After being shortlisted last month, Carterton’s Mrs B’s Cookery has been crowned this year’s Modus Ignite winner.

Competing against a raft of local businesses, Mrs B’s Cookery fought off final competition from wedding planning service, Weddings by Samantha, and Steventon’s Pilates exercise class provider, My Pilates Flow. As the 2021 winner Mrs B’s Cookery has landed a prize package of business support, accountancy services, and mentorship, worth over £5,000.

Modus Ignite is run by Abingdon based Modus Accountants. The firm founded in 2018, already supports hundreds of local business owners and wanted to build on the success of last years’ Ignite competition to support even more entrepreneurs. This year Modus Ignite again proved popular, and the team were delighted to have a record number of businesses applying over the course of the year.

Who is Mrs B?

As a Mum of two, and primary school teacher, Mrs B, aka, Sarah Baigent, founded Mrs B’s Cookery back in 2016. Encouraged by her family, Sarah has always had a passion for cookery, and came up with the idea to combine this with her love of teaching to create a range of cookery classes for children and parents to attend.

Fast forward to 2021, Sarah now runs regular classes for children and adults, and is looking to expand her business further, with a café, new services, and additional classes in 2022. In response to being announced as the Modus Ignite winner Sarah said.

“I am excited to have been given the opportunity to be part of the Modus Ignite programme and would like to thank everyone who has supported me to get to where I am today. I hope that Mrs B’s Cookery continues to grow and have many ambitions to fulfil”

“With Modus’s continued support my dreams are becoming a reality, and I soon hope to provide you with a community café which will allow us all to cook, dine and learn together more frequently.”

Why was Mrs B’s Cookery chosen?

In response to selecting Mrs B’s Cookery as the 2021 winner, Modus Ignite and Modus Accountants founder Mark Spolander said.

“The standard of entries this year was incredibly high, so selecting a single winner was a challenge. Over the last twelve months we have spoken with over a hundred business owners, all with different challenges and goals.

After speaking with Sarah, it was clear from the start that she not only had a great business idea, but the vision and drive to make it a success. We are looking forward to working with her over the next twelve months and are excited to see her business go from strength to strength.”

The other two shortlisted businesses; Weddings by Samantha and My Pilates Flow were also recognised as runners up, and have been rewarded with a personal business mentorship session to help plan their business strategy for 2022.

Mark continued:

“At Modus Accountants we’re so much more than just accountancy services and hopefully Modus Ignite shows a small part of this. Yes, we can provide you with all your essential accountancy services – bookkeeping, tax returns, end of year accounts, payroll, etc, but what we really love is helping business owners with every aspect of their business, helping them overcome challenges, grow, and achieve their goals.”

Modus Ignite will be back again in 2022 to support more businesses, so if you’re interested in entering your business, find out more at modus-accountants.co.uk/ignite.