Weekender: Quirky items up for auction following gift company’s liquidation

A selection of more than 100,000 outrageous party gifts, the remaining stock of Huddersfield-based The Gift Oasis which recently went into liquidation, will be auctioned this week.

Walker Singleton is auctioning the gifts, alongside the associated business assets, on behalf of liquidators Kingsland Business Recovery.

Howard Eastwood, a director of Walker Singleton, said: “There is an astonishing selection of party gifts available from the stock, over 2,500 different lines ranging from fancy dress, kitchen and cooking, home and garden and arts and crafts to health and beauty, clothes and fashion and sports and travel.

“Some of the more unusual and diverse items are hot-dog staplers; giant hip flasks, holding three pints; Donald Trump or Theresa May masks; solar-powered waving pugs; and cupcake lip balm.

“The company prided themselves on seeking out unusual and curious gifts that are fun and imaginative, appealing to anyone with a well-developed sense of humour. We are not short of stocks of abusive balloons, risqué gifts from key-rings to games, inverted drinking glasses or illuminating unicorn slippers.”

The auction is now live and will be on-line for eight days, finishing on May 11.

The Gift Oasis was founded in 2012 and moved into state-of-the-art office and warehousing units at Park Valley Mills business park in Huddersfield in 2016, with turnover soon reaching over £200,000 a month and more than 20 staff.

Subsequently issues largely market driven and outside the control of the business put pressure on the company leading it to have to enter liquidation.