Dilys Owen has a passion for chocolate and knows there’s nothing quite like luxury confectionary to lift the spirits and provide that feel good factor – especially during a recession.
So when she was made redundant after working for a charity for twenty years Dilys had no hesitation in using her redundancy money to open her own special sweet shop on Anglesey.
Armed with some advice on marketing and promotion through the Welsh Assembly Government’s Flexible Support for Business programme she and her partner David Heatley opened DaDaDa in Llangefni last March.
DaDaDa – which translates into Good Sweets – specialises in high quality chocolates and ice creams from local and international suppliers and attracts customers from far and wide.
And now, less than a year later, Dilys said business has been much better than she expected.
“Opening a business during the recession may not seem a good idea but we felt that if it could kick off in these difficult economic conditions then we would have a sound future.
“I wanted to offer customers something really special like the old fashioned sweetshops of years ago – I don’t compete with the mass produced sweets available in supermarkets but provide a touch of luxury. The feedback from customers has been really good
“I have found people prefer to pay that bit extra for something really special and while people are cutting out the bigger luxuries during the recession they are more reliant on treats to get that feel good factor. In fact, our marketing strap line sums it up – Good sweets make better treats!
“Christmas was extremely busy and we had special promotions for Santes Dwynwen’s day and St Valentine’s Day and now gearing up for Mother’s day and Easter and hopefully sales will improve month by month.”
Her traditional sweet shop stocks hand made chocolates from one of Belgium’s top chocolatiers as well as Welsh suppliers and is proving irresistible for chocoholics.
Her partner David, who ran his own joinery business for over thirty years, carried out all the building work, shopfitting and woodwork for the shop and is also enjoying his new line of business.
