Paddy Box is giving Tayto and Barry’s global reach
A hamper firm is making sure the Irish abroad are never too far away from home, writes
Although the Paddy Box doesn’t quite have Santa’s delivery range, it has now shipped hampers to 108 countries around the globe, which is pretty good going for a two-year-old start-up.
“We have just added two new countries to our list — the Cook Islands and the British Virgin Islands,” said company founder Mark Loftus, who set out in 2017 to create a modern-style hamper company to supply the Irish abroad with some of the things they miss from home.
His first offering was a “not before your dinner” Paddy Box using a phrase generations of Irish people will remember from their childhood. This contained Tayto crisps, all kinds of Cadbury chocolates, Chivers jelly, Barry’s tea, and several other edible items familiar from childhood days.
“It’s about offering a flavour of Irishness, and about nostalgia,” said Mr Loftus, who decided there was space on the market for a more contemporary, less traditional-style company which uses brown cardboard boxes for its hampers.
The idea came to him when he was shipping out much-missed items to friends who had moved abroad.
“I’d been thinking about it for a few years, but in 2017 I decided to give it a go,” he said.
Carrying out a survey on Facebook, he discovered that Tayto, Ballymaloe Relish, Jacob’s biscuits, Barry’s Tea and Cadbury chocolate were some of the things people missed most.
Using his own funding, Mr Loftus sourced hamper items and cardboard boxes and in November 2017, with assistance from his family, started filling them up at his mother’s kitchen table, while friends helped him create a website.
“It was completely mad — we worked 16-hour days and shipped over 1,200 boxes,” he recalled.
In 2018, he extended his product range, moved out of his mother’s kitchen into a unit in an industrial estate in Ballymun, and took on two full-time staff.
“We have now shipped over 10,000 Paddy Boxes and expect to sell around 2,500 this Christmas,” said Mr Loftus, explaining that six or seven seasonal workers are now busily packing hampers and will continue doing so right up to Christmas week.
“We can deliver to New York next day, to Sydney in three days, and to the rest of the US in two days,” he said, adding that the company ships through DHL and that 95% of its products are sent abroad.
Expecting to see a 30% increase on last year’s sales, Mr Loftus said that advertising on social media is the main means of growing sales and that celebrity mentions, such as the one Una Healy from the Saturdays recently gave The Paddy Box, are always very helpful.
Paddy Box costs range from €59.95 for The Christmas Box — which is the best- seller at this time of the year— down to €49.95 for ‘Not Before your Dinner’, which sells best at other times of the year.
Mr Loftus said Christmas accounts for over 50% of the business but that sales at Easter go quite well too, while birthday boxes sell all year round.
He said he’s been quite astonished to see how far around the world the Irish have travelled.
“We’ve some loyal customers in places like the Cayman Islands, Myanmar, Alaska, and Oman. We also have shipped to New Caledonia in the South Pacific, and to Chile and Peru in South America.”
In October, the company launched ‘The New Mammy Box’, which contains a range of Irish baby products and is also designed as a gift for Irish people living abroad.
As part of plans to increase year-round sales, Mr Loftus said he will be developing new products for the corporate market. Also under consideration for the new year is a move into the provision of gift hampers containing healthy foodstuffs, which will be a whole new departure for the company.
Mr Loftus said he’s been working on getting Paddy Box Brexit-ready and has worked out an arrangement with DHL to ensure the company can continue to send Paddy Boxes to the UK.
