A HUGELY popular cafe in Ulverston is planning on expanding its business to include a gourmet food takeaway restaurant.

The Hot Mango Cafe in Ulverston is branching out from its restaurant on King Street to a new hot and cold food takeaway 16 doors down.

The premises was previously occupied by Ships Wheel Cafe before it shut up shop more than five years ago.

Owner of The Hot Mango Cafe, Stef Lawson, saw the empty building as the perfect opportunity to add on to her already successful business.

“We’ve been doing takeaway food in the cafe for a while now but we’re struggling to keep up with the demand,” she said.

“We’re staying where we are as a cafe and would like the new space to be purely a takeaway.”

Mrs Lawson said the demand for takeaway options has been ‘huge’ across the past few years.

“We’re always trying to fulfil a higher demand,” she said.

“We don’t have time and space to operate a cafe and takeaway together in one building.”

The new takeaway will offer a host of hot and cold options including sandwiches, soups, hot pots, a salad bar and more.

Mrs Lawson, who has been running the business for the past eight years, said she will feel ‘a great sense of achievement’ if the plans are successful.

“When we first started this, we had no idea what it would become,” she said.

“We still can’t believe it’s going so well, it’s such exciting times for us all.”

Planning permission to convert the property from a cafe into a takeaway is currently pending.

AN artisan bakery is poised to expand its business five years since first opening its doors.

Bakehouse Born and Bread in Greenodd, Ulverston has submitted a planning application for a unit at Crakeside Business Park.

The bakery house, co-owned by Chris Small and Kirsty Postlethwaite, offers a wide array of bread, cakes, pies and pastries.

Across its five years of trading, the bakery shop has quickly become a staple of the village high street.

Its ever-growing popularity among customers makes it an ‘ideal time to expand’, says co-owner Mr Small.

“We’re looking for a bigger space to help keep up with the demand,” he said.

“We’re definitely bursting at the seams here so moving would be a great opportunity for us.”

Mr Small said the team are undecided whether they will expand the business to two bakeries or move entirely to the new premises.

“We’re undecided yet about what future plans are with the bakery,” he said.

“We’ve definitely got a few ideas up our sleeve about how we’ll change the new premises.

“It’s a very exciting time for us.”

Mr Small said the staff feel a ‘great sense of achievement’ since first opening the bakehouse five years ago.

“We both definitely feel a great sense of achievement,” he said.

“The bakery started of with just me and Kirsty and now there’s eight of us.

“It’s pretty amazing to see how much we’ve grown since starting out.”

Mr Small said the response in the community has been ‘hugely positive’ since announcing the potential expansion.

“Everyone’s been really positive and are looking forward to the plans.”