Sweet-Creation shares 13 years at Portsmouth Enterprise Centre
From the outside, Unit 24 of the Portsmouth Enterprise Centre on Quartremaine Road may appear like any ordinary business unit, but step inside and you're greeted by an Aladdin’s cave of bright colours, lights, glitter and sparkle.
For the past 13 years, Portsmouth Enterprise Centre has been home to Sweet-Creation, a family-run wedding cake and events company. Now in its third unit on the site, the business has twice outgrown its previous premises, and with demand continuing to rise, it's close to outgrowing this one too.
From Kitchen Creations to a Wedding Supplier
Sweet-Creation's owner, Nicola Tomkinson, first began baking celebration cakes for friends and family from her own kitchen. When photos of her remarkable cakes got out via social media, Nicola was approached by Brides of Portsmouth to be their wedding cake supplier for wedding packages.
Nicola had been working with them for just a couple of months when Brides of Portsmouth disappeared. This left suppliers and brides in the lurch as Trading Standards teams investigated.
"We nearly went under," Nicola recalls. Then came an unexpected lifeline. The Portsmouth News reached out while investigating the rogue traders story and asked Nicola for her side. She didn’t hesitate.
“We told them that if any brides had been let down and still needed their wedding cakes, we would honour those orders. It was the least we could do. One bride got in touch almost immediately. She had lost everything - her venue, her catering, her entire wedding day was gone. So, we began looking into how we could help her rebuild it, piece by piece, and that's how we started to build our business."
Expanding Beyond Cakes
Since then, the business has expanded into corporate events and birthday celebrations, offering everything from magic mirrors, dance floors, photo booths and sweet carts. They now work with numerous venues across Portsmouth including as the recommended supplier for the Village Hotel.
While the covid years were challenging for Sweet-Creation, the team is looking forward to a busy year in 2026. Diversifying into new packages such as budget and DIY weddings to help brides keep the costs down and still have a fabulous day.
Nicola is eager to explore the idea of hosting a second open day at the Enterprise Centre, an opportunity to showcase local talent and foster collaboration among the diverse businesses on site. She’s particularly keen to team up with fellow entrepreneurs, including Fauxticial, who recently took a unit at the Enterprise Centre.
“It would be fantastic to get others involved,” she says. “The Enterprise Centre is such a brilliant space for business collaboration."
