Northants businesswoman set to double size of business

Jane Gokgoz (right)

A Wellingborough businesswoman says she is looking to double the size of her operation as demand for her personalised gifts company is booming.

Jane Gokgoz is the owner of Personalised Gifts Shop, an online retailer that she says can personalise almost anything. Gokgoz started the company with £5.50 at her kitchen table in 2011 and now runs it with her team of 30-plus staff from a 10,000 sq ft warehouse, selling over £3m worth of products by the end of March 2017 and on target to exceed over £4m by end of March 2018.

“We sell anything – bestsellers have included hammers and underwear,” said Gokgoz. “If it has a surface and can have a message printed on it, then we will sell it. As long as the message is not intended to offend.”

Gokgoz’s success accelerated when she took the decision to start making her own products. “It was stressful – I had to remortgage, borrow and spent weeks recreating everything, but it gave us complete autonomy and made our offering more unique. I now have complete control over the product offering and quality,” she said.

Personalised Gifts Shop has its own team of in-house designers, whocreate the products from design to photo shooting. Over 30 hi-tech machines are used at the warehouse, with all staff trained on all machinery to vary the workloads. Demand is now growing so quickly that Gokgoz is planning to purchase further machinery and this, coupled with the need for more production area and storage space, is driving the expansion.

Gokgoz and her team produces and dispatches within 24 hours, except at busy times like Christmas – although she is finding that all year round is now ‘peak time’. “We are entering wedding season, having just finished Valentines and Mother’s Day, and then it is Father’s Day, then the new school year, then Halloween. In between all that, people are having birthdays, getting married, anniversaries, moving home, having children – there is always an occasion and always a suitable gift.”

Current trends include baby scan picture frames, DIY items and Gin products but Jane is always keeping her eye on future trends, doing research at international trade shows to keep refreshing her product range, which includes over 14,000 products. With a high percentage of customers returning business and corporate clients including Manchester United, TSB, Vodafone and Marriott, Personalised Gifts Shop shows no signs of slowing. Gokgoz even has plans to expand in other avenues as well as online retailing in the very near future.

“We are used by so many people all over the UK – but we want to become more of a household name,” she said. “By increasing our operation we can deliver even more unique gifts to even more people.”

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