{"id":3526,"date":"2021-03-26T11:50:19","date_gmt":"2021-03-26T11:50:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eatmcr.co.uk\/?p=3526"},"modified":"2021-04-10T06:43:22","modified_gmt":"2021-04-10T06:43:22","slug":"the-food-and-drink-businesses-thriving-at-pollard-yard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eatmcr.co.uk\/news\/the-food-and-drink-businesses-thriving-at-pollard-yard\/","title":{"rendered":"The food and drink businesses thriving at Pollard Yard"},"content":{"rendered":"

A short walk from the Holt Town tram stop through some pretty unsuspecting backstreets, it’s not necessarily where you’d expect to find a hub of creative activity.<\/p>\n

But strolling through Pollard Yard on a sunny afternoon, between its rows of multicoloured shipping containers strung with festooned lighting, in the shadow of an old mill, you can practically feel the creativity oozing out of every perfectly painted interior.<\/p>\n

If you haven’t been to Pollard Yard before, it’s essentially a piece of formerly derelict land on the outskirts of New Islington which has been filled with a maze of shipping containers, providing affordable and flexible workspaces to a range of small businesses entrepreneurs and start ups.<\/p>\n

What starrted out as a pilot scheme of 30 businesses in June 2019, Pollard Yard has now grown to house more than 130 containers.<\/p>\n

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It’s unlike Hatch, the other shipping container village in Manchester, in that the focus is not primarily to draw in crowds with food and drink offerings. In its current set up, although many of the containers have ‘shop fronts’, it’s not a place that actively encourages passing trade. Most of the businesses use the spaces as offices, studios or as a space to fulfil delivery orders.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, Pollard Yard is currently full and has a waiting list of small businesses waiting to get their hands on the reasonably priced workspaces.<\/p>\n

It seems that Pollard Yard has been the perfect solution for the many new small businesses we’ve seen pop up since the start of the pandemic. And, although it wasn’t initially known as a place for food and drink businesses, a few more have found their homes there in recent months.<\/p>\n

The most recent addition to the collection of food traders is chocolatier Cocoa and Bloom<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Owner Darcy had always wanted to be a baker, but she was told that she had to go to university first, which is what she did. But then in 2019, Darcy quit job her job as a Business Development Manager in 2019 to pursue her dream of working in pastry. She is currently study at Hopwood Hall College in pastry and confectionary.<\/p>\n

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Darcy had originally thought about opening a baking business but she spotted a gap in the market for selling beautiful chocolates of the kind you’d find in the windows of chocolatiers in France.<\/p>\n

The perfectly crafted and wonderfully glossy chocolates come in a range of shapes, colours and fillings. There are ones that look like shells, others that look like gemstones, and many splatted with vibrant colours.<\/p>\n

There is a changing selection of flavours which, for March, includes Lemon and Raspberry Cheesecake, Maple and Pecan, Jam on Toast and Chocolate Guinness Ganache.<\/p>\n

More than half the menu is vegan too, but it’s not the grainy, tasteless, vegan chocolate you might have tried before. In fact, it’s barely distinguishable from the rest. As Darcy tells us, just because the chocolate is vegan, it doesn’t mean it has to be healthy.<\/p>\n

All made using local ingredients where possible and there is a big focus on sustainability. She uses no plastic in production or packaging. Chocolates come in reusable tins lined with paper, which can be returned and refilled.<\/p>\n

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The business has been growing steadily and just a few months after she started trading in December, Darcy is now looking to hire someone who she can train in the lead up to Christmas. They don’t need to have any experience in pastry or making chocolate, her only criteria is that the person is creative.<\/p>\n

It’s not just Cocoa and Bloom that is flourishing in Pollard Yard. Walking inside the Loaf MCR<\/a> container, it’s an explosion of pink – pink counters, pink walls and a mural in varying shades of pink. As we arrive, the doors to the container were also being repainted in light pink as the previous pink was apparently a little too ‘pornstar’ for owner Aiden’s liking.<\/p>\n

“Pink is really my colour,” laughs Aiden, from behind the pink face mask which sits atop his long beard.<\/p>\n

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Currently on furlough from his job at clothing company Belstaff, the idea for his venture came about after he wanted to inject some fun into his company’s instagram feed during the first lockdown by organising a weekly bake off. When Loaf Week rolled around, Aiden knew he didn’t want to make bread and so many a loaf cake instead – and was pleasantly surprised with the results.<\/p>\n

His loaf cakes come in a range of flavours like lemon drizzle, cherry Bakewell, chocolate orange and carrot cake, each loaded with a variety of icing and toppings.<\/p>\n

Aiden wanted to make cakes that were delicious and also reasonably priced. When he first started out, he was selling cakes to raise money for the NHS and he was then approached by Northern Quarter cafe Ezra and Gill to start supplying cakes to them.<\/p>\n\n\n

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