Doh Kitchen team, Phoebe in the middle. Pic: Phoebe Middleton.

Baker, driver, salesperson, manager, accountant. Every business day is the same for Phoebe Middleton, who started her small company two years ago to put the delicious into vegan cookies.

Doh Kitchen, which is just a small kitchen in Teddington, southwest London right now, provides vegan cookies free of gluten and refined sugar to cafes, farm shops and online customers.

But Middleton dreams of opening an actual cookie shop:

 “The goal is that we have some kind of bricks and mortar shop that people can come to. What I really want is like a very small hole-in-the-wall because I think the problem sometimes is people go too big and then they’re having to pay the overheads. It’s very expensive in London.”

For Middleton, a pastry chef, a physical store would be symbolise all she has worked for, for years.  Her aim was to make healthy cookies that still felt indulgent.

“I learned that a lot of things out in the healthy stuff just really tasted awful. So, I wanted to eat something that tasted really good, like a normal cookie. It just came from me basically wanting to eat.”

Having lived in Los Angeles and New York for years, she was exposed to the wellness industry and understood the importance of healthy eating.

“I made the business based on something that I like to eat, or I want to eat, or how I live my life, my lifestyle”

Like many small business owners, she must move between several roles at once: baker, driver, salesperson, manager and accountant. With only two employees, the team is small, and she still does more than half of the deliveries herself.

Doh Kitchen uses ingredients such as organic coconut sugar, gluten-free flour blends and vegan chocolate. These are often more costly than conventional baking ingredients, especially for a small company that cannot yet buy in bulk.

Sara Nelson, employee of Doh Kitchen. Pic: Arina Zverkhovska

As a result of global events, ingredient prices have risen. That is especially difficult for vegan businesses, as their margins are smaller anyway.

Middleton said that, because of global warming over the last five years, cocoa prices have almost quadrupled, and because of the war in Ukraine, grain prices have gone up as well. Another price increase is in pistachios. They became trendy, and demand has doubled, driving prices up. 

As a result, Doh Kitchen has had to raise some prices. The chocolate chip cookie, once £3.50, is now £3.95. Even that, she says, may not fully reflect the real cost. But putting prices up is difficult when customers are also struggling with the cost of living.

“You have to really set out exactly why you’re putting your prices up and be as transparent as possible,” she says. “It’s a very tough one to do because you don’t want to feel like you’re going to lose anyone.”

Another issue for small businesses is government policies, which Middleton believes do not support them. She says the Labour government has made it especially difficult, as business rates are now very expensive.

“Minimum wage should be a certain level so that people are able to live especially now because London is so expensive. I want that to be for people and employees, but the government has to find a way to help us with being able to afford that.”

At one point, she says, opening a shop would have required around £250,000 in revenue just to cover overheads.

Pic: Arina Zverkhovska

Last year Doh Kitchen focused on building the foundation: meeting people and growing their community. This year is looking to be more decisive.

Middleton said: “I feel this year is a real watershed year. I’m almost like we’re at a fork in the road.”

She said the future of the business would depend on whether it could meet key targets over the coming months.

“I think this year could be a little bit of a make or break. I don’t feel that if, at the end of this year, I haven’t achieved certain goals, it’s worth pursuing because the outcome isn’t necessarily going to be worth it. “

One of those goals is to reach a point where she no longer has to wake up at 3.30am to deliver cookies herself, and can instead focus on growing sales, wholesale, and the future of the business.