Cherry Darlings in South Australia, the country’s first ever vegan bakery, has announced on social media that it will be closing its doors sometime this year.

The business was started by Tim Salmon (baker and chef) nine years ago. It grew out of a passion project of Tim’s, doing catering and wholesaling, and became Cherry Darlings located in a bricks-and-mortar store in Goodwood.

Since then, the bakery has experienced a lot of ups and downs, riding the high of being Australia’s first vegan bakery and experiencing the rush of being highly popular.

Time and Allie have struggled with the realities of operating Cherry Darlings before, announcing in 2021 that the business was close to closure before expanding into a new location.

In April of this year, Tim took to social media once again to announce his decision to part ways with Cherry Darlings before the end of the year. The post expressed the desire for the business to be sold on to someone who could keep it running, but in the absence of a successful buyer, Tim and his partner Allie took to social media again to announce that the business would be closing completely.

In a post made last week, the pair wrote, “We have made the extremely difficult decision to close the shop as we haven’t had any concrete interest from buyers, and it’s become unsustainable for us to run the shop and the level of burn out we are at.

“We do not have a set timeline yet, but the shop is now being advertised for a lease takeover.”

Tim and Allie expressed their gratitude to Cherry Darlings’ loyal customer base, sharing that they would be available for bulk frozen pie and slice orders if customers wanted to stock up before the bakery closed down.

“We are so proud to be going out with a legacy we can look back on forever and say, ‘Hey, we did that for the animals’,” they wrote.