Telford retailer looking to recruit after sales boom during pandemic

Telford-based Teamson, which provides lifestyle furniture, garden accessories and kids toys, wants to take on about four more staff after enjoying a sales boom over the last 12 months.

The business, which works with major retailers including Argos, Sainsbury's, Asda and Amazon, saw demand for its products increase as more people were forced to stay at home during the pandemic.

Joint founder Gary Woods said: "We are an e-commerce business and sales grew ridiculous last year.

"We were well placed to deal with the pandemic as 95 per cent of our business is online.

"I think we benefitted from people being stuck in the confines of their homes and investing to make a better environment for themselves.

"We have more than doubled our growth every year and was expecting 2020 to be busy anyway, but with shops being closed it left us with more growth than we planned for.

"Anything for the outdoors went crazy, including fire pits. Children's toys such as dolls houses and kitchens also sold well as people bought things children could interact with while they were stuck at home. We also had strong sales of desks and desk chairs."

Teamson was formed four years ago and currently employs 21 people in Telford.

"We are of the best kept secrets in Telford," Mr Woods said.

"We have grown from a poky little office above a kebab shop in Newport. We are part of a global group and during lockdown relocated to Telford.

"We look forward to welcoming our team back to our new offices in Telford. We are also looking to take four more people on."

Mr Woods said the biggest challenge the business has faced recently is Brexit rather than the pandemic.

"Almost 50 per cent of our revenue is from Europe," he said.

"We have had over 1,000 parcels – £100,000 worth stuck in Europe as for whatever reason they haven't been delivered.

"We have had to break promises to our customers which has upset us.

"We have had to open a new warehouse in the Netherlands ahead of schedule to help us."

Looking ahead, Mr Woods added: "We hope to continue to grow at the rate we have been growing. We have laid down our roots in the area and want to keep on investing."

Co-founder Charlotte Pavard added: "I am thrilled to see Teamson grow at such a significant pace. We have every kind of stunning product that our consumers want, we have a fantastic team who every day become more and more hungry of enjoying our successes and to me that puts a smile on my face."