Groupon creams small bakery with orders for 102,000 cupcakes

A wildly successfully Groupon promotion wiped out a year's profit for a small British bakery that had to hire outside to fulfill orders for 102,000 discount cupcakes.

The "Need A Cake" bakery in Woodley had offered 12 cupcakes, which normally cost around $40, for $10 or a discount of 75%. Owner Rachel Brown, who normally fields about 100 orders a month, was swamped with 8,500 orders before she bailed out, the BBC reports.

"As soon as we were making, packaging and sending the cakes out we were on to the next order," she tells The Daily Telegraph. "It was non-stop."

She figures the extra help she had to hire cost $19,500, or about a full year's profit.

"Without doubt, it was my worst-ever business decision," said Brown, who has run the bakery for 25 years, the BBC reports. Without doubt, Brown tells The Telegraph, she "will not be doing this again."

Heather Dickinson, a Groupon spokeswoman, told the newspaper that there was no limit to the number of vouchers that could be sold. "We approach each business with a tailored, individual approach based on the prior history of similar deals," Dickinson said.