Dougies Goodies – tempting tastebuds for generations
Popular north-west bakery, Dougies Goodies have been tempting tastebuds for generations, marking their 40th year in business last year. Announced as the 2024 Bakery of the Year at this year’s Neighbourhood Retailer Awards, NR caught up with founder Dougie Coulter as they prepared to open the doors to their brand-new Belfast store.
Established over 40 years ago, in 1983, Dougies Goodies has established itself as the trusted bakery in the north west, providing the centrepiece for countless birthdays and adding that extra sweetness to special occasions for generations.
And after much demand, they have expanded the business and opened the doors to their very first Belfast store in early October.
It has taken some time to perfect this particular treat, taking over 12 months to find the right city centre location. Having had countless requests to open a store in Belfast, Dougie Coulter said it felt only natural for this to be the next step in the Dougies Goodies journey.
“We wanted a central location in Belfast city centre to be as accessible as possible, Fountain Street was a great fit for us as we are reaching a wide range of customers, and we can also be a stop-off point for tourists visiting the city,” said Dougie.
Similar in size to their Ballymena HQ, the Fountain Street store will enable them to give Belfast the full Dougies experience, with an area for cakes, buns, coffee, savoury snacks and much more.
“The entire team is so excited about our opening in Belfast, it gives us the opportunity to share our goodies with more people and be involved in an ever-developing and vibrant city like Belfast.”
Despite growth and evolution, what Dougies Goodies prides itself on is remaining a traditional bakery – using scratch bakery methods, making every product and packing every order by hand.
It was a very different beginning for Dougie, the man behind the brand, whose early days in employment centred in engineering.
“I didn’t always have an interest in baking. I had a job in Ballyclare as an engineer and I knew it wasn’t what I wanted to do, I didn’t like it! I started working in a small bakery once I left that job and that’s how I got my foot in the door of baking and how I grew to enjoy it,” said Dougie.
Once he got the taste of it, Dougie’s appetite for the industry grew and he soon opened his own business in Ballymena in 1983.
“In those days shops were scarce, we were lucky enough to get a small shop and bakehouse on Wellington Street, then later we moved to a slightly bigger shop on Mill Street.
“It was very hard work in the beginning, filled with long hours to establish ourselves in the town. Once we started making the birthday cakes, that got me very excited, as seeing generations of families coming in over the years for their Dougies birthday cakes filled me with warmth, it’s great to see.”
Starting out in the Wellington Street store with himself and three others, they were modest beginnings, however he was able to move to a new location on Mill Street, the bigger premises giving space for his team of 17, all critical as they started getting more customers.
Now in their current store on Church Street, Dougies employs 75 people, a figure set to grow with the opening of the second bakery in Belfast, something Dougie describes as “amazing” adding they are “lucky to have the staff that we do”.
Catering to everybody in those early days, the products were countless, ranging from bread, buns, traybakes and cakes. It was the introduction of the photograph cakes that raised the bakery’s profile and soon what they became known for.
“All our products have developed, with new flavours of buns and new creations, but we have all our original recipes for those favourites, like birthday cakes, but we have improved the photographs and cake toppers over the years!
“We did all the baking from the start, but the bigger bakehouse was introduced in the second store on Mill Street. We introduced our coffee machines in our current store, and they have been a great addition to the store.”
While their birthday cakes are always their bestseller, Dougies proudly boasts a range of firm favourites from their small cakes and traybakes, with customers returning for those ranges year after year.
In a bid to cater to more tastebuds, they also supply their wholesaler stockists with a box of ‘Dougie’s Favourites’ which consist of two French Fancies (chocolate and pink), a Jammy Dougie and their famous Iced Diamond.
Having always stocked some local stores in Ballymena, it was just this year they began to place a bigger emphasis on supplying their goods to the shelves of select stores from across the province.
“We didn’t expect the response to be as huge as it was and frequently have requests for new locations from both the public and stores themselves. If only we could stock everywhere that we are asked – the world would be a sweeter place!” added Dougie.
There came a period of transition for the company in 2022, when the business was acquired by Frank and Georgina Warwick. A loyal customer of Dougies Goodies for many years, Frank visited the bakery to order his wife, Georgina a birthday cake. Six weeks later, Frank and Georgina acquired Dougies Goodies, making it the most expensive birthday cake Frank had ever purchased!
Since then, Frank and Georgina, alongside an expanding team of passionate people, have been whisking up a storm, infusing the bakery with fresh ideas and exciting changes to transform and expand. Despite the recent changes and transformations, the original Dougies Goodies recipe hasn’t changed.
Dougie and his wife, Christine are still heavily involved in the business, working hard in the bakery to ensure each pastry, cake and sweet treat carries the same exceptional quality and homemade goodness their loyal customers know and love.
“I am still here every day working in the bakery, making your favourite goodies,” added Dougie. “I’ve used my original recipe for all the cakes and bakes over the years and have been so proud to share the same.”
Inevitably, given rising business costs, ingredients and energy bills, the business has worked hard to avoid passing these on to their customers, although price rises have been unavoidable.
“The costs of ingredients have gone up and like many food retailers, we have had to adjust our prices slightly to offset some of these costs,” said Dougie.
“We have chosen as a business not to compensate on our ingredients despite these price increases and pride ourselves that our goodies are still the same, high-quality product that they always have been, whilst still remaining great value.”
And this pride in their achievements is rightly justified, as Dougie explains they have had a “huge year”.
“There were many things to celebrate, the 40 years in business, the Belfast store and more! We celebrate all our wins, big or small every day.”
YOU CAN SEE THE FULL DOUGIES GOODIES FEATURE IN THE SEPTEMBER ISSUE OF NEIGHBOURHOOD RETAILER, CLICK HERE
