Sunderland mum's baby yoga business is going national

But now soaring demand for baby yoga classes has put her fast-growing business on the verge of national expansion.

Rebecca launched Sunderland-based Kalma Baby in 2014 after giving up a career in retail management to raise her first child.

In search of a baby group with developmental benefits for her prematurely-born son, she spotted a gap in the market for mother and baby yoga classes.

She trained as a baby yoga instructor and has since built up a network of 14 franchisees across the North East.

In the next 12 months Kalma Baby franchises will begin operating throughout Yorkshire, while discussions are also under way to take the business into London.

The company runs baby, toddler and junior yoga groups, baby developmental massage classes and yoga classes for pre and postnatal mums and works closely with schools, offering classes with positive themes, designed to ease anxiety.

Kalma Baby’s success has been aided by business support company RTC North, which provided grant funding and expertise through its Innovation Pathway programme to help Rebecca to grow her company via digital marketing.

Innovation Pathway was delivered by RTC North and was part funded by European Regional Development Fund as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020. The follow-on programme, Pathways to Innovation, started in January 2018.

RTC director Jamie Ollivere says: “Rebecca has harnessed a personal passion to build a business that taps into growing demand for both baby yoga and flexible ways of making a living among busy parents. She quickly recognised that the franchising model was much better suited to the company than employing full-time staff and her decision has paid off.”

Rebecca added: “When children come along there is often a necessity for mums to work flexibly, especially given the astronomical cost of childcare. They can miss out on lots of things with their children, and therefore there is huge demand for career opportunities like ours.

“We have strict criteria for franchisees, while we also give them a lot of support, including yoga and marketing training.”