A young County Durham businesswoman has opened her second dessert shop, aged just 21.

Simran Dhillon was just 16 years old when she set up her bakery business in Stanley selling a range of sweet treats.

But despite opening just a few months before lockdown her firm went from strength to strength and outgrew its original premises with takeaways booming.

(Image: DHILLON'S DESSERTS)

And now she has opened her second site in Fencehouses, Houghton-le-Spring, and hopes it will be the first of many 'Dhillons Desserts' opening in the coming years.

Simran, from Gateshead, said: "I used to bake all the time, I think all young girls do. My dad is a businessman, he's got loads of chip shops around the North East.

"He thought up this idea to open a shop, I thought he was joking. The next thing I knew he handed me the keys and that's how I started.

"That was before lockdown. I had turned 17 by the time that I opened the shop.

"Lockdown hit a few months in and I moved to a bigger site in Stanley. 

(Image: DHILLON'S DESSERTS)

"In the last two years I've always had this idea to open a new shop then the building came up for sale last year."

She and her dad Sammy have opened two shops in Fencehouses, with her sweet treats being sold upstairs and a chippy on the ground floor. 

The businesswoman continued: "We bought it and it's taken eight months to gut it and get ready to open.

"I fully run the dessert shop, but when it comes to the business me and my dad are very much together. My dad is opening a fish and chip shop downstairs and I'm upstairs.

(Image: DHILLON'S DESSERTS)

"Now I know what sells that's going to be the main focus."

While running the shop Simran is also doing a finance and investment degree, juggling being a businesswoman and student. 

She added: "It's difficult during exam season - December and January are really hard but I just power through it and you just run off five hours' sleep."

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Like the original shop in Stanley, the new site in Fencehouses will be open four days a week - Thursday to Sunday. 

She has recently seen a boom in business after starting to utilise TikTok to promote her business.

Earlier this year she was nominated in the North East Business Awards where she was named Best Food Business in the region.