Six-figure investment for Thornton-Cleveleys gift box firm

Boe House has received a £160,000 loan from Rosebud Finance which will help the company create jobs and increase its presence in the USA.

Husband and wife team Owen and Kim Burrows began the business in 2016 by producing a range of Christmas Eve Boxes which were 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.

Over the last year, turnover has increased by 300 per cent. It now offers more than 30 different types of gift boxes and hampers, largely sold through Amazon Marketplace, which range in price from £15 to £45.

Following strong sales in Europe, the company ran a successful market test in the USA and it now ships four of its products acrossthe Atlantic. The funding from Rosebud will allow Boe House to increase its stock levels in order to fulfil the growing demand from European and US customers.

In addition, the funding 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.

Owen 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."

GC Business Finance was appointed to deliver the £11.25m Rosebud fund in July 2019. Since then, it has made more than 16 investments totalling £2m, resulting in the creation of more than 100 jobs. The fund provides loans ranging from £10,000 to £300,000 across 12 local authority administrative areas and aims to create more than 100 jobs in Lancashire per year.

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