Popular sandwich shop owner reflects on ‘crazy’ and ‘best’ first year open in Northampton

The owner of a popular sandwich shop has reflected on a “crazy” first year open in Northampton, which she also described as “the best year”.

Spread opened its first store on January 4 last year in Adnitt Road, Abington, less than three years after grazing tables and boxes kickstarted the business for Amy Adams.

The venture began when Amy created a grazing table for her daughter’s third birthday in May 2019, which saw a variety of foods placed decoratively on the table for guests to enjoy – and this sparked her passion to become more creative with catering.

Many of the guests asked Amy who she hired to create the grazing table and she then started to produce them for friends and family as a hobby during her maternity leave.

As the hobby gained momentum and the time came for Amy to return to her job part-time in September 2019, she never returned and took Spread on full-time.

Though Amy still offers grazing tables as part of the business, the main focus is now selling sandwiches from the store in Abington – which proved a hit among the community from the very beginning.

When asked how it feels that Spread has been open for an entire year, Amy said: “It’s just so crazy, it’s been the best year. We’ve grown the community we already had when we started and it’s got better and better. I’m so grateful everyone has received it so well.”

Amy says the shop’s success has exceeded her expectations, as she had “no idea how much people would want what they were about to offer”.

“We didn’t expect it to be as busy and consistent,” said Amy. “We wanted to test the waters and it flew.”

Though Spread soon became known as the sell-out sandwich shop, the business owner wants to reassure customers that they now make more to accommodate their visitor numbers – and you are likely to be able to secure a sandwich if you visit near closing time.

Amy believes it is the fact that Spread is a “nice, fresh and nutritious option for lunch” that keeps customers coming back for more.

She added: “Everything is ready to go. You can pull up, run in and the sandwich is ready to grab and go, rather than having to wait for it to be made.”

A customer favourite has been Spread’s range of ‘flats’ – sandwiches made in a round loaf of bread and cut into quarters.

Though the ‘Spread’ and ‘chicken pesto’ flavours were the most popular in the beginning, Amy recognises the importance of switching up the menu and introducing specials.

On the business’ Instagram page, which has amassed more than 19,000 followers, Amy runs a monthly competition for a different customer to decide the sandwich special each month. This has proved a success and she plans to continue this in 2024.

When asked her proudest achievement since opening in Abington, Amy said: “The thing that makes me feel best is when customers come back week on week.

“I have a moment of gratitude that they come out of their way to a shop I’ve created and want to come back.

“It’s nice when people want to try your idea but the people who come back make you realise, wow I’ve done something to make a positive difference.”

The first year has not been without its challenges and Amy says the team has “not stopped learning all year” – whether that be how to store and deliver the final product, or how to work in a customer-facing environment.

As Spread always operated behind closed doors before January last year, it has been a learning opportunity for Amy and her team of four others.

“There’s been so many ups and downs,” she said. “Now we’ve had a year to see how it goes, we’re really well prepared going forward.”

Excitingly, Spread is launching a loyalty scheme which customers can sign up to in store.

There will be two separate schemes for sandwich and coffee purchases, and each purchase equals one lemon. After 10 coffees you get one free, and after 10 sandwiches you get one free.

This will be launched when Spread is next open on Wednesday (January 17), as Amy wanted to show her gratitude by giving back to her customers.

You can visit Spread’s Instagram page to keep up to date here.