Sugar rush: inside the UK’s growing dessert market

With a flurry of concepts entering the market and established players continuing to expand, the UK’s dessert sector is developing into a sizeable and increasingly diverse category. Twenty years ago, the idea of going out specifically for dessert was relatively unusual. But over the past few decades an entirely new eating-out sector has emerged comprising businesses devoted almost exclusively to sweet things. Dessert cafés and parlours have become an increasingly visible part of the UK’s high streets and leisure developments, with several of the largest operators building estates of close to 100 sites.