A Fylde children's gifts business has secured a £160,000 load for growth

Boe House, the owner of Baby Box Shop, has received a £160,000 loan from Rosebud Finance, Lancashire County Council’s investment vehicle delivered by GC Business Finance.

It said the money will help it to create jobs and increase export sales.

During 2016, husband and wife, Owen and Kim Burrows, began to design a range of Christmas Eve Boxes.

These 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.

Their business has enjoyed rapid growth in the last year, with turnover increasing 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.

Having witnessed strong sales in Europe, the company ran a successful market test in the US and it now ships four of its products to the States.

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.

Owen 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.”