Crawley mum starts business delivering vegan sweets from her home

Jodie Mortimer has been on a sugar high since founding sweet delivery company Kind Candy in May, and so far it’s been going down a treat with customers.

From fizzy skulls to creamy fudge, all of Jodie’s sweets are 100 per cent vegan and wrapped in plastic-free and biodegradeable packaging.

“The sweets I have you can’t get in the supermarket, and you wouldn’t get biodegrabeable bags either,” said the 37-year-old.

“The idea behind the kind is about being kind to yourself, the animals, the planet, the environment.

“Kind Candy reflects my choice to be happy.”

Having started a family in 2015, Jodie struggled hugely in finding an identity that balanced motherhood, independence, wellbeing and her deep-rooted passion for creativity.

She wanted a career that she not only enjoyed, but something that could fit around her family.

“I’ve got two small boys aged four and five, prior to them I had one or two jobs as an adult and stayed with those jobs,” she said.

“Since having the children it’s completely thrown me in different ways. After coming back from maternity leave – there is only a 14 month gap between my boys – it was tough trying to find work that would fit around them but also something that was fulfilling.

I think I’ve had around seven jobs since I’ve been a parent. I’ve done all sorts – Sainsbury’s, working in a school, working in a cake shop.

“But you only have one life and you have to try and make it work. Quite selfishly, you have to make it work for you as well.

“You’re not just a parent, you’re still the person you were before and I think that’s always the thing I’ve struggled with.

“The boys are both at school now which is why I’ve been able to go for it.”

The business is run from a spare room in Jodie’s house which she moved into in November, and from there she puts together big sharing bags of sweets, jars of sweets and gift boxes as well as letter box gifts which can be delivered straight through customers’ doors.

She sources the sweets from wholesalers, and decided to make sure everything was vegan after becoming vegan herself at Christmas.

She said: “I changed my diet and it was much easier to do than I thought. The more you look at see about the dairy and meat industry, it just makes you more determined to stay away and makes me really proud.

“When I decided to do my vegan sweets I ordered off of some of my competitors and when the sweets came, I was very curious about them. But they are just the same as regular sweets without all the nasties.”