A SOUTH Lakeland company has adapted to the Coronavirus pandemic by creating a 'virtual bakery'.

Working with design agency Scratch Creative, Lovingly Artisan established a virtual bakery store as part of its website offering.

The virtual bakery allows people to select from up to 13 breads (a baker's dozen), including loaves from the company's heritage and healthy eating ranges.

Customers can add these to their online baskets and have them delivered the next day.

This latest development came about after the business, based at Plumgarths on the outskirts of Kendal, set up a virtual baking club to assist people up and down the country with their sourdough bread queries. The Lovingly Artisan team discovered that many people wanted to buy its bread but were unable to because they were not based in the North West.

Lovingly Artisan's Catherine Connor and Aidan Monks had to find a packaging system that would help ensure they delivered a fresh product. A number of prototypes were trialled before a solution was found - an environmentally-friendly delivery system that doubled up as a bread bin, removing the need for cooling.

This cleverly-designed solution not only helps keep the bread fresh but also helps maintain its integrity during transit and provides a storage solution in the home. The container can be recycled after use.

Catherine Connor, of Lovingly Artisan, said: "It quickly became apparent to us as a result of setting up our virtual bakery club that people up and down the country wanted to be able to access our breads but couldn’t.

"We saw this as an opportunity to further develop our business and to help us reach new markets whilst at the same time meeting the demand from potential customers for our quality artisan sourdough breads.

"Obviously being able to meet that demand presented us with a number of challenges but, thanks to some very innovative companies, we have been able to meet those challenges head on and can now begin to deliver fresh Lovingly Artisan breads direct to people’s homes up and down the country.’’

Visit lovinglyartisan.com for more information.