A SMALL bakery business based in Woodham has received support from Dragon’s Den star Theo Paphitis.

Just Because Treats, run by Jen Munson-Montanez, was one of six firms chosen by the tycoon in his weekly Small Business Sunday initiative.

Business owners have to tweet Mr Paphitis, who then retweets his favourite six the following day, opening up potential customers and deals among his half a million followers.

Jen said: “It is invaluable to have Theo and his team's support especially as I'm working hard to create awareness about our handcrafted Alfajores (South-American naturally gluten-free biscuits) and raise our profile.

“In three days our Twitter following base has more than doubled and social engagement increased by almost 4%.”

Jen has been making alfajores since she was 12 and attended a cookery course run by a renowned Venezuelan chef.

She has lived in Colombia, the US, France, Denmark and Australia before moving to Britain and has found the treats popular with friends and work colleagues.

Mr Paphitis said: “I was struck by the number of business owners on Twitter who wanted to tell me about their new products and services. Small Business Sunday was born so that people have a specific time slot to tweet and can pitch their 'sell' directly to me.”

He set up the initiative in October 2010 and now has more than 2,500 #SBS winners.

For more information about Just Because Treats, visit https://www.justbecausetreats.co.uk, use @justbecausetreats on Instagram and Facebook or b_treats on Twitter.

For the full story and details of how to get involved with Small Business Sundays, get the 26 September edition of the News & Mail