Chocolate lovers unite because the doors to The Brownie Bar are officially opening tomorrow.

There has been growing interest in The Brownie Bar’s bright pink shop on Boon Street in the past few months as owners Dani and Antony “Pritch” Pritchard have been hard at work getting it up to scratch for opening day.

The Brownie Bar has become a popular feature of the Whakatāne market scene, with the Pritchards attending the Sunday market, Ōhope on Saturdays and Ōhope Wharfside through summer.

They intend to add even more flavours to their already extensive brownie menu and venture into chocolatey drinks at their new shop.

The store is a major step for the family business which started, like many, with humble beginnings.

Mrs Pritchard said she had always enjoyed baking, and she would do so regularly while she was training to be a teacher in the UK.

She and Mr Pritchard moved to New Zealand about 13 years ago and settled in the Eastern Bay, both getting jobs as teachers in Kawerau.

They had often thought of starting a brownie business, but Mrs Pritchard said it never seemed like the right time.

The couple moved to Australia briefly a couple of years ago with their young son, but ultimately decided it wasn’t for them. The thought was confirmed when Mrs Pritchard became pregnant with their second son, and they missed the community they had built in New Zealand.

They returned to the Eastern Bay on one income and Mrs Pritchard tested the local appetite for brownies by selling them at a garage sale just six months ago.

They completely sold out – and actually made more money selling the brownies than they did with their other items.

But the real confidence boost came when people contacted them afterwards asking for them to sell more.

With that bolstering them, they took the scary step of spending $1000 on a council business registration to be able to attend the Whakatāne Sunday Market.

And it paid off.

They sold out their first market, selling five flavours of brownies from a trestle table with a pink Kmart tablecloth and a borrowed gazebo.

From there it grew, with more flavours added, and the natural next step was to open a shop.

The Brownie Bar has allowed Mrs Pritchard to stay home with her youngest son instead of enrolling him in daycare and be there for her oldest before and after school.

“My dream was to have this business and still be there for the boys,” she said.

“I knew I wanted to make a business that worked for us as a family.”

She and Mr Pritchard viewed their Boon Street location two days before Christmas and signed the lease a week later.

“We just knew when we looked at it that this was it,” Mrs Pritchard said.

Their plan is to open the shop Fridays and Saturdays and continue to attend the market on Sunday.

The Brownie Bar is open tomorrow, Saturday, between 10am and 3pm at 18 Boon Street.