Your Pitch - Wildwood - unLTD Business

Your Pitch is an opportunity for start-ups and new businesses to tell the city about their organisation. This issue we meet Wildwood co-owner Lindsay Lonchar who tells us the forest-themed coffee shop is bringing the ’outside in’…

Tell us about your business – sell yourself!

Wildwood opened in October 2018 and specialises in artisan gifts, cards and homewares. It’s also a forest-themed coffee shop. We offer customers unusual gifts and cards not found elsewhere in the city, along with the opportunity to enjoy gorgeous food and drinks surrounded by trees, foliage and real wood. We have sought to bring the ‘outside in’ & offer al fresco dining (one of our passions) whatever the weather!

Our menu includes breakfast burritos, French toast with maple syrup, build your own sub-sandwiches, deli salads, soup, and homemade cakes. We’re proud to serve Sheffield’s Roastology coffee along with Our Cow Molly milk.

Wildwood sells a number of unique items handmade with wood and cork by local artists.

Community groups meet regularly in our premises and as a ‘business with a heart’ this is something we welcome.

What gave you the idea for your business?

We were already running The Cabin on Fitzwilliam Gate, a pancake and waffle house with a small gift area. We’d always wanted to run a proper gift shop and as we love to shop and eat at the same time, we also wanted to offer quality ‘every day’ food to customers. So we expanded The Cabin’s gifts into a full size shop three doors down. Although Wildwood is clearly part of The Cabin family, it is much more chilled!

Who are your customers and how are you targeting them?

The bus-stop outside our door attracts people coming to and from town and The Moor. We have a number of regular weekday lunch customers from Moorfoot’s council offices plus shoppers for coffee and cake. Weekends draw in all ages and our brunch trade is increasing as our breakfast burrito wraps and French toast become more known.

We spread the word by flyer-ing local offices, as well as running targeted adverts on Facebook/Instagram. Word-of-mouth works but our main challenge is the city knowing we exist!