A firm making gift boxes and hampers will create new jobs and expand further into America after receiving six-figure funding from Lancashire Council's investment vehicle, Rosebud Finance.
Boe House, the owner of Baby Box Shop, has received a loan worth £160,000 from the council and will now increase its stock levels in order to fulfil growing demand from European and US customers.
The firm based in Thornton-Cleveleys was founded in 2016 by husband and wife team Owen and Kim Burrows, but has seen huge growth in the last year, with turnover increasing by 300%.
Mr Burrows said: "Having enjoyed a really successful year, the issue we faced when undergoing such rapid expansion was a lack of working capital to facilitate increasing stock levels, and that’s the main reason why we turned to Rosebud.
“We’re now in an excellent position for further expansion, with a group of dedicated full-time staff and an improved workspace, plus the capital required to meet the growing demand for our products.
"The next step for us is to develop our own e-commerce platform, providing us with more sales channels to complement our existing presence on Amazon.”
Back in 2016 the pair began to design a range of Christmas Eve Boxes - pre-filled and ready-made gift boxes to help reduce stress for busy parents.
Using the same formula, the pair went on to explore the baby gift arena and created a collection of products for new parents.
It now offers more than 30 different types of gift boxes and hampers.
Having witnessed strong sales in Europe, the company ran a successful market test in the US and it now ships four of its products there. The new funding will allow it to grow further into both markets.
The funding from Rosebud, which is delivered by GC Business Finance, has enabled Boe House to increase hours to create three full-time positions for existing production staff, as well as generating a further three new jobs.
Boe House plans to scale up its production studio space to allow for further increases in headcount and launch its own e-commerce platform to offer customers more ways to buy.
Jonathan Nelson, senior loans manager at Rosebud, said: “The growth Boe House has witnessed over the last 12 months is testament to the quality of its products.
"To have established customers in the US and Europe at such an early stage is impressive, and we were exceptionally keen to support the business with the funding required to grow this customer base further.
"We’re also proud to have funded the creation of three new jobs and three new full-time employees in Lancashire, especially under the difficult circumstances that businesses and employees across the globe are currently facing.”
