Popular Dudley doughnut hut continuing to make name for itself as it enjoys social media boost
A Dudley doughnut hut has continued to attract new customers and share its secrets with other groups after taking to social media.
Old Tom's Donuts has been a feature of street life in Dudley town centre for years, regularly attracting customers to the familiar red hut on Castle Street for its signature ringed and topped doughnuts.
It has taken on a new life this year after embracing social media and starting up a TikTok page, a page which has already passed more than 24,000 followers and even attracted the attention of other comfort food makers and content creators, such as Only Foodz from Chepstow.
Owner Pete Westwood said the Only Foodz team Kyle and Kelly Gettings had got in touch with him as they were looking to start a dessert business, but were having trouble creating the right sort of doughnuts for what they wanted to do.
He said: "They are on TikTok and they've started the dessert business to go alongside their burger business and they said they were struggling to make doughnuts, saying they were coming out like Yorkshire Puddings or anything other than a doughnut.
"They put out a message on TikTok asking for recommendations and who could give them a hand and everyone was recommending us, saying we were the best in the business, so they contacted us and asked about what they needed to do to create the perfect mix, so we invited them down to find out what we do."
That partnership with Only Foodz, which saw the team come down on Tuesday, marks another step for Old Tom's, with Mr Westwood saying that even his doughnut mix supplier was asking him to send photos to show on his website.
He said that taking to social media had really helped build the brand further and said it was nice to be a viral hit, as well as giving himself and his team an unlikely festive honour.
He said: "We're about eight months into the live streaming, but we've had that many followers in eight months, which is a lot for a small business like ours.
"It's seen people come from Wales and from abroad, while visiting their families to come and see us, all because they've seen us on TikTok and they've wanted to make a special journey to us.
"It's also led to us being invited to switch on the Christmas lights in Dudley this year, which is fantastic, and came from us jokingly asking the council on social media if we could do it and they asked us.
"It's been really great and we're loving doing the social media side of things."
