A former Tyneside teacher who launched a gifting business from his bedroom in lockdown is aiming for a national roll out, after winning a series of significant contracts.
Sam Black launched Coastal Hampers in November 2020, after work as a primary school supply teacher began to dry up in the second lockdown, leaving him worried he wouldn’t be able to pay his bills. After speaking to local businesses he struck upon the idea of creating all-year-round gift hampers, which could in turn showcase products from small firms across the North East.
Within weeks he’d sold scores of hampers, all while juggling his teaching career, but in October 2021 he took a leap of faith and quit his job to focus all his energy on Coastal Hampers. Now, the company has its own premises, a small but growing team of staff, a list of companies whose gifts are included in the popular hampers, and big ambitions for the future.
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And Mr Black – who is on a shortlist of six in the final of the Great British Entrepreneur Awards Young Entrepreneur of the Year, which had over 5,000 applicants – says it all began from the vital importance of supporting small businesses when the pandemic struck.
He said: “I remember seeing everywhere I went ‘Support Local Businesses’, whether that be on shop windows of the shops that were forced to close or whenever I was scrolling through social media. I came up with the idea of making a Christmas hamper full of products from local businesses in the North East and I would try to sell them on social media, coming up with the name Coastal Hampers as my business name.
“The next day I set about the North East and contacted around 20 local businesses to see if they would be interested in my idea. Thankfully, 10 local businesses agreed and gave me a sample product. I then went to a charity shop, bought a wicker basket, took it down to the beach with the products and took a nice photo. I went home, posted in several Facebook groups to see if anyone would be interested in buying one and the response was phenomenal – I sold around 180 hampers in about three weeks purely on Facebook. This made me about £10,000 turnover, with a profit of about £4,500. To say I was pleased was an understatement.
“Throughout 2021 I continued with Coastal Hampers as a little side hustle, working on them on evenings and weekends whilst I continued to teach. From January 2021 to September 2021, I probably made around £2,000 profit, which is of course not so much at all. However, I wanted to stick at it to see if anything came of it in the future.
“Low and behold, in October, I received a call from a lady at an NHS trust asking me if I could make over 10,500 hampers for the Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne & Wear NHS trust in time for Christmas. I took a huge gamble and immediately said yes I can do it, said we have all the capabilities to do it - my bedroom became my stock room and I quit my teaching job on the spot.
“Over the coming weeks, I had to find out a way to register as an official business, ask all of the local businesses if they could make 10,500 products, find staff, premises, lorries and pallet loaders to package and deliver the product. Plus I had to manage over 15 different suppliers and approximately 50 people.”
Last December the company delivered the final batch of 10,700 hampers to the CNTW NHS trust, a deal which would see Mr Black’s business turn over more than £400,000. The success of that deal spark another lucrative deal, this time with the North East Ambulance Service, which had seen his work with the CNTW trust and wanted something similar – a deal which took turnover in the last six months to more than £500,000.
Since establishing the business out of his bedroom in Jesmond less than 18 months ago, Mr Black has moved operations to a dedicated unit in Tynemouth, North Tyneside, where he employs two other members of staff – a figure which increases greatly around Christmas.
The firm, which currently has net profit of around £270,000, already works with well known local names including Gareth James Chocolatier, Pure Scent, Yummy Things, Calder’s Kitchen and Awesome Botanical, and Mr Black has huge plans for future growth.
He said: “Our plans for the future are to keep continuing to win these big contracts that not only help ourselves but also give so much to the small, local businesses we have here in the North East. Since starting the business, we have raised over £150,000 for local businesses in the North East, which is probably my proudest achievement with the whole process.
“In the future I would also like to move the business to other parts of the UK and expand even further, supporting local businesses in the regions that we expand to.”
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