The founder of a popular café with three branches across Buckinghamshire is stepping back from her role to spend more time with her family.

Sarah Lancaster, 45, opened The Canny Café on Rose Avenue in Hazlemere in March 2019 after a side venture baking and decorating celebration cakes from her kitchen unexpectedly took off.

Despite taking a break from a former career in business marketing to have her three daughters, Sarah quickly found herself “putting family on the back burner” as the café soared in popularity over the following years – prompting the opening of a new branch at the Roald Dahl Museum in Great Missenden and a kiosk on St John’s Road in Hazlemere.

More than five years after throwing her hat in the ring and after building and consolidating The Canny Café’s success almost entirely on her own, Sarah has sold the Hazlemere venue to another local owner and is taking the time to “rearrange her priorities” outside of running the rewarding but demanding small business.

The museum branch and the kiosk will remain open and will continue to operate within their limited weekend and holiday windows, and while Sarah is planning to keep a foot in the door of both sites, she is also looking forward to taking a much-deserved break.

“I haven’t taken a holiday in three or four years, at least, so it will be nice to have a bit of time freed up.

“I think it was time for me to move on – being on the fringes of the hospitality world is really for young and energetic folk, and it’s a bit much for me now. I’ll never regret taking the opportunity when it was there, though.”

(Image: Sarah Lancaster)

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She grew up down the road in Marlow and put in much of the groundwork for the café through word of mouth to “mums at the school gate” and friends and family in the area – though the three-site enterprise has far outgrown the need for such rudimentary publicising now.

Because of Sarah’s links to the area, the café was always close to her heart, as were those regular customers who became close friends over her half-decade on Rose Avenue.

It’s no surprise, then, that those regulars, alongside the close-knit network of small business owners in Hazlemere, joined the 45-year-old in getting “a bit choked up” after she shared the news of her departure earlier this month.

“I was really touched by the outpouring of love and compassion after the news came out.  One of our regulars comes in twice a week for a croissant and a cappuccino, and she was quite upset after reading the notice on the door.

“It’s a really nice neighbourhood, and it’s always tough to say goodbye. But I’m looking forward to focusing on my family and the other two locations. And who knows what else might happen? I think there’s a part of me that will always be ambitious – I’ll probably just be looking for the next challenge.”