1001 Uses For a Shipping Container #198: A Bakery!
Our hunt for alternative uses for Shipping Containers has uncovered another absolute gem – a shipping container bakery! 
Whilst reading up on our Shipping Container news recently, we stumbled across a story about the fantastic Sweets 4 Days Bakery & Creations. Baking entrepreneurs Alesha Bout-Murphy and partner Passion Ganaway finally realised their dream of opening their own bakery in a shipping container in March 2021 – and we love it! – the only problem? It’s a bit far for us to travel for a daily cake fix as it is in the town of Sparta, Michigan in the USA!
Nevertheless, we couldn’t wait to find out more about how their Container Bakery came to be, so we got in touch and they very kindly took time out from their busy week to tell us a bit more.
A long-standing ambition
“Me and my fiancé, Passion have been together for 7 years! We met in Grand Rapids, Michigan which is where we are both originally from. I grew up always wanting to bake and she grew up always wanting to create designs. We came together and made a wonderful match by combining the two! We both do the baking all ourselves!
We started a bakery in Grand Rapids in 2016 and it never really took off because there are so many bakeries in Grand Rapids already, and we both had other employment so we were not 100% dedicated to that at the time.”
Working from home
Alesha and Passion relocated to Sparta, Michigan in 2020 and bought a house. They then decided to have another attempt at their business dream by setting up a bakery from their home.
The local Sparta community welcomed the new bakery and it grew very quickly, even during the coronavirus pandemic! In need of more space, the couple had begun discussions around moving their bakery to new premises but they were unsure if it was the right time to take on the commitment of permanent premises, but they soon came up with a smarter and more cost-effective idea….
“We would drive around town daily and we started noticing these crates [Shipping Containers] in Sparta town square! We decided to call on them one day and we had a meeting with a member of the Chamber and the owner of the containers. We ended up getting the leases signed to open up our bakery! Our grand opening at the storefront bakery inside the remodeled shipping container was March 27th, 2021”.
Converting Shipping Containers into a business premises
Although Sweets 4 Days Bakery & Creations is not one of our own projects, we have helped countless business owners transform containers into business premises over the years – from cafes, and pop-up toastie stalls, to bars and catering kiosks, they are fantastically adaptable and can provide a much safer investment for a new start-up owner who is not quite in a position to rent or buy bricks and mortar location. The UK high street is a changing landscape, and with many container shopping parks opening up around the country, as well as a large number of hospitality businesses having to adapt to a more outdoor operation following the introduction of covid social distancing restrictions, Shipping Containers are an extremely viable option!
If you have any questions about turning a container into your business premises, please do get in touch.
And next time you are passing through Sparta, Michigan make sure you pop into Sweeta 4 Days Bakery & Creations, and tell them we said Hi!
Budgetshippingcontainers.co.uk offer the UK’s largest online range of shipping containers for sale with a nationwide network of storage and conversion yards and crane equipped delivery vehicles.
If you need a shipping container feel free to browse our online range of shipping containers for sale. You can also call us on freephone 0808 1234 215 any time 9am – 5pm weekdays and our team will be happy to discuss your requirements. Alternatively, you can use our online shipping container quote form or request a telephone callback. In both cases we aim to get back to you within 1-2 working hours (may take longer for more detailed quotes).