Liking the way the cookie crumbles

INTERVIEW/Laura Thorpe, Laura's Cookies:That summer work gave her a taste for running her own business and she never returned to Trinity College to complete her science degree course. Science didn't really suit her anyway, she says now.

"It just wasn't suiting me. I like doing my own thing. I love planning things and organising things and business was something I was very interested in. In my own time, I had done quite a bit of reading about it so I decided to take it a bit forward," she says.

Aged just 20, she decided to set up her own business, with her own brand of biscuits and cookies. "Naivety is a great thing," she laughs about her decision to start her own business at that tender age.

She was far from naïve, though, putting a lot of preparation into the launch of her enterprise. "I did a good bit of research beforehand. I dragged my sister out on the streets and quizzed passersby about products and I did a start-your-own business course in the evenings. I had already at that point put together a business plan."

Her local accountant Noel Geraghty - whom she describes as an important adviser throughout the setting up and running of the business - advised her to contact the Wicklow County Enterprise Board. "I went to the enterprise board and the board put me in touch with a mentor to help me through the business plan and put together a proposal with a view to applying for a capital grant."

Thorpe was determined that her business was going to be more than a lifestyle enterprise run on a shoestring from a kitchen. "I had to set up properly if I was going to do this," she says. "I couldn't do it from my kitchen at home. There is a lot of regulation involved."

She received a capital grant of €25,000 from Wicklow Country Enterprise Board to help acquire and kit out premises. "Having the grant from the enterprise board gave me more credibility with the bank," she says.

With the help of the grant and a bank loan, Thorpe had her business, Laura's Cookies, up and running by December 2004.

It is a wholesale bakery making high-quality biscuits, brownies, cookies and shortbreads specialising in the use of spelt flour. Spelt is a nutritious, high-fibre alternative to regular wheat flour whose gluten is fragile and easily digested, making it suitable for those with wheat intolerances.

"The other thing we focused on is that our product is very high quality," she says. "It is real food. There are no artificial additives or preservatives."The initial plan was to target health shops but she soon changed direction.

"We started off supplying health shops at the beginning but our main market turned out over the past couple of years to be the high-end food service and high-end coffee shop chains like Butlers chocolates, Munchies and Avoca."

Thorpe is now exploring new markets, particularly the retail side of things. "We are also looking at doing something suitable for the high quality multiples like Marks and Spencers and Superquinn." On top of that, the company has been exporting to the Fresh Wild chain of food shops in London.

Although she loves baking, Thorpe says she enjoys the business end even more - and her business acumen is reaping her rewards. The company has gone from selling a few hundred euros worth of goods each week to more than €5,000, a 10-fold increase in four years.

A second grant and preference share funding from the enterprise board has enabled the company to expand and Thorpe now employs three people. Setting up and running your own business is tough for even the most hardened business veteran, let alone a 20-year-old novice.

"It takes a lot longer than you think," says Thorpe. "It has been pretty tough, particularly going into it with no previous experience. There was a steep learning curve in everything. I never really had a proper job myself so then to manage other people was a new thing, but I can't really imagine what else I would be doing, to be honest."

Name:Laura Thorpe

Age:24

From:Newcastle, Co Wicklow

Family:Single

Admires:Richard Branson. I found his autobiography very inspiring. I used to regularly re-read that.

Likes:Apart from baking, her other passion is horses and is experimenting with clicker training with horses. She also plays polo.

Favourite book or film:She likes fantasy and sience fiction and is a big fan of Doctor Who