The Cheshire Gift Company are on an environmental mission

Had you have told Lucy Rushton in 2015, just starting up the Cheshire Gift Company with a market stall that six years later, she would be sending out 1,500 orders per week from a huge warehouse, she probably would not have believed you.

But here she is, leading the Cheshire gift shop empire while working with her best friends.

After serving Cheshire and Warrington in stalls and local deliveries to now sending out packages across the area and beyond, Lucy, 33, is living a dream, given what she wanted to do as a child.

“We’re going from strength to strength and I’ve designed lots of exclusive stuff with that first supplier.

“I appreciate my staff so much. I worked for an organisation all my working life where no matter how hard you worked you were never appreciated and I like to think my staff know how much they are,” she said.

“I’m so proud. I base success on more than just how much profit we turn.

“I’ve got lots of friends, family, who have had their dreams, businesses and livelihoods all taken away from them this year, I don’t want to come across as boastful, I work 80 hour weeks I certainly don’t get all of this for nothing.”

Lucy worked hard to get to this position as well, a dream she pursued after being involved with tiling, wallpapering and plastering from a young age.

After working for the police for 12 years, she did not have any qualifications in the industry but likes challenges, so she set up a side-hustle.

In 2014, she was made redundant by the police and was told she had to re-apply for her job every six months so she needed a backup plan. Cue The Cheshire Gift Company.

It was not plain sailing though.

“I borrowed £400 out of my own savings and I bought some stock from my very first supplier, who is still to this day one of my biggest and most trusted suppliers. He took a chance on me when I begged him to open an account because his minimum order was £5,000 and I only had £400.

“I pleaded with him and I think I annoyed him so much that he let me put in the order,” she joked.

She set up the stall for the first time, while working full-time, bought herself a gazebo and a table and took it all over Cheshire.

“It wasn’t as easy as I thought. I had the British weather to contend with, there were people there already doing kind of the same thing as me,” Lucy, who studied at Chester University, continued.

“I just used to cry because I didn’t even get my £65 stall money back and me and my dad were stood frozen all day.

“He told me ‘don’t give up, keep going’.”

Lucy set up her website when pregnant in 2017 because carrying boxes to stalls started to become impossible but once she had the baby, she still continued selling around Cheshire.

Lucy Rushton with her son Bobby, aged three

Over two years had passed at this point with zero profit made.

“I couldn’t afford to invest in a website so I built my own. Looking back now it was completely rubbish but it was what I needed at the time.”

Whilst she was on maternity leave, someone nearby to Lucy bought an MOT garage and it had a lawn mower shop attached to it.

She was offered the shop space, which Lucy took and then opened from October to December every Saturday and Sunday selling Christmas presents and decorations and it was a success.

“It reinstated for me, ‘no I do have something here’.

“Slowly but surely going online, persevering, I built up three to 4,000 Instagram followers.

“I met a local lady on Instagram called Becky who said I’m not here to make any money, I just really like your products and feel like you’re missing a massive trick with Instagram.

“She works full-time now as my social media manager. I took on everything she said and my Instagram has grown from 3,000 to just short of 150,000 followers," she added.

Part of her growth on social media was then helped by Stacey Solomon.

The singer and TV personality gave The Cheshire Gift Company a shout out on Instagram after placing an order for two vases.

Lucy had not even realised at first, she just did her usual job of hand-wrapping the order with a hand-written note and following that her phone was inundated with notifications.

“Within three months I’d quit my job at the police, I’d moved into a 6,000 square foot warehouse, massively panicked before I thought ‘I have no staff’.

“Lo and behold three of my closest friends all lost their jobs, they got made redundant during Covid, so they all just came to work for me. They all still work here now so I get to go to work every day with my best friends."

Lucy was working while heavily pregnant with Bobby, and he looks to enjoy visiting the Cheshire Gift Company workspace!

And now the challenge is to keep building in the same vein, and they will do that by continuing to put the environment first at their warehouse in Broxton, Chester.

“A lot of people at the stalls were selling things that were batch made in China and it’s nothing different than what you can buy from Home Bargains. Whereas with my supplier, everything is fair trade, ethically sourced and stuff is made out of natural materials," Lucy continued.

“We use the brown paper, even our ribbon is compostable and all of the packing chips that I put into stuff to protect it can go on your compost heap or you can just chuck them on your lawn and because they’re made from potato starch, the birds can eat them. We really try and give back to the environment.

“At the moment if you buy any of our products that have got bees on you get a packet of seeds called a flower bomb and each one creates 200 flowers. So times that by 1,000 bee orders a week that’s 200,000 extra flowers for bees.”

Lucy, originally from Hull, has a lot to be thankful for in the journey so far.

“I get my work ethic from mum and dad, they taught me from a young age if you want to happy you’ve got to work for it.

It seems that it is the personal touches, helped by their social media channels, which has helped keep the customers flowing.

“When I get my customers ring up it’s not ‘hi, I’ve placed an order’, it’s ‘hi is that Steph? How’s your dog?’, they know us that’s what you get on social media which is just lovely.

“We’re a business but also a family and I know that sounds really cheesy because so many people say that, but we’re a good little team.”