ROBBIE Allen launched Thriving Box Company to support local businesses in Glasgow and Edinburgh during the pandemic by offering gift boxes with a range of items including artisan food and drink, art and lifestyle products. The business hopes to reach £1 million in revenue by the end of the year.

Name: Robbie Allen

Age: 31

Position: Founder

WHAT IS THE BUSINESS CALLED?

Thriving Box Company

WHERE IS IT BASED?

Edinburgh

WHY DID YOU SET UP THE BUSINESS?

I HAVE done a lot of freelance marketing for small businesses and was speaking to an ex-client who had a lot of friends with retail shops and were concerned about what was going to happen. I came up with the idea then and launched the Keep Edinburgh Thriving website and within three to four days I had sold about 40 boxes before we even knew what products we would offer. People were told the boxes would include food, drink and lifestyle products but I hadn’t sourced the items yet. I wanted to provide small independent businesses with an income during lockdown. We launched on March 28. I wanted people to receive the boxes and smile so there was a mental health aspect to it. I was really nervous because I hadn’t sold a retail product myself before. People were delighted after the first round of deliveries as they discovered small Edinburgh businesses they had never heard of. Sarah Quan does illustrations and people discovered her work. Most businesses in the gift box are relatively unknown. We have sold over 6000 boxes now.

We’re in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester and Bristol. It has worked best in Glasgow and Edinburgh. There is a real local thing in Scotland. We’re aiming to get people to move away from Amazon. It is impossible for us to order something at 7pm and for it to be delivered the next day. We use local drivers in Glasgow and Edinburgh. We started doing a “quarantini” box with pre-made cocktails from bars and restaurants and lots of customers who bought the original boxes supported that. Some people have bought up to 70 boxes and we have sent them to Europe, Australia and Canada. People have sent items to friends who were supposed to visit Scotland before lockdown happened.

WHAT IS YOUR TARGET MARKET?

USUALLY people who are gifting. It tends to be aged 18-96 so it is a wide range but the average customer is women aged 24-50. A HR manager who works for a big company in Edinburgh got boxes for her team and told her seniors and they got some for their staff – that was 720 orders. We now have a corporate side and do B2B care packages. We have supplied to companies including Standard Life and People’s Postcode Lottery.

Half of the business is now B2B sales and that happened organically. We are currently talking to 40 businesses who are interested in care packages and that could be 10 to 1200 boxes. If an order of 1200 comes in we would have to invest again and hire people to help.

HOW IS IT DIFFERENT FROM COMPETING BUSINESSES?

WHEN I started, I just put this together to see if anyone would buy it. Lots of the other companies competing have been there for a long time, like BoroughBox and Yumbles. Most only offer food and drink because the cost of the items is cheaper.

Our range is more diverse than that. We have people making soaps by hand. If you only buy lots of craft beer it could be £1 a go but handmade soap will be £5. We try to only work with small businesses. It is not mass produced and with other boxes you could assemble most of the items yourself from the supermarket. That is not the case for us. We have a relationship with Fife Council to work with 85 producers which mainly offer food and drink.

Dook Soaps got a bigger order for museums and galleries in Scotland before coronavirus, but it was cancelled so we bought 1000 soaps off them, which is more than what the original order was. We also work with a coffee maker, Rafiki, a social enterprise who has had an uptake in sales which will help children in Rwanda get an education. Last month they had their best month and did nearly 240kg of coffee.

IS SCOTLAND A GOOD PLACE FOR THIS TYPE OF BUSINESS?

YES. Most of our retail clients are in Scotland. I did research into the disposable incomes of areas and Aberdeen was the highest followed by Edinburgh. The product isn’t something you need. Our corporate clients have been awesome – buying hundreds of gift boxes helps us a lot.

WHAT DO YOU ENJOY MOST ABOUT RUNNING THE BUSINESS?

HELPING people through. Most small businesses have had less time to do the marketing and sales side recently. It is hard to acquire a customer and we have got companies up to 1000 new customers during the pandemic. It is awesome to see and hear their confidence and seeing those businesses thrive is what we aim for.

WHERE DO YOU HOPE THE BUSINESS WILL BE IN 10 YEARS’ TIME?

SELLING 50 boxes was the goal. We are now looking to grow the direct to consumer offering. We want to make different types of boxes for life events, like one for moving house or having a new baby. I want to grow the B2B side. We have already hit £250,000 in revenue and hope to hit £1m by the end of the year.