ToxicFox makes a flying start
A start-up Internet business is tapping into growing demand for personalised gifts.
Stockport-based ToxicFox, which sells everything from personalised T-shirts to chocolate treats as well as mainsteam experience gifts such as football stadium tours, began trading on May 1.
The six-strong enterprise has made a promising start in a tough retail market, and is hoping to hit £500,000 sales in its first year.
In the six months to the end of October ToxicFox has received more than 5,000 orders and shipped 6,000 items. Orders have been received from as far afield as Australia, Dubai, Spain and the US.
Managing director Clinton Nije, 27, says: “We have strong plans to position ToxicFox.co.uk as the leading personalised gift brand and for us, these figures are the first milestones of many. We have blown our original business plan apart.”
Nije, who was a finance manager at Manchester-based GettingPersonal – a personalised gift business – which was sold to Card Factory this year, says ToxicFox is a very different proposition.
“We started off creating a brand and the character and that has led us to where we are. The brand is everything -anyone can launch a website and sell stuff but we’re different.
“In terms of product development, we really looked at current trends in the media, so we made a range based on catchphrases from The Only Way is Essex.”
The business has also developed a social media strategy and already has more than 4,000 Twitter followers and 1,800 Facebook fans.
As well as its website, the business, which has been self-funded from the start, operates a virtual store in Stockport where local customers can browse the ToxicFox.co.uk website via touch screen computers and also see samples of products. Goods ordered are then shipped to their home or direct to the recipient
