A FAMILY-RUN tea room has found the right recipe for success after revealing plans to launch another new business based on the success of their homemade gluten and dairy free cakes.

Samantha Peters, along with her parents Ann and Shane Wilkinson, her husband Ian, 22-year-old son Jamie and 15-year-old daughter Maddie, pulled together to launch Ruby’s Tea Room, based at the Woolbridge Business Centre on East Burton Road in Wool.

The business was opened as a tribute to Sam’s grandmother, Ruby, who owned her own successful tea room in the 1960s.

Sam said: “With a combined skill set of marketing, construction, catering and baking we hope to be as successful as my grandmother’s tea room, where David Jason and Buster Merryfield would meet to discuss scripts for Only Fools and Horses. She also supplied bread to Chequers for several Prime Ministers.

“We live in Bovington and for a while had been disappointed there was nowhere open seven days a week year round, at the heart of the community, to meet with friends, other than pubs.

"We take pride in the vast majority of our ingredients being sourced locally, such as Williams the Baker and Craig’s Farm Dairy. We make our own pasta sauces and cannot keep up with the demand for dairy free, gluten free and vegan cakes which we make in house every week.

“Our customers love the idea of supporting a family-owned tea room, and one that is supporting other local businesses. My parents have also bought the adjoining fish and chip shop, and are introducing a delivery service as many of the local residents are elderly and have said they do not like to come out at night, but would love fish and chips of an evening.

“We are extremely proud to be a small family business, and one of our priorities from the very outset has been to use local suppliers.”

The family are aiming to launch a bakery on the estate in the coming month, called The Tolerant Food Company.

Sam added: “After last year, when both myself and my mum were really quite ill, we have decided to make the most of it. To think I’ve gone from intensive care to this is great. I absolutely love my job and I would never

look back. I’ve seen so many businesses fail because they are looking at what they want rather than what the area needs. “

Sam said they would like to open another Ruby’s but somewhere in reach to keep the family feel.

Visit rubystearoom.co.uk.