A young entrepreneur who hopes to redefine the luxury kids gift market is looking for retailers to help take his plans to the next level.
Ben Sharman has already raised £7,000 in crowdfunding and now needs to find online and high street retailers to build the business up.
He has developed a range of luxury wooden toys which, he said, make the perfect gifts for special events such as christenings and births.
The entrepreneur from Narborough, in Leicestershire, brought in the support of his brother and parents to design the new toys, and named the business “plaay?”.
Together they came up with seven different animal designs, each, he said, with a modern twist and made from FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) approved oak.
The toys include a bear, a giraffe – which the marketing says is “often seen grazing in Africa enjoying nice green leaves and hot sunshine” – an elephant, a unicorn and a snowman.
All of the toys come with hand-finished luxury retail packaging.
If the right outlets can be found, he believes the business could turn over £64,000 this year, growing to £321,000 next year and £642,000 the year after.
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Ben, who works for a packaging company in Hinckley, said: “We put the money from the Kickstarter campaign back into the business to help us develop new tooling and new products and bring the first round of stock to the warehouse.
“We started trading just before Christmas and hope to scale it up this year through a mixture of website sales, distribution deals and high street retailers.
“We hope to speak to some key players this year.”
Ben has been developing the project with his family for around four years.
He said: “The idea came about following the birth of my third child Parker when I spotted a gap in the market for luxury toys.
“It all started with my family at home brainstorming designs and ideas for the range which included inspiration from the children, our favourite toys and films, shop walks, internet research and countless prototypes and testing across a wide range of materials and application methods.
“The solid oak provides fantastic wood grain definition and product durability, and all the toys have their own unique design aspects and bespoke features such as soft-touch fabrics, leather materials, calming and realistic colour tones with the iconic plaay? logo engraving.
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“We came up with wooden toys because if you want to buy luxury gifts for birthdays or christenings it all seems to be silverware and pottery.
“So we created a line of heirloom luxury wooded toys that are elegant, simple and ooze quality.
“They are beautiful and can be either played with or placed on a shelf to look at. They will even look good in an office.”
To contact Ben e-mail: ben.sharman@sky.com