its' uses!

We've had a busy Summer here in Bah Humbugs Sweet Shop with lots of visitors to Masham. The shop has had lots of new customers who haven't been before, as well as a lot of our regular customers.

The Summer is also a really busy time for us making and delivering Wedding Favours to lots of lovely venues across The Yorkshire Dales. This has been the first Summer we've had our Victorian Sweet Cart, but it has been out to lots of stunning locations such as Swinton Park, Allerton Castle and Ripley Castle.

If you're planning a wedding then please do give us a call or send us an email. Our sweets make wonderful inexpensive gifts to give to your guests to thank them for sharing your special day with you. From bags of Retro Sweets to boxes of chocolates, Jars of Sweets, bags of traditional boiled sweets and of course Childrens Party Bags - we can cater for them all! We also have lots of  And our Sweet Cart is a real show-stopper! Absolutely guaranteed to go down a storm with your guests (young AND old!). Here are some fabulous photos of the types of sweet favours we do, a long with some pictures of our fab sweet cart.

Today we received a wonderful email from some newlyweds who got married at Swinton Park near to Masham. We thought we'd share it with you as we're so delighted to receive it!:-

Dear Lucy, We just wanted to email you to express our gratitude for the fantastic work you did to make our wedding so memorable. the Sweet Cart was fantastic and was a great talking point. We could not have hoped for any better. As a supplier, you made our day. Your service was second to none and everyone commented on how amazing the sweet cart looked. You were brilliant from start to finish. We really can't praise you enough and will be eternally grateful to you, for helping to create a day we will treasure forever. Matthew & Victoria

If you'd like any information about any of our Wedding Favours, Retro Sweets or Sweet Cart, please do get in touch! We will give your wedding that extra wow - factor!!

Childrens Party Bags

We're delighted to have been chosen as a finalist in not one, but TWO categories in Forward Ladies Women in Business Awards 2015 for Yorkshire & The North East!

Lucy Scott Paul, owner of Bah Humbugs has been chosen as a finalist in the following two categories are Yorkshire Business Woman in Retail and Best Online Yorkshire Business.

We're especially pleased to have been short listed because the competition this year has been very tough as the Forward Ladies Managing Director, Griselda Tobogo commented:

“The calibre of entries has been increasing year on year, but this year we have a number of outstanding entries, which have attracted women from all ages, all professions and all walks of life.  We are also delighted to hosting regional heats in Newcastle, Manchester, London and Nottingham for the first time, which means we can showcase some of the best talent from across the whole of England.

“We also have categories to showcase the underrepresented women working in traditionally male dominated fields such as STEM, Digital and Online category, and have received some outstanding entries in this category.  The judges have seriously had their work cut out for them this year.”

We've got our fingers and toes crossed for the 29th of September when the regional winner will be announced at a glittering ceremony in Newcastle. All the winners will be put forward to the National Finals in November - so it's really exciting stuff!

Lucy Scott Paul, owner of Bah Humbugs won the Forward Ladies Business Woman in Retail Award for Yorkshire in 2012 - so to be shortlisted in the awards for a second time was a real surprise. "I'm delighted to have been shortlisted for Forward Ladies Women in Business Awards again, and to have been shortlisted in two categories is just amazing! Working in Retail can be tough, especially when the UK was suffering a recession. Running an online business can be challenging too so to be recognised in this way has been just marvellous!"

Bah Humbugs is an online sweet shop selling all the sweets from your childhood. Bah Humbugs also specialises in a wonderful selection of sweet gifts, including Retro Sweet Hampers, Eighties Sweet Hampers, Seventies Sweet Hampers, Giant Sweet Hampers and Sweet Party Bags.

Please do keep your fingers crossed for us & we'd like to wish all the other finalists GOOD LUCK!