Festive success in the bag for family firm (From Hampshire Chronicle)

Festive success in the bag for family firm

3:59pm Friday 5th January 2007 in

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LAST year was a busy one for the Welch family of Winchester. The turnover of their party bag and Christmas stocking business reached £40,000.

In the run-up to the festivities, they had 7,000 Father Christmas hats and 7,000 antlers stored in the garage of their Harestock home.

They supplied 23,000 empty Christmas sacks to a public relations company and they shipped over 2,000 Christmas stockings to the Abaco Club Golf resort in the Bahamas.

The company, PartyToo. com, can supply everything from a 25p bear to a £1 party bag of children's treats. The company is run by Sally Welch with help from her working husband, Brian, and their daughters, Charlotte and Nicola.

"Even my mum, Barbara, has been helping," said Mrs Welch. "She puts stickers on things, at the age of 83."

Born in Southampton, Mrs Welch left school at 18 and went into hairdressing, working in salons such as Trevor Mitchell and Tyrrell & Green. "I was student of the year in 1972 for the whole country."

She quit work to have a baby but, after two or three years, started a hairdressing and beauty service for weddings.

Her daughters used to wear smock dresses and she was soon marketing her own versions of the garment, together with cardigans.

For 10 years, she dispatched the clothes to exclusive boutiques in London.

Around 1996, she began supplying uniforms for Winchester's Prince's Mead private school and she still runs that business, in collaboration with the school. Party Too.com grew out of a family chat round the table after dinner one evening. "Neither of my daughters relished the idea of working for a large company. They much preferred to create something of their own.

"The party bag thing came up. I've always had these bags to supply to children and we were talking about how mothers are busy."

The idea was launched on the internet and turnover has grown since.

Over the last four years, the range has grown to include tiny filled stocking tree decorations and small stockings that make cracker alternatives or party favours, Christmas sacks and large stockings.

"We aim to give people the very best value we can," Mrs Welch said. "We're very particular about the quality of goods we supply."

As expansion continues, Mrs Welch says she expects to take on commercial premises in the next year or so and she hopes to persuade her daughters to stay in the business.

"It's something we've made and grown and we'd very much like it to grow even more."