News Miss Milly means business!
Gift Universe
acquires Prezzybox Gift Universe, the parent company of gifts and gadgets retailer Menkind, has officially completed the acquisition of Prezzybox, an established brand in the gifting industry and the creation of founder Zak Edwards. The deal, which was made for an undisclosed sum, will enable the company to extend its reach into the female gifting market alongside Menkind’s male focused proposition, and follows Gift Universe’s recent acquisition of Hawkin’s Bazaar, which furthers its strategy to develop specialised highly targeted offerings. Family-run Prezzybox was founded in 2000 with the mission to ‘to create moments of happiness by delivering the extraordinary’. The acquisition will see no significant change to Prezzybox, with the company maintaining its brand name, identity, ethos and value proposition. Gift Universe will look to use synergies in terms of buying, marketing and finance to the benefit of the company and its customers. Prezzybox commercial director Barney Edwards commented: “We’re pleased that the business is going into Gift Universe’s capable hands and look forward to seeing it go from strength to strength in the future. As a family, we have put a huge amount of effort into building the business and we are happy to pass it on to a company that can help it achieve its potential. “We are thankful to all the external stakeholders we have worked with and, most importantly, would like to thank our many
team members from over the years. Despite growing into a big operation from a small family business, we have always felt like one big family.” Gift Universe CEO and founder Paul Kraftman added: “We are excited to continue the growth of our business through the acquisition of this well-established family brand. The acquisition of Prezzybox provides further opportunity to develop and grow our offering and increase our foothold in the gifting industry, enabling us to continue to expand our customer base.” Gift Universe is a multi-channel business sourcing, developing and selling products in the novelty, gifting and gadgets market. Founded in 2002, the company operates an expansive network of Menkind stores across the UK. Under the direction of Paul Kraftman, Gift Universe has grown organically as well as via several successful mergers and acquisitions since its inception. With an in-house product development team, it is able to offer a diverse product range spanning several gifting categories, with 70% of revenue generated from original products designed in-house. Channels include 50 permanent stores (expanding up to 70 at peak trading through seasonal pop-ups), and B2B distribution to blue-chip and independent retailers, and ecommerce platforms and marketplaces.
“We’re pleased that the business is going into Gift Universe’s capable hands and look forward to seeing it go from strength to strength in the future”
6 Gifts Today
Miss Milly recently took part in the inaugural Sustainability Basics course offered by Small Business Britain. A six-week course run with Oxford Brookes University, Small99 and Sustainable Pathways, the programme began with an introduction to sustainability and how to caalculate your carbon footprint, and then looked at different areas in more detail such as energy, transport, supply chain, and carbon offsetting. Miss Milly owner Sarah Watmore said: “With interactive webinars and an engaged Facebook group, the course was - and continues to be - a great help in our aim to be more sustainable. We have already made some changes, but now have several other projects ongoing, and will be including information on what we’re doing on our new website, which launched in June.” Small Business Britain is running a second course from September 6 and Miss Milly would encourage other businesses in the gift industry to get involved. Sarah commented: “Sustainability is a minefield, and many of the smaller wholesalers and independent retailers would struggle with B Corp certification. But this course gave us lots of suggestions and advice on where we could improve and how. Every positive change you can make at work and home, no matter how small, really is worthwhile.”
Licensing update from Love Country Love Country has announced a licensing partnership with Tracks Publishing. The company said: ‘The lovely people at Tracks fell for the heartwarming designs by artist Sarah Reilly and have licensed Sarah’s entire design collection. These are available as greeting cards and packs, which feature a story on the reverse written by Sarah.’ A new licence for this summer includes the new 2022 Seed Card Collection, which received a Highly Commended accolade in The Giftware Association’s Gift of the Year Awards 2022. With 24 designs, the collection features wildlife and flowers and is 100% plastic-free. More festive products have been developed and you can find Sarah’s work on advent calendars and advent cards available for pre-order now.
