File photo / Courtesy of Story Silo Media
Veronica Stubbs
Updated: July 31, 2024
Northport scone business 'mixes' things up for food pantry benefit festival
Photo / Courtesy, the Scone Goddess
The Scone Goddess trailer will be at Point Lookout in Northport this Sunday for the Scone Goddess First Annual Scone Festival.
Every August, the Scone Goddess in Northport celebrates its anniversary by giving away free scones to anyone who wants one. In 2023, 436 people showed up for Free Scone Day.
This year, the midcoast business founded in 2020 will mark the occasion with a festival on Sunday, Aug. 4, to benefit the Northport Food Pantry.
Some 13 vendors will participate in the event, which will also feature live entertainment and a baking contest with a cash prize and Scone Goddess title for the winner. The gathering will take place on Sunday, Aug. 4, at the Point Lookout resort in Northport.
“We are incredibly loyal to the town of Northport, as they have been such a wonderful support to our business over the years,” Stubbs told Mainebiz.
As for Point Lookout, “it made so much sense to collaborate with them and see if we could bring exposure to such a fantastic place to vacation, while utilizing their amenities for our festival,” she said.
Stubbs aims to cap attendance at 1,200 in what she hopes to turn into an annual event.
Sales are sizzling this summer at the Scone Goddess, which sells more than 70 flavors of fresh-baked scones to local customers and 20 premium scone mixes (including one that's gluten-free) to retail and wholesale customers.
Earlier this year, the company received a $100,000 federal grant to finance its next growth chapter.
“Business has been great this summer,” Stubbs said. “Typically, we see web sales dropping and bakery sales increasing between June and October [but] that is not the trend this year. The bakery started to get busy in March and web sales are up over 100%.”
Stubbs gives much of the credit to her staff of nine employees including Lauren El-Hajj, the company’s lead baker who has been with the business for just over a year.
“The company has grown so much in the last year that she has outbaked me,” Stubbs said.
'Slow and steady' growth
Taking the first steps towards nationwide distribution, the Scone Goddess recently signed on the Paper Store as a wholesale customer.
Distribution will start in seven Paper Store locations this week, in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and New York, with the goal of eventually being in all 100 branches on the East Coast.
The Paper Store, based in Acton, Mass., is a privately held chain whose family ownership "really speaks to us," Stubbs said.
Aiming to keep the growth of her own business manageable, Stubbs underscored that "companies fail if they cannot pivot and grow. They also fail when they get cocky and grow too fast. We are taking it slow and steady.”
More information
Find out more about the Aug. 4 event here; tickets are $5 each or $18 for a family pass.
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