'Ran out of time and money': St. Johns Town Center gourmet bakery Sweet by Holly closes after 11 years

After initially announcing plans to relocate from St. Johns Town Center, a gourmet cake and cupcake bakery that garnered national attention via Food Network has permanently closed after 11 years.

Sweet by Holly tried but ultimately failed to overcome challenges such as changing customer buying patterns and turn style-like staffing struggles rooted in the lingering aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The store simply ran out of time and money," Barry Wilder, who with his wife, celebrity chef Hollis Wilder, operated the Town Center bakery, told the Times-Union.

Wilder emphasized closing the store at 4624 Town Crossing Drive No. 137 "had nothing to do with our amazing staff and loyal customers."

"Ownership/upper management takes full responsibility for failing to reinvent the business in Jax successfully in our new reality," he said.

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Hollis Wilder was a three-time winner of Food Network's Cupcake Wars and the face of Sweet by Holly, which has its flagship shop in Orlando. The couple are minority owners of the Jacksonville store.

The Town Center bakery closure was announced last Thursday  in messages posted on the specialty bakery's social media sites.

"Regrettably Sweet by Holly will be exiting the Jacksonville market permanently. … Unfortunately, since covid the brand has proved unable to operate successfully in this location," the post read.

Customers with outstanding cake or cupcake orders were told to contact the Orlando store — under separate ownership — for assistance.

The Wilders opened the Orlando shop in 2008. The St, Johns Town Center location followed in 2011.

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Jacksonville bakery struggles after pandemic

Uncertainty about the Jacksonville shop's future arose during the past few months amid the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. The situation worsened as days passed, said Wilder, the general manager.

He said the shop had been successful for 11 years and "very specific to St. Johns Town Center."

"The business model started off as a high-volume scratch bakery focused on cupcakes with a tremendous amount of walk-in business, a tremendous amount of daytime population business from the local white-collar businesses in the area," he said.

The business then changed and "I guess we weren't smart enough or fast enough to adapt in that market," Wilder said.

"Instead of a walk-in dessert place, it turned into a very high-profile custom cake shop which requires really highly skilled chefs and really highly skilled front-of-the-house people who are more expensive. And there probably has not been a worse time than now to try to hire and retain a skilled workforce," he said.

Wilder said the shop lost more money in June and July than all of last year.

"It was just a gut punch and the bottom fell out. There just was no way to financially continue," he said.

An Aug. 13 post on the Sweet by Holly Facebook page stated that negotiations were ongoing to secure a new location that would "require significant upgrades in the kitchen." That would result in the shop closing to the public on Aug. 15, according to the post.

But the deal fell through. It became clear, Wilder said, that relocating the Jacksonville shop wasn't feasible.

Sweet by Holly is the most recent restaurant to close this year. The other closures include Sugarfire Smokehouse, Willard's Bar-B-Q Junction, Olio, Wing-It Jax, Ocean 60 and Simply Sara's.

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This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Sweet by Holly closes at Jacksonville's St. Johns Town Center